Room Enough (For Us All)

April 14-16

By Daaimah Mubashshir
Directed by Katherine Wilkinson
Produced by Ayana Parker Morrison

A note from the creative team:
Welcome Back! We, Ayana Katherine and Daaimah bonded in a shared vision of making purposeful theater that is highly responsive to current cultural conditions. We were curious about what we could add to the collective conversations. We were curious about notions of family, home, our origin stories. What exactly is the American Family? What do they look and sound like? Naturally, we chose Room Enough (For Us All) which centers an African American Muslim family dealing with Queerness.

African-American Muslims constitute 20% of the total U.S. Muslim population. Historically, an estimated 30% of slaves brought to the Americas from West/Central Africa were Muslims. Many of these Muslims were forced to become Christians during the era of American Slavery. In repeated efforts to break free from cultural supremacy, significant numbers of Black Americans have return to Islam.

In our development journey we planned to present a staged bare bones workshop of the full play. However, when we got into the rehearsal space, the company discovered so much embedded in the text that our writer charged forth with deep edits. We uncovered more complexities that needed examination. Thus, we offer you a highly produced excerpted reading of Room Enough (For Us All).

Special thanks to Sakeenah Mubashshir, AJ Muhammed, Chinia Hardy, Anton Floyd, Toni Ann DeNoble, Melissa Mickens, and The Conte Family.

This play has been developed by Fire This Time Festival, Playwrights Center in MN, Clubbed Thumb and Pride Plays.

The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States

The Director is a member of the STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS SOCIETY, a national theatrical labor union

UNITED SCENIC ARTISTS, Local USA 829, is a labor union and professional association of Designers, Artists and Craftspeople.

Deilis Curiel (Production Design)

From her earliest memories, Deilis recalls enjoying anything and everything that involved creating something out of nothing. Stemming from watching her Dominican grandmother sew together outfits for her and cousins, she has always been infatuated with the ability to think up ideas and bring them to life in tangible forms. Her studies of Fashion Merchandising as an undergrad set the way for her career with top fashion brands. After almost a decade in fashion production, she decided to switch gears and pursue her place in the creative world, honing in on her true passion of art, photography, and set design. This led her to work as production assistant under Apple TV, NFL Films, FX, and Showtime. Independently, she has taken on roles as a set decorator, creative director, and production designer for short films, music videos, and short plays of up and coming indie production and well established theater companies such as MCC & WP Theater. Ultimately, this multifaceted artist wants to leave her mark on the industry and set waves in the culture showing the world what an immigrant from Queens is capable of.

Caroline Eng (Sound Design)

(she/her) is a sound designer and podcast engineer based in New York. Selected Sound Design credits: The Late Wedding (Brown University/Trinity Rep), The Moors (Greater Boston Stage Company), Measure For Measure (Theatreworks, UCCS), The Broken Machine (American Academy for the Dramatic Arts) Selected Assistant Design credits: Bring Down The House (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Fefu and Her Friends (Theatre For A New Audience) Selected Training: Fordham College At Lincoln Center (NY). Connect at carolineengdesign.com

Eisenberg Beans Casting (Casting)

Daryl Eisenberg, CSA & Ally Beans, CSA. Broadway: Gettin’ The Band Back Together. New York Theatre: Bedlam, Baghdaddy, Cherry Lane’s Mentor Project, New York Theatre Barn, and more. Regional/Other: May We All (LivelyMcCabe/CuzBro), Heartbreak Hotel (Broadway in Chicago), Dallas Theater Center, Folger Theatre, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Norwegian Cruise Line, Tenors of Rock. Film: The Cathedral (Sundance), The MisEducation of Bindu, A Case of Blue, Shadows (HBO), Hands That Bind, Project Pay Day, Kendra and Beth. TV: Timberwood, Mulligan. Podcasts/New Media: Limetown, Shipworm, City of Ghosts, Falling in Love With Mr. Dellamort, Verdict.

