London Program
REFU(GE)TREE
written, directed and performed by Hodan Yusuf
ON THE LINE
by Michael P. Adams
directed by Yusuf Niazi
Jorge..........Sammy L. Attalah
Lupita..........Ana Torre
Angel..........Victor Rios
RIPTIDES AND REFUGEES
by Hanan Issa
directed by Yusuf Niazi
Arabic Welsh Woman..........Nalân Burgess
DEAD ZONE
by Lindsay Adams
directed by Marcus Yi
Junior..........Viet Vo
Ma..........Sonia Nam
TRACE (film)
by The Kaleidoscapes
directed by Dylan Arredondo
ROMANI POEMS AND SONGS
written, directed and performed by Raine Geoghegan
TREE WOMAN
by Raine Geoghegan
directed by Yusuf Niazi
Wangari..........Kemi Lofinmakin
Bahina Bi..........Saher Shah
Cora..........Shivali Bhammer
THE POSTER
by D. Lee Miller
directed by E. Okobi
Retired Woman..........Samantha Hill
A HOPE FOR A BETTER DAY
by Sidal Kekilli and Georgie Luppi
directed by Yusuf Niazi
performed by Sidal Kekilli and Georgie Luppi
THE DAY EVERYBODY DECIDED TO STOP*
by Max Wilkinson
directed by Piyush Kumar
performed by the Global EarthQuake Ensemble
*This play will be released as a short film to all registrants following the festival
Producer, London Program............................................................Sidal Kekilli
Founder, Same Boat Theater Collective..............................Lisa Kang
Image/Sound Designer and Tech Manager.....................Shubhra Prakash
Preshow/Intermission Music......................................................Andy Aylward
Box Office Manager..............................................................................Aaron Higareda
Publicity.........................................................................................................Lynn Aylward, Pete Fitzsimmons & Bridgette Portman
Poster Design.............................................................................................Rob Dario
Program Design.......................................................................................Bridgette Portman
About the Cast and Team
Lindsay Adams (playwright, Dead Zone) is an award-winning, nationally produced playwright. Her full-length plays include Viper, Her Own Devices, River Like Sin, Rattler, and Me and Mr. Tom. Rattler and River Like Sin were both named Semi-Finalists for the 2018 and 2019 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Her Own Devices received two awards from the Kennedy Center and the 2016 Judith Barlow Prize, as well as being honored by the Austin Film Festival and Trustus Theatre. A song from her new musical Our Man Harry (co-written with Rebecca Nisco) was recently performed at the Kennedy Center as a part of their Millennium Stage Concert Series. Her plays have been produced and developed at Women's Project Theatre (NYC), Theatre Alliance (DC), The Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage Festival (DC), Keegan Theatre (DC), CLIMB Theatre (MN), Interrobang Theatre (MD), This is Water Theatre (TX), The Hub Theatre (VA), KC Public Theatre (MO), Fishtank Theater (MO), Rising Tide Productions (MO), The Pearl KC (MO), Westport Center for the Arts (MO), Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (PA), and The One Minute Play Festival (DC), among many others. She has also been commissioned by CLIMB Theatre, Westridge Middle School, and Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center to write works for young audiences. In addition to her playwriting she works as a freelance dramaturg, director, and teaching artist. She received her MFA in Playwriting from the Catholic University of America and is a resident playwright at the Midwest Dramatists Center and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the Terra Femina Collective.
Michael P. Adams (playwright, On the Line) is a playwright, actor, and producer. His one-act plays have been produced in Los Angeles, Memphis, Spokane, and Tucson, among others. Michael is a member of the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and part of the Playground LA writers’ pool.
Sammy L. Attalah (Jorge, On the Line) is a graduate from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts who has played roles from Shakespeare to modern American. He most recently performed in Two Men in a Corner part of the Latin American Season at The Actors Centre, which his company Untold Collective curated. He is passionate about the Environment and is looking forward to performing in the Earthquake readings.
