Mosaic Theater Company presents the DC premiere of cullud wattah, a timely, intimate portrait of a tight-knit family confronting the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Written by Erika Dickerson-Despenza and directed by Danielle A. Drakes, performances run April 3-27, 2025, at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.
“cullud wattah addresses one of the most pressing social issues of our time: our right to safe, clean water,” said Reginald L. Douglas, Artistic Director of Mosaic Theater. “At the center of the play, three generations of Black women stand resilient, caring and supporting one another amid a world that is literally poisoning them. Erika Dickerson-Despenza has written a gripping, loving family drama that also issues a clarion call for environmental justice, a call that has become even more timely in this political moment. As part of the play’s run and our Reflection Series, we’re honored to be working with organizations dedicated to making a difference around this issue locally and nationally. We hope the production will inspire audiences to find ways to push this movement forward while shining a deserving light on the humanity of those often forgotten in the headlines.”
“cullud wattah is deeply personal for me,” said director Danielle A. Drakes. “It makes me think about the women in my life — our strength, our survival, our love. This play is powerful, poetic, and urgent, shining a light on Black women’s resilience, environmental justice, and the generational impact of systemic neglect. Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s writing is both lyrical and theatrical, creating space for embodiment that challenges, heals, and sparks conversation. She weaves history, ritual, and deep emotional truth — elements that deeply resonate with my artistic practice. This is a story that isn’t just meant to be understood — it’s meant to be felt. I’m excited to share it, holding both its weight and its beauty with care.”
About cullud wattah
It is 2016 and it has been 936 days and counting since Flint, Michigan, has had clean water. Third-generation General Motors employee Marion finds herself on the cusp of a promotion until her sister begins participating in protests accusing the company of poisoning the water. Forced to confront their past and weigh their limited options for the future, the family finds their tight-knit unit threatened by more than just the toxicity of the water.
This powerful new play by Princess Grace Award winner Erika Dickerson-Despenza deconstructs the linear passage of time to ponder the choices we make for the sake of our survival. cullud wattah’s “lively and warmhearted characters” honor the people behind the headlines (The New York Times). The play won the 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
Obie Award-Winner Lizan Mitchell* takes on the role of Big Ma with Kelly Renee Armstrong* as Marion, Ezinélia Baba as Plum, Andreá Bellamore* as Ainee, and Khalia Muhammad* as Reesee.
About the Artists
Erika Dickerson-Despenza (she/her) is a Blk radical leftist writer, ecowomanist, and cultural memory worker. She is the creator and inaugural resident of The Ntozake Shange Social Justice Playwriting Residency at The Public Theater in partnership with Barnard College and the Shange Trust. Erika is the independent steward of The Daughters Table, a 14-acre regenerative organic farm in south Louisiana. Awards: PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award (2023), The Antonyo’s Lorraine Hansberry Kinfolk Award (2023), Edgerton Foundation New Play Award (2022, 2019), Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (2021), Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award (2020), Thom Thomas Award (2020), Lilly Award (2020), Barrie and Bernice Stavis Award (2020), Grist 50 Fixer (2020), Princess Grace Playwriting Award (2019). Residencies & Fellowships: Tow Playwright-in-Residence at The Public Theater (2019-2020), U.S. Water Alliance National Arts & Culture Delegate (2019), New York Stage and Film Fellow-in-Residence (2019), New Harmony Project Writer-in Residence (2019), Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow (2018-2019), The Lark Van Lier New Voices Fellow (2018). Productions: shadow/land (The Public Theater, 2023), cullud wattah (The Public Theater, 2021).
Danielle A. Drakes° (Director, she/her) has directed La Salpetriere (Taffety Punk Theatre); The Wilting Point (Keegan Theatre); Ghost/Writer, Kill Move Paradise, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Rep Stage Theatre); Lysistrata (Theatre at Monmouth); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (National Players, Olney Theatre Center); Havana Hop (PlayhouseSquare); Dance of Mirrors (The Theatre Offensive); Afro-Caribbean Mixfest Short Plays (Atlantic Theatre Company); Klytemnestra: An Epic Slam Poem (Theater Alliance); Paige in Full, Lyme Park and Deep Belly Beautiful (the Hegira Theatre). She is an assistant professor of theatre arts at Towson University.
