By Jheri Hardaway
Staff Writer
Chapel Hill - If you haven’t seen a Legacy Heirs production, please go to the website immediately and learn more. Sonny Kelly is an outstanding actor and educator. His one-man plays are absolutely captivating. His unique ability to embody so many people with a change in the tone of his voice, or a hat, or a pencil, is particularly incredible. Kelly has a way of involving the audience but maintaining control in all of his productions. This is also a family affair, with his son as his main technical director, and his wife singing the songs that enhance his production. I have now seen three productions by Legacy Heirs Productions, and I will not miss one as long as I am able.
The most recent production, Indivisible, presented at UNC’s Friday Center, elevated the social consciousness of the crowd. At one point, when discussing the line “indivisible with liberty injustice for all” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Kelly gave the audience the option to stand or not, depending on how they felt about the current state of our country. This silent yet impactful personal display allowed the audience to get a better understanding of how others are feeling in this time and in the current political climate. Conversations around race are challenging, but Kelly has a way of making them powerful, comprehensive, and even humorous at times to break up the seriousness of the topic. Kelly’s handling of these sensitive conversations and his contextual examples using historic figures, his family, and even students he taught allow a vast amount of perspectives to be presented when talking about the social challenges that we face in America today and have been dealing with for generations. Kelly breaks down R.A.C.E as: Reflect, Ask, Connect, and Expand.
Sonny Kelly is an educator and a healer. I hope that more people hear his message so they can be inspired by understanding that we are a melting pot and we are one. We are truly better together. Everyone has something to offer, and as long as we listen to figure out what those things are, we can build together and create the country that we could all be proud of.
