Black Wampanoag Playwright Brings “Working Things Out" to National Stage

NEW BEDFORD “Working Things Out,” subtitled a comedy about a tragic relationship, is a one-act play that will be presented at this years National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem North Carolina, running August 2nd to the 4th at 3 and 8 p.m. in the Marriot Ballroom.

The playwright is Black Wampanoag performing artist, writer and filmmaker Mwalim (Morgan James Peters, I). Cilla Albee directs the play. “Working Things Out” marks the first time that a play from a southeastern Massachusetts dramatist has been selected by the festival for presentation.

The National Black Theater Festival is a bi-annual event that began in 1989 by North Carolina Black Repertory Company’s Artistic Director Larry Leon Hamlin. The festival attracts an international array of Black celebrities and professionals from the theater, film and television industries as attendees and participants.

“Working Things Out” depicts the rise and ride of a relationship between Oliver, a young Black poet and academic, and Janet, an aspiring poet and computer trainer; from meeting, to dating, to the world of boyfriend and girlfriend. When asked what inspired this play, Mwalim credits two influences: “A woman I dated and a conversation with a buddy in a Greenwich Village bar about relationships.” Mwalim explained that after being involved in many theater productions in New England and New York, he observed that: Most of the men in the audience where there because their wives or significant others made them come. “I wanted a show that looked at the rise and fall of a relationship from the guy’s point of view.”

A version of the play, directed by Kimberly Vasquez, premiered in June of 2003 in New York City at the New Scroll Bearer’s Drama Festival as a staged reading. It subsequently was produced for the Downtown Urban Drama Festival, also in New York City in May of 2004 as well as a part of the “As Told On The Corner” drama installation by New African Company in Boston at the Museum of the National Center for African American Art in December of 2004. This installation featured a combination of short plays by Mwalim and John Adekoje and was directed by Vincent Siders.

The upcoming production of the show at the festival was developed through New African Company, Boston’s oldest professional Black theater company, where Mwalim is a playwright-in-residence; and the New Diaspora Drama Lab at UMass Dartmouth, a playwright’s workshop under the auspices of the African/African American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, formed in 2004 by Mwalim & Professor Emeritus James Nee.

Born Bikim plays Oliver. Mr. Bikim is a gifted actor, dancer and choreographer, Bikim is a much sought after talent by theatre and film producers throughout New England. A member of New African Company’s repertory ensemble, he has also performed with Oversoul Theatre Collective and Up You Mighty Raise. Bikim studied theater arts at Brandeis University after receiving his initial training at the internationally acclaimed Elma Lewis School for the Arts in Boston.

Kaili Turner plays Janet. Ms. Turner grew up in Mashpee and attended Falmouth High School, where she studied acting through Oversoul Theatre Collective’s Mashpee Youth Theatre, plays Janet. She went on to continue her studies at UMass Boston, earning her BA in Theater Arts. Ms. Turner joined New African Company’s repertory ensemble in 2004 as a part of the As Told On The Corner installation.

The play’s director, Cilla Albee marks her directorial debut with “Working Things Out”. She first studied theatre at Cape Cod Community College as a theater arts major, later joining Oversoul Theatre Collective as a part of the actor's ensemble and as a make-up artist. A gifted visual artist, Ms. Albee has done set & costume design as well as make-up for over 250 productions throughout New England. Ms. Albee joined New African Company in 2003 as a designer in residence.

Mwalim is considered by critics and peers alike to be one of the true modern masters of the oral tradition, Mwalim is a multifaceted performing artist, writer, filmmaker and educator. Mwalim (aka Morgan James Peters) grew up immersed in the oral traditions of Bajan (Barbados) and Wampanoag culture. He is a keeper of both the New World Griot and Medicine Trickster traditions. Currently, Mwalim is a full-time professor of English and African/African American Studies at UMass Dartmouth. Mwalim formally studied theatre at New African Compan y in Boston, MA under James A. Spruill and Lynda Patton. He holds a BA in Music and a MS in Film from Boston University and is currently completing his MFA in Playwriting at Goddard College where he studies with the award-winning dramatist, Leslie Lee.

For more information, contact the National Black Theatre Festival at (336) 723-2266 or vist them on the web at www.nbtf.org