Kelly Renee Armstrong (Marion) is an actor, writer, and educator. Regional credits include Who Cares (Voices Festival Productions) Tempestuous Elements, Our War (Arena Stage), Bov’ Water (Northern Stage), The Call (Theater J), The Elder Statesman (Washington Stage Guild), Invisible Man (Studio Theatre u/s), Yellowman, Antigone Project (Rep Stage) and The Fall of Heaven (Arena Players). Armstrong received the Maryland Individual Artist Award grant and was a finalist for the Many Voices Fellowship for her writing. She has developed her plays with the Playwright’s Center, Playwrights Arena, and The Eden Theater Company. Kelly is a proud alum of Bowie State University and holds an MFA in Acting and Playwriting from The Catholic University of America.
Ezinélia Baba (Plum) is a multi-hyphenate actress, writer and educator born in Luanda, Angola. She is happy to be making her Mosaic Theater debut. Her other credits include A Full Table, Brown Girl, Brownstones and Death and the King’s Horseman at Shakespeare Theater Company; Cracking Zeus at Spooky Action Theater; The House That Will Not Stand and Black Nativity at Howard University. She recently received her BFA from Howard University, and is grateful to everyone who continues to support her.
Andreá Bellamore (Ainee) is delighted to make her Mosaic debut. Her recent theater credits include: Primary Trust, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Everyman Theatre), Six Othellos (Folger Theatre), Clyde’s (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), The Revolutionists (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater), A Comedy of Errors, Romeo & Juliet, A Christmas Carol (American Shakespeare Center), and National Tours of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frankenstein, The Grapes of Wrath, and Cymbeline. She has also performed in Julius Caesar and As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe in London), An Octoroon, A Dream Play, Five Times in One Night (Rutgers Theatre Company), Twelfth Night (Stages on the Sound), and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Mile Square Theatre). Training: B.F.A. Rutgers University.
Lizan Mitchell (Big Ma) returns to the role of Big Ma after playing it in the Off-Broadway production. Her credits on Broadway are Ohio State Murders; Electra; Having Our Say; and So Long on Lonely Street. Her Off-Broadway credits include: The Refuge Plays; The Half-God of Rainfall; Shadow/land; Bodies They Ritual; On Sugarland; cullud wattah; Passage; First Noel; Brownsville Song; Trojan Women; Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death. Her regional credits include: Our Daughters, Like Pillars; Skeleton Crew; Raisin in the Sun; Richard lll; The Tempest; and Gem of the Ocean. Film/TV includes: “If I’m Alive Next Week…,” “Evil,” “Brooklynification,” “Monsters and Men,” “Detroit,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Deadbeat,” “We’ll Never Have Paris,” “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight,” “Golden Boy,” “The Good Wife,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “John Adams,” “The Human Stain,” “The Wire,” “The Preacher’s Wife,” “Law & Order.” She is the 2024 recipient of The International Black Theater Festival Living Legend Award and The Audelco Lifetime Achievement Award.
Khalia Muhammad (Reesee) is honored to make her Mosaic Theater debut with this story! Recent credits include Exception to the Rule at Studio Theatre, The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Bluest Eye at Theater Alliance, and Diagnosed at Shenandoah University. Khalia can also be seen in the feature film For What It’s Worth on BET+ and in independent films Love Trap and Safe Ride.
The creative and production team for cullud wattah includes Dane Figueroa Edidi (Movement Director and Culture Consultant) Nadir Bey (Scenic Designer), Brandee Mathies (Costume Designer), Hailey LaRoe (Lighting Designer), Luke Hartwood (Props Designer), Navi (Sound Designer), Sierra Young (Resident Intimacy and Violence Director) and Shayna O’Neill* (Production Stage Manager).
* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
° Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
Additional Events
Mosaic continues its Reflection Series, started in 2022 in conjunction with The Till Trilogy, with year-round programming that provides inroads for deep engagement with the themes of our plays. Events for cullud wattah include:
- April 10 at 11 a.m.: Intergenerational Matinee. After watching cullud wattah together, students and seniors will engage in a post-show conversation with Mosaic’s artists and one another.
