cullud wattah by Erika Dickerson-Despenza

Thu, Oct 17 2024, 7:30 - 9:30pm

Fri, Oct 18 2024, 7:30 - 9:30pm

Sat, Oct 19 2024, 2 - 4pm

Sat, Oct 19 2024, 7:30 - 9:30pm

Sun, Oct 20 2024, 2 - 4pm

Thu, Oct 24 2024, 7:30 - 9:30pm

Briggs Theatre

INDIVIDUAL: $20.59, STUDENT: $14.40

Tickets

cullud wattah show poster, decorative only

The collegiate premiere of
cullud wattah

by Erika Dickerson-Despenza
October 17-20, 2024 | Briggs Theatre

*Additional performance added: October 24, 7:30 p.m.

“A haunting and eye-opening production," The New York Times.

Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s Afro-surrealist play focuses on three generations of Black women living through the Flint, Michigan water crisis. As lead seeps into their home and their bodies, corrosive memories and secrets rise among them. Will this family ever be able to filter out the truth? CULLUD WATTAH blends form and bends time, and explores the toxic decisions of external forces, the internal contamination, and how we make the best choices for our families' futures when viable options are absent.

Playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza will be in attendance on opening night, Oct. 17, and will be at the reception following the performance. On Oct. 18, she will be giving a post-performance Q&A.

CW// This play includes mature content including, but not limited to, coarse language, partial nudity, and distressing topics including miscarriage.

"cullud wattah" is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

Season sponsor: Donut Days Bakery

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Erika Dickerson-Despenza, WRITER· SCHOLAR· CULTURAL MEMORY WORKER
Erika Dickerson-Despenza is a Blk feminist poet-playwright, cultural worker, educator and grassroots organizer from Chicago, Illinois. She's the recipient of the 2019 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting/Fellowship at New Dramatists and was a 2018 Relentless Award Semifinalist. She’s the 2019-2020 Tow Playwright-in-Residence at the Public Theater, a 2019 Writers' Gathering Jerusalem Writer-in-Residence, a 2019 New York Stage and Film Fellow-in-Residence, a 2019 New Harmony Project Writer-in-Residence, a 2018-2019 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow and was The Lark’s 2018 Van Lier New Voices Fellow. Erika is a 2019-2020 member of Ars Nova Play Group and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Obie-winning Youngblood collective. Her work has been developed at The Lark, Vineyard Arts Project, New York Stage and Film, Public Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, Fault Line Theatre and Jackalope Theatre. Current plays in development include: ocean's lip/ heavn's shore, took/tied, hung/split, shadow/land, and cullud wattah (2019 Kilroys List; Public Theater, 2020). In addition to this water tetralogy, Erika is developing a 10-play Katrina Cycle, including [hieroglyph] (2019 Kilroys List), focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina and its state-sanctioned man-made disaster. [Bio from New Dramatists website]

Digital Program

Created 08/23/2024

Last Updated 10/16/2024