Robin Givens, who starred opposite Eddie Murphy in the 1992 film "Boomerang" and played Roxie Hart during the 2006 Broadway run of "Chicago," has been involved with the Manatee Players for most of the past month.

She's work-shopping her new play with music titled "Joy in the Morning."

It's based on the book of the same name by her mom, Ruth Givens.

"The sense of the story is really coming home to oneself," Givens said for a feature story that ran Sunday (bradenton.com/arts).

"Our little girl is our narrator of the story and plays our main character, the woman, as a little girl, and is essentially saying, 'Come back to yourself.'"

Krissy Pizzo (Liesl in the Manatee Players' winning staging of "The Sound of Music" last season) will play the "little girl" when the Manatee Players present the Givens-directed production of "Joy in the Morning" on Thursday and Friday at Riverfront Theatre in downtown Bradenton.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 2 and 8 p.m. Aug. 3, Manatee Players Riverfront Theatre, 102 12th St. W., Bradenton. Tickets: $26, $13 (students), $15 (teachers). A limited number of preferred seating tickets will be available for each evening which include a private talk-back with Givens. Preferred seating tickets are $50.Information: 941-748-5875 or manateeplayers.com.

--Wade Tatangelo