- April 13 after the 2 p.m. Performance: Black Futurities and Urban Space. How have Black people made space for their futures in light of persistent assaults on their lives and livelihoods? What restorative ecological practices might we excavate from the past or elevate from the present that will better support Black life and living? How and where might Black futures take place? Join Georgetown University’s Dr. Amani Morrison alongside members of the cullud wattah creative team for a conversation exploring themes of Black urban space and futurities. This conversation continues a two-year inquiry at Georgetown University on the themes of “Creative Placemaking, Black Restorative Ecologies, and Black Spatial Futures
- April 18 after the 7:30 p.m. Performance: DC’s Water Story. cullud wattah tells a story intrinsically tied to Flint, Michigan, but DC has a complicated water story all our own. Come join Mosaic alongside the Anacostia Watershed Society and their network of grassroots organizers to dive into DC’s water history and the fight for water justice here in the district. Panel curated in partnership with the Anacostia Watershed Society.
- April 20 after the 2 p.m. Performance: Artist Conversation. Curious about what went into the making of cullud wattah? Come join members of the cullud wattah cast to hear about the process behind the production and their artistic practice.
- April 24 at 11 a.m.: Intergenerational Matinee. After watching cullud wattah together, students and seniors will engage in a post-show conversation with Mosaic’s artists and one another.
- April 25 after the 7:30 p.m. Performance: Environmental Justice – Race, Policy, and Law. The environmental justice movement argues that everyone has the right to a decent, safe quality of life for people of all races, incomes and cultures in the environments where we live. Come join Howard University’s Professor Carlton Waterhouse, Vernice Miller Travis, Co-founder of the Metropolitan Group, American University’s Professor Ken Conca, and environmental justice attorney Maggie Ellinger-Locke as they reflect on the environmental justice themes present within cullud wattah on the 9th anniversary of the Flint Water Crisis, and discuss the state of the environmental justice movement going forward.
- April 26, 11:00 a.m -1:00 p.m.: Earth Day Anacostia River Cleanup. Mosaic sits within the Anacostia River watershed, alongside more than 800,000 DC and Maryland residents. Come join a cohort from Mosaic in taking the themes of cullud wattah from the stage into our community at the Anacostia Watershed Society’s annual Earth Day Cleanup. Registration and further details to be announced soon.
Additional events and partner organizations include DC Water, WE ACT – For Environmental Justice, The Center for Climate Integrity, The George Washington University Climate Health Institute, The American University Center for Environment, Community, and Equity, The Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University, and more to be announced.
cullud wattah performs April 3-27, 2025, at the Sprenger Theatre at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Performances are Thursdays at 11 a.m. (April 10 and 24); Thursdays–Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 3 p.m. (except April 5); and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $42-$70 and available by contacting the box office at (202) 399-7993 or boxoffice@atlasarts.org from 12PM–6PM Tuesday through Sunday, or one hour prior to a performance. Tickets may also be purchased online.
Discounts
- Rush Tickets: A limited number of $20 rush tickets are available via walk-up cash purchase at the box office beginning one hour before the start of each performance. Cash preferred.
- Senior Rate (65+): Save 10% with code: SENIOR
- Student Rate: $20 tickets with code: STUDENT
- Educator Rate: $20 tickets with code: EDUCATOR
- Military and First Responder Rate: Save 10% with code: HERO
- Furloughed and Laid Off Federal Workers: Get $20 tickets with code: SOLIDARITY
- Under 30: Patrons 30 and younger can access $25 tickets to Mosaic mainstage performances. Use code UNDER30. Restrictions: One ticket per order. Discount is not available on weekend matinees.
About Mosaic Theater Company of DC
Mosaic Theater Company of DC produces bold, culturally diverse theater that illuminates critical issues, elevates fresh voices, and sparks connection among communities throughout our region and beyond. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas and Managing Director Serge Seiden, Mosaic produces plays that both entertain and enlighten, using art to build empathy amongst diverse people united by the magic of theater, and hopes to build community by reflecting the many cultures that call DC home.
