Theatre Performances
- Cancelina
- The Half-Sibling Play
- 809 Almond
- Dead Girl's Quinceañera
- No Singing In The Navy
The Half-Sibling Play
by Agyeiwaa Asante. directed by Ludmila de Brito (MFA 2)
April 29 - May 17 | Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre
About the Show
Growing up in separate households, half-siblings Kweku and Amoaa have never been close. But when their father dies unexpectedly, they travel together from Brooklyn to Ghana to pay their respects and claim their birthright. A play about sisters, brothers, and absent fathers, THE HALF-SIBLING PLAY delves into the mystery of family and what it means to come home.
Content Warning
Blood, Self-Harm
Director's Note
To me,The Half-Sibling Play is a love letter to those of us navigating how to process grief. Grief for those we’ve loved - sometimes at our own expense, and for those we never had a chance to love. Like the ocean washing the land’s shores, healing happens in waves, it is circular, disorienting, messy - rarely linear. This play is a prayer for the children who grew believing they were not enough or deserving of love, care, forgiveness. May these children find their lost siblings in this world, who understand their demons like nobody else will ever understand, and with each other’s support, begin to release some of that pain to make room for each other
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The Cast
Amoaa: Ruva Chigwedere
Kweku: Nate B. Smith
Understudies:
U/S Amoaa: Cyera Ellis
U/S Kweku: Halin Moss
Creative Team
Assistant Director- Halin Moss
Assistant Director- Karla Leon
Dramaturg- Jazmine Logan
Assistant Dramaturg- Mary Liu
Scenic Designer- Tzu Yu Su
Assistant Scenic Designer- Bria Woods-Kirk
Costume Designer- Ting Xiong
Assistant Costume Designer- Kiki Drew
Sound Designer- Harper Justus
Assistant Sound Designer- Michael Lakind
Production Stage Manager- Angela Park
Assistant Stage Manager- Becca Moore
Assistant Stage Manager- Nena Lockhart
Production Assistant- Alexis Ordoñez
About the Playwright
Agyeiwaa Asante is a third-year MFA student and a Ghanaian-American theatre artist based in Maryland. She writes to explore the experience of the black diaspora, intraracial/ cultural dynamics and more. Her plays include Swirl (Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival 2017, Watermelon One-Act Festival- Best Production 2019), Help Wanted (Silver Spring One Act Festival, Elemental Women Productions) and Dainty (BOLD NYC’s 2020 Festival). Her short play, Wildest Dreams, will premiere at the 13th Annual Fire This Time Festival. Most recently she was commissioned for UMD’s NextNow Festival and Single Carrot Theatre. She is the 2020 recipient of The Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation’s Ollie Award for emerging playwrights. Her play By Grace Pt. 2 will be published via the 46th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival.
About the Director
Ludmila de Brito is a Brazilian director of Indigenous descent who loves telling stories. Her heart steers towards politically urgent work and plays that ask us to transcend the conditioning of surviving. "When do we start living?"
Most recently, Ludy directed Emily J. Daly's episode of the MTARadioPlays (Rattlestick) as well as Project Transform (Hartford Stage) with Nilaja Sun. United World Colleges and NTI alum, Ludy is a Lin Manuel Miranda Family Fellow. She has directed in Brazil and India. Ludy has assisted Jenna Worsham in The Siblings Play by Ren Dara Santiago at Rattlestick and Megan Sandberg-Zakian in Much Ado at the Boston Common. As an educator, she has worked with Westerville South Theatre, Hartford Stage, and the National Theater Institute at the O'Neill.