Andy Aylward (musician) is a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter who is currently a Covid-19 refugee in Oakland. Hear more of his music at andyaylward.bandcamp.com/
Shivali Bhammer (Cora, Tree Woman) was born in London. Having studied Economics & Philosophy, she embarked on a career in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs but quickly left to pursue her artistic passions. She was the youngest artist and only artist to ever be signed to Sony Music BMG for bhajans and has released two devotional albums, The Bhajan Project and Urban Temple which reached number 1 on the iTunes World Chart. Shivali was nominated for two global Indian Music Awards at the age of 23 and was listed as the Top 25 under 25 South Asian Artists in England. Shivali has performed globally for both corporates, public and private concerts. Shivali also holds a diploma in Acting, Kathak (classical Indian dance) and Ballet. As a writer she has published for newspapers such as The Financial Times, The Orange County Register, Science & Spirituality, Spirituality & Health, Hinduism Today, Spiritual Directors International, and India Link on topics of philosophy and faith. Shivali is also an award-winning playwright and founder of A Conscious Stream Productions. Shivali has been interviewed across newspapers and magazines in the U.K, India and publications in the U.S.A. An active public speaker globally on Vedanta, Karma Yoga, Jyana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. Shivali has done documentaries and recordings for BBC Television, BBC Radio and other radio channels in both India and U.S.A. Shivali is currently living between New York and London. Shivali will be releasing her third album, The Bhajan Project 2, by Sony Music in 2020.
Nalân Burgess (Arabic Welsh Woman, Riptides and Refugees) is a London-based actress. She was in rehearsals for Nadia Fall's Welcome To Iran at The National & Theatre Royal Stratford East when lockdown hit. She was recently in Out of Sorts (Theatre503), Where We Are: The Mosque (The Arcola) and shorts at Lyric Hammersmith, The Pleasance, The Arcola, The Bunker and Theatre503. Nalân played the female lead in BBC3 comedy pilot, Rude Boys. Spotlight: 9736-9083-2123 Twitter: Nalan_B Instagram: nalan_b
Raine Geoghegan, MA (playwright, Tree Woman; writer/performer, Romani Poems and Songs) is a poet and prose writer of Romany, Irish and Welsh descent living in the Malvern Hills, UK. She is a Pushcart Prize, Forward Prize and Best of the Net 2018 nominee. Her work has been published internationally with: Poetry Ireland Review; Under the Radar; The Travellers’ Times and many more. Her first pamphlet, ‘Apple Water: Povel Panni’ was launched in December 2018 and previewed at Ledbury Poetry Festival in July 2018. Her latest pamphlet, ‘they lit fires: lenti hatch o yog’ is out now with Hedgehog Press. Her First full collection is to be published by Salmon Poetry Press in Spring 2022. She is currently working as a Creative & Cultural Consultant for a New York Theatre Producer on a musical based on a Welsh Romani family.
Hanan Issa (playwright, Riptides and Refugees) is a writer, poet, and artist from Wales. Her debut pamphlet My Body Can House Two Hearts was published by Burning Eye Books in 2019. Her work has been performed and published in a variety of places including BBC Wales, ITV Wales, Huffington Post, StAnza festival, and Poetry Wales. Her winning monologue was performed at the Bush Theatre, London in 2018. She is the co-editor of Just So You Know: Essays of Experience published by Parthian Books. She is the co-founder of the Where I’m Coming From open mic collective. She is currently working on short film commissions with BBC New Creatives and Ffilm Cymru Wales.
Lisa Kang (founder, Same Boat Theater Collective) is a resident of San Jose (Muwekma Ohlone land) and a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has been a playwright, actor, educator and environmental activist for several years. Her work has been performed by theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seoul and Taipei. Her work has been featured in Theater Bay Area’s Playwriting Showcase and has been recognized as finalist or semi-finalist in Playwright’s Foundation, MultiStages (NYC), and Naatak Theater. She is the co-founder of San Jose's City Lights Theater's Light Source playwriting workshop and founder of Butterfly Effect’s playwriting workshop in Taipei. Lisa is a member of Playground and of the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco
Sidal Kekilli (producer, London program; playwright and performer, Hope for a Better Day) trained at the MN Academy of film and theatre. Sidal is an actress whose first performance was at the Arcola for the play Where we are: The Mosque, where she represented the figure of an imam and delivered the opening sonnet. She has also been in the play soupcase at Theatre 503 and recently in Project Phakama UK, a play called Identity performed in Graeae theatre, where she partook in the process of writing the play and performed her first spoken word live. Currently she is a member of the National Student Drama Festival Lab for 2021, with the hopes of being part of the creative process of making and performing for this festival in Leicester, UK. Follow her on twitter to keep updated on all upcoming projects: Sidaall_
Piyush Kumar (director, the Day Everybody Decided to Stop) has been a theatre practitioner for 10 years who has worked in several productions including Same Boat Theater Collective (California), Hanchu-Yuei Japan, Tadpole Repertory, Black Box's Woyzeck, Barefoot, Crow, Kaivalya Plays' Unravel. He directed an ensemble production on plastic pollution called Panniarchy with the Little Theatre Group Repertory, Delhi. He has conducted several workshops and directed productions in schools and colleges of Delhi University and was a primary cast member in Arré’s web series Tathaastu and Amazon India’s TV Ad campaign Chonkpur Cheetahs.
