The Grove
February 7 – March 9, 2025
Ufot Family Cycle
Written By Mfoniso Udofia
Directed by Awoye Timpo
The Grove was commissioned and developed by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Chris Coleman, Artistic Director.
The Grove received development support at New Dramatists through the Bucket List Initiative, a program supported by a grant from Venturous Theatre Funds of Tides Foundation.
The Grove received a presentation as part of The Other Season at Seattle Repertory Theatre 2016-2017.
The Huntington Calderwood
527 Tremont St. Boston, MA 0116
February 7 – March 9, 2025
The Ufot Pass is your easy and affordable ticket to see the entire Ufot Family Cycle!
Approximate run time: 2 hours and 15 mins plus a 15-minute intermission
Notable Dates:
Opening Night: 2/19 at 7 pm
Synopsis:
Playwright Mfoniso Udofia tells the story of a family homecoming, asking how we draw on the wisdom and beauty of our ancestors when the bonds of family are stretched to the limit. Abasiama’s eldest daughter Adiaha believes that becoming a writer can make her family proud, but at her graduation party, she has to choose whether to fulfill her parents’ desires or stay true to her own dreams. Director Awoye Timpo (The Bluest Eye at The Huntington) reunites with longtime collaborator Udofia for this story of a young woman coming into herself, with the rich heart of a family drama against the thrilling theatrical backdrop of a Greek chorus of ancestors.
Cast & Crew:
Abigail C. Onwunali
Adiaha Ufot
Abigail C. Onwunali
Abigail C. Onwunali The Huntington: Sojourners. Broadway: JaJa’s African Hair Braiding (Manhattan Theater Club). Off Broadway: The Half-God of Rainfall, for the honey you gotta say when (New York Theater Workshop); Bloodwork (National Black Theater).
Patrice Johnson Chevannes
Abasiama Ufot
Patrice Johnson Chevannes
Patrice Johnson Chevannes Broadway: Racing Demon, The Crucible. Off Broadway: Endgame (Irish Rep); I’m Revolting, The Homecoming Queen, Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven (Atlantic Theater Company); The Half God of Rainfall, runboyrun/In Old Age (NYTW); Steel Hammer (BAM); Henry V (The Public); Tamburlaine, Coriolanus (TFANA); Good Grief (Vineyard Theatre); Miss Julie (CSC). Regional: Othello (Shakespeare Theater).
Joshua Olumide
Disciple Ufot
Joshua Olumide
Joshua Olumide The Huntington: Sojourners. Regional: The Winter’s Tale (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Romeo and Juliet (Classic Theatre of Maryland); Our Town (People’s Light); Macbeth (Hanover Theatre Rep); A Raisin in the Sun (New Rep); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Willpower Tour). Film: American Fiction (MGM, Oscar winning film), Detroit (Annapurna Pictures). @josholumide_
Valyn Lyric Turner
Kimberly Gaines
Valyn Lyric Turner
Valyn Lyric Turner The Huntington: John Proctor is the Villain. Regional: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Gloucester Stage); A Raisin in the Sun (2024 