The generational tension ends up unearthing a family secret in the Burnett household: intolerant grandpa's first son and namesake, now dead, was gay.
Playwright Elliott will attend the April 2 opening performance, which includes a champagne afterglow.
Detroit Rep bills Finding the Burnett Heart as "a powerful and touching story about a family in crisis...a story of life, death and some secrets that need to be told. After all, it's only in the telling that anyone has a chance of 'Finding the Burnett Heart,' or their own. For Tyler Burnett it's hard enough just being a teenager, without suddenly having to share your room with your dying 80-year-old grandfather, a man who seems to base his entire life on making others miserable. Trapped together in a room barely big enough for one boy's dream, these generational adversaries fight to hold onto their beliefs about themselves."
Harry Wetzel directs a cast that includes Rep veterans Sandra Love Aldridge, Harold Hogan, Seth Amadei, Will Young and Danté Jones.
Detroit Rep, Michigan's oldest resident professional theatre, is at 13103 Woodrow Wilson in Detroit, MI. For more information visit www.detroitreptheatre.com or call (313) 868-1347.