Kemi Lofinmakin (Wangari, Tree Woman) trained as an actor in Nigeria, CityLit and Identify. Has appeared in several plays, films and web series and been on stage at The Young Vic, The Old Vic, The Royal Court, Theatre 503, to mention a few. Kemi also played the mother of the lead character in a Paramount Pictures Film called Blue Story, released in UK Cinemas from 22 November 2019. Other work include BFI sponsored film Sweet Mother (2019), and BBC Films sponsored short film Precious (2020).
Georgie Luppi (playwright and performer, Hope for a Better Day) is an actress from a village in Suffolk hoping to make her way to the city and stage lights again soon! Since training with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain she is now a proud member and ambassador for the prestigious company. Recently, she performed at the Graeae Theatre, London with Project Phakama UK, choreographing and writing elements that were used in the final show. For the 200th anniversary of Bury St Edmunds’ Theatre Royal, Georgie played “Florence Harris” for seven months in an immersive tour of the regency theatre. Throughout lockdown she kept creative with NYT online play readings, zoom workshops and writing more spoken word pieces. She hopes to spend her year performing more of her writing whilst auditioning for drama schools. Follow her on Instagram @georgie.luppi to keep updated on future projects and writing.
D. Lee Miller (playwright, The Poster) is the author of The Shrine, Ball and Chain, The Quickening, Tsunami, Davida, When the Dodgers Left Brooklyn, The Recipe and The Watsi Warrior among other plays. Her plays have won recognition from many theatres and have been presented at B3 Productions, Red Herring Theatre, EAT, La MaMa ETC, Rover Dramawerks, Stagecrafter's, Chewboy Productions, Shenandoah Valley International Playwrights Retreat & the West Bank Cafe. Her play, Beatrix in the Shadows was performed at the first 365 Women a Year production. Origami Tears is included in the anthology Facing Forward, published by Broadway Play Publishing. Broken Heart Syndrome is included in Smith & Kraus' 5 Minute Plays and Tap Test will be in an upcoming Smith & Kraus anthology. She has had a number of readings at Rum Diaries in Glasgow, Scotland. In addition, many of her stand alone monologues have been broadcast online and on radio in Writer's Block Radio (Glasgow) and on Sapphic Voices Reverb Radio,in Brighton UK and Caravan Theatre. She is currently represented by a podcast on HAND TO MOUTH (UK), Talking Horse Productions and Covid Monologues via FB.
Sonia Nam (Ma, Dead Zone) is a NYC based actor, improvisor and performer. She performs regularly at The Armory theater and the People's Improv Theater. She was recently a lead in Serena Dykeman's short Tips as Julie -- an immigrant who worked as a nail technician. She is very excited to participate in the Same Boat Theater and is thrilled to work with director Marcus Yi.
Yusuf Niazi (director, On the Line, Tree Woman, Riptides and Refugees, Hope for a Better Day) is a Theatre Director, Movement Director and Workshop Facilitator who has trained at Mountview Academy, Caspa Arts, Middlesex University and The Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s Foundry Artist Development Programme.