Daaimah Mubashshir

(WRITER, she/her) is a playwright based in Manhattan. She is a recent winner of the Helen Merrill Playwright award, and a Fisher Center Commission for development of a new music play called Emily Black is Total Gift. Daaimah is thrilled to be a part of the Pipeline Festival. Daaimah Mubashshir.com

Katherine Wilkinson

(DIRECTOR, she/her/they/them) is a queer director and writer based in Brooklyn. They are a recent winner of the Opera America Tobin Director-Designer prize and a Visiting Artist at Duke, Rutgers & Arcadia University. This spring, they are directing a new world premiere for La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Fest. www.katherinewilkinson.com

Ayana Parker Morrison

(PRODUCER, she/her) is a digital and theatrical Creative Producer. After graduating from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Acting and a minor in Africana Studies, she shifted her focus to develop new projects that speak to the spectrum of stories from the African Diaspora. Ayana was the inaugural Producing Fellow with New York Theater Workshop’s 2050 Administrative Fellowship. Afterwards, she went on to freelance produce shows throughout New York City. Some of her producing credits include Joan with Colt Coeur, Tender Napalm at HERE Arts Center, Saints of Failure, a solo show performed in Fort Greene’s Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, and NY Times Critic’s Pick Eureka Day with Colt Coeur. She has also served as Creative Producer at Checkmark Productions for the past two years developing the work of the theater industry’s most exciting emerging artists and is currently the Manager of Artistic Production at MCC Theater.

Alana Raquel Bowers (Nedra)

is an actor, dancer and singer born and raised in Baltimore, MD.She is a proud alumna of the Baltimore School for the Arts and NYU Tisch Drama. She recently made her Broadway debut in Chicken and Biscuits, originating her role as Simone at Circle in the Square Theatre. Regional: Scraps at Flea Theater (Aisha), Chicken and Biscuits at Queens Theatre (Simone). Off-Broadway: What To Send Up When It Goes Down (Three) at A.R.T./New York Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, American Repertory Theater, the Public Theater, and BAM, respectively. Film/TV credits: “After Class” starring Justin Long and “FBI: Most Wanted” on CBS.

Lucy Kaminsky (Jessica)

is an actor, singer and dancer born and based in brooklyn. For the past decade she has collaborated and created work in nyc and abroad with Obie award winning 600 Highwaymen, Nellie Tinder, Limited Liability Theater Company and Juliana F. May. Upcoming: Family Happiness (Chocolate Factory). Recent film credits include Simchas and Sorrows, Together Together, The Plagiarists and MGMT “When you Die” music video.

Aaron Morton (Abdullah)

is an actor, writer and artist born and raised in Plainfield, NJ. He holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University and is the founder of Bridge to Reality, a nonprofit geared towards increasing the presence of people of color in the arts through the mentorship of high school students of color(www.bridgetoreality.org). Also the Co-creator of The Cuttin Room Floor, a web series that uses parody and discussions to explore the cultural impact of cult classics (www.thecuttinroomfloor.com).Film: Beauty (Written by Lena Waithe Dir. Andrew Dosunmu) When They See Us (Dir. Ava DuVernay). TV: “For Life”, “Bull”, “Blindspot”, “Blacklist”. www.aaronsmorton.com

Cara Ricketts (Jamillah)

C. Niambi Steele (Fatimah)

Coming from a rich legacy of Black theater starting in the 1970’s, Niambi performed throughout the Midwest in plays such as, Tambourines to Glory, Five on The Black Hand Side, Who’s Got His Own, and even You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. After being nominated by the Encore Awards for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ (Musical) for her portrayal of ‘Zarita’ in Simply Heavenly, and then winning the Encore Award for Best Actress (Musical) for ‘Lutiebelle’ in Purlie!, Niambi came to New York after recording and touring as a lead and back-up vocalist with 24 Carat Black and soul-music greats at Stax Records (1973-1975).

Niambi was steered into her first New York theatrical appearance by Ed Bullins (in residence at that time with Joe Papp’s Public Theater) via The Hotel Play, written by Wallace Shawn, at La Mama Etc., (1981). Niambi has continued to perform steadily in New York theaters— from The Heckscher Theater, where she was a “Choir Member” in the first run of Mama I Want To Sing, starring Desiree Coleman, (1983), to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe’s production of “Billy, Lena, And The Duke“, (2011). She was nominated for 2014 Best Actress Musical for her portrayal of “Brenda” in That ‘L’ Word at the John Chatterton 2014 Winter Play Festival in New York.