E. Okobi (director, The Poster) is an educator/writer/performer whose practice is primarily in applied theater and social justice. Obsessed with narrative. Has performed and devised extensively with the Forum Project Performance Troupe, which used Theater of the Oppressed (TO) techniques to devise interactive scenes based on cast members’ personal stories and research. Co-devised highly successful collaborations with Honest Accomplice Theater, worked with a group of co-performers to create multimedia plays shaped by data culled from surveys and qualitative interviews. These shows enjoyed sold out runs in New York City, and regional university tours. Has staged and performed at the following venues: The British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York Theatre Workshop, and Playwrights Horizons (NYC).
Shubhra Prakash (image/sound designer; tech manager) is an artist whose work lies at the intersection of film, theatre and tech. Shubhra has served as co-producer and voiceover artist for Priya’s Shakti. She most recently co-wrote, produced and acted in an original play The Music In My Blood about Indian classical music that was seen by over a thousand audience members. She co-founded the award-winning NYC based Hypokrit Theatre Company and served as festival director of the company's South Asian International Performing Arts Festival in 2015. Previously, she wrote and directed short films including Three Dates, part of New York Indian Film Festival 2013 and Funny Faces, about women in standup comedy. Her interactive short CAST ME! a "choose your own adventure" style film/game was part of The Challenge of Diversity competition by Interlude, Games for Change and Tribeca Film Festival. Shubhra has been part of TFI Interactive Immigration Co/Lab in 2017 where she and her team created COYOTEK, a multimedia-interactive project that works as a speculative web market where immigrants can find tools to bypass the oppressive forms of surveillance put upon them. In 2018, Shubhra relocated to India to develop her next play inspired by the life of Rajeev Prakash Khare, a font designer and calligrapher of Indian scripts. She presented a digital art exhibition in New Delhi at Kaleidoscope Digital Art gallery, "Fontwala: Stone to Mobile, what remains?" which received a special segment on the Indian national TV channel and was covered by prominent press. For more info: https://sprakash.github.io/portfolio/fontwala.html
Victor Rios (Angel, On the Line) is a Bolivian-born British actor, residing in London since his adolescence. He is known for portraying the roles of Rob “Uber-Driver” On the Edge, Channel 4, Miniseries. Victor has also been able to develop his abilities for languages and is a fluent trilingual speaker in English, Spanish and Portuguese. He was a member at National Youth Theatre, Dream Arts, National Youth Film Academy and Young Associates at Oval House Theatre. He also participated in the London fringe theatre play Don’t Close The Door, at the Barons Court Theatre and Safina al Hayat - The Paper Project documented by the BBCarts.
Saher Shah (Bahina Bi, Tree Woman) is a British South Asian actor, writer, and poet from London. Her works include theatre projects, spoken word performances, and more recently the lead in the horror short The Red Kiss. She is currently working on her first play Vitamin D and short films projects in pre-production with her writing partner and film production company Dezzy Films. Her work takes influence from her experience as a British Asian woman, London born and bred with all that entails. She is also a dietitian working in public health and the charitable sector. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @TheSaherShah.
Ana Torre (Lupita, On the Line) is a London based accomplished Mexican actress experienced in both theatre and screen. She trained at Drama Studio London and her stage credits include: Far Away by Caryl Churchill (Donmar Warehouse) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Southwark Playhouse), and The Castilla Sisters (Bread & Roses Theatre) .
Viet Vo (Junior, Dead Zone) is EXTREMELY honored to be partaking in the Earthquake Festival! Originally from Hawaii, he's survived 13 years in NYC. A business marketing major before he broke up with the program and shocked his parents by pursuing acting professionally (Sorry, Mom and Dad). THEATRE: Romeo and Bernadette, Vietgone, Evita, A Christmas Story, In the Soundless Awe, Fishing for Wives. TV/FILM: Lost, The Blacklist, Tales of the City, Manifest. A Huge Mahalo nui loa to Marcus and Sonia. Mom, Dad -- thank you for letting me fly. Lina -- thank you for teaching me to fly. NAAP-THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.
Max Wilkinson (playwright, the Day Everybody Decided to Stop) has been a recipient of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, a finalist for the Papatango Prize, Theatre Uncut's Prize for Political Writing and recently, the Nick Darke Award. Max has also collaborated with the Wooster Group in NYC, The English Theatre Berlin and the British Museum as a dramaturg, and has had plays produced at Theatre 503, King’s Head Theatre, the Arcola, Paines Plough and many others across London.
Marcus Yi (director, Dead Zone) is an award winning theatre writer/composer/director and performer based in New York. He has created work in Singapore, Atlanta and New York and is the artistic director of Morbid Dumpling Productions. He has worked on over 100 productions and his recently created work include Micro Shrimp The Musical (Winner of 11th Annual NJ Playwrights Contest), 29x/y (WIld Project, Paradise Factory), Pretty Little Mouth (Roy Arias), The Procedure (Gene Frankel Theater), The Ephemeral Lightness of Dreams: the dream plays (Lynn Redgrave Theatre), Thicker Than Water: the blood plays and Baby Baby! His work has been produced by the National Asian Artists Project, Yangtze Rep, Prospect Theater, Pan Asian Rep, Asian American Film Lab, The Secret Theatre, New Jersey Playwrights Contest, Ingenue Theater, Modern Griot Theatre, Ticket2eternity Productions, Queens Players, Rising Solo, POPLAB, URNetworkAlliance, NYC Actors and Playwrights Collective, All Out Arts, Short Play Lab, Angry Head Productions and Living Room Theater. His work has been seen at the New York Times Center, Green Room 42, The Duplex, National Opera Center, Midtown International Theater Festival, Planet Connections Theater Festivity, Fresh Fruit Festival and the Midwinter Madness Theater Festival. Marcus was named one of Indie Theater Now's 2014 People of the Year, is an Indie Theater Now Playwright, and an inaugural member of the 92nd Street Y Musical Theater Development Lab Collective.
Hodan Yusuf (writer/performer, Refu(ge)Tree) is an actress, playwright, poet, essayist & mediator. She has delivered workshops, spoken at and read her poetry at many events, universities and festivals. Her on-screen debut role saw her land a part in a J.J. Abrams & Warner Bros web-series in 2019. Hodan continues to develop her craft as an actor while working on her debut poetry collection.
A Note From Our Founder
We had some fires in California recently, sending me into my bedroom, where I sat for three weeks, rarely straying more than
a few feet from my air filter, mask nearby, windows shut. It was so big, the threat. The menace was everywhere - it had filled
the sky and was entering my body as I breathed. Prayer seemed ineffectual coming from one person, God seemed too remote.
My refuge became my laptop. From there, with the tireless help of Shubhra Prakash in New Delhi and Sidal Kekilli in London, and
the talented, dedicated Same Boat Theater Collective, I gathered the nearly 100 people who came together to "move the Earth with
our voices." Their response and enthusiasm was overwhelming, their stories and voices enlightening. I present their work to you, now, with their questions, their poetry, their stories of despair and loss, but also of faith and wonder and connection, one with another and ourselves with nature. I hope we inspire you to join us, so together our voices can heal this Earth.
--Lisa Kang, Founder, Same Boat Theater Collective
a few feet from my air filter, mask nearby, windows shut. It was so big, the threat. The menace was everywhere - it had filled
the sky and was entering my body as I breathed. Prayer seemed ineffectual coming from one person, God seemed too remote.
My refuge became my laptop. From there, with the tireless help of Shubhra Prakash in New Delhi and Sidal Kekilli in London, and
the talented, dedicated Same Boat Theater Collective, I gathered the nearly 100 people who came together to "move the Earth with
our voices." Their response and enthusiasm was overwhelming, their stories and voices enlightening. I present their work to you, now, with their questions, their poetry, their stories of despair and loss, but also of faith and wonder and connection, one with another and ourselves with nature. I hope we inspire you to join us, so together our voices can heal this Earth.
--Lisa Kang, Founder, Same Boat Theater Collective
Special Thanks
Jim Kleinmann, PlayGround, Mahesh Dattani, & our promotional sponsor, Mechanics Library.
Same Boat Theater Collective is a fiscally-sponsored participant in the PlayGround Innovator Incubator Program. We are proud partners of American Rivers, Farm Fresh to You, Friends of the Urban Forest and the World Wildlife Fund.
Same Boat Theater Collective is a fiscally-sponsored participant in the PlayGround Innovator Incubator Program. We are proud partners of American Rivers, Farm Fresh to You, Friends of the Urban Forest and the World Wildlife Fund.