Niambi appeared in two plays by poet, Mari Evans, River Of My Song (1977) and Eyes, the latter directed by Woodie King, Jr., (1995); Niambi consequently appeared in his New Federal Theater production of Satchel: A Requiem For Racism (2008).

Niambi has worked in numerous Harlem-based community outreach productions with playwright, J. E. Franklin, under the direction, guidance, and tutelage of the Audelco Award- Winning Director, Eric Coleman. Her arts-based community involvement also includes the New York Theater Workshop, Negro Ensemble Company Repertory, Harlem Arts Alliance, Kumble Theater and the Frank Silvera Writer’s Workshop where she is consistently relied upon as an excellent cold reader for new playwrights and was an integral part of its Reader’s Theater at the National Black Theater Festival (2007).

She has performed in Harlem with new playwrights at the Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture, Abysinnian Baptist Church, and at the Salvation Army, with its annual Grandparent’s Around the World Production of Dinner At Grandma’s (2006-2011), reprising her portrayal of beloved Sista Lula for five years.

Herself a playwright, she has had her works read at the National Black Theatre Festival (2007) and the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival (2012).

Niambi was featured in the first video of Heavy D, Mr. Big Stuff, directed by The Hudlin Brothers (1987); she previously appeared in Krush Groove (1985). Her film credits also include It’s Hard To Be Joe Strummer, directed by Antonio Giosue’ (2012), Nu Moses directed by Cassady O’Neal (2013), Brother, directed by Frank Hooker & Piruz Alemi (2013), Trapped Girl, written by Katherine Fordham (2013, IMDb) Appassionato, written/directed by Bradley Evans, and Airport Run, written/directed by Eliana Ujueta, (both 2016).

Besides touring with Stax Records, Niambi recorded on various labels including Sugarhill, with jazz legend, Brother Jack Mcduff (‘Kisses’, ‘Having A Good Time’, 1982); performing with him at jazz clubs in New York, Chicago, Memphis, and Los Angeles, to name a few. She also composed original music and lyrics which she performed with rock band ‘Fierce Jones’ (aka THE HEAT) at now defunct 1980’s venues The Cat Club and CBGB’s, New York and The Pan Asian Music Festival at Lincoln Center Damrosch Bandshell (1984).

More recently, Niambi won a 2020 Audelco Award for being a member of the Outstanding Ensemble Performance of Sassy Mamas at Black Spectrum Theatre.

Niambi’s most enduring accomplishment is being a mother of two, grandmother of five, great grandmother of six, and only child to her dear mother, Mrs. Lucille Ford Taplin Smith of Indianapolis, Indiana, where her musical and theatrical journey began.

Judy Kagel (Lighting Design)

(she/her) is a NYC based lighting designer and teaching artist. Her designs have been seen at The Wild Project, Dixon Place, Access Theater, Arts on Site, LPAC Rough Draft Festival, and NY Fringe Festival, among others. Judy also teaches lighting programming and design at a number of regional high schools and colleges. Select recent projects include: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Emerson Jr/Sr High School), Fiddler on the Roof (Livingston High School), and Pippin (Friends Seminary, 14th St Y) This summer she will lighting the new musical, History of Traitors According to Sydney by Parade Stone and Sequoia Sellinger, produced through the Shubert’s The Artistic Circle program. JudyAKagel.com

Emily Pathman (Production Stage Manager)

is excited to be a part of this new play festival! Emily’s stage management credits include: Tour: Bandstand First National Tour, RENT 20th Anniversary International Tour. NYC: Sleep No More, Tribeca Film Festival, Times Square Alliance. Regional: Other World (Delaware Theatre Company), Everything Is Wonderful, Byhalia, Mississippi, 20th Century Blues, The Wedding Gift, On Clover Road, Uncanny Valley (Contemporary American Theatre Festival), Cry It Out, I Now Pronounce, The 39 Steps (Actors Theatre of Louisville). BFA Emerson College.

Sydney Prince (Assistant Stage Manager)

(she/her) is thrilled to be working at WP for the first time. She is a NYC based stage manager and director and is passionate about developing new work. Recent Stage Management credits include: His Story Development (dir. Jeff Calhoun), The Real Gemma Jordan (dir. Portia Kreiger), White Woman Black Boy (dir. Austin Pendleton). Proud graduate of the University of Michigan. Always for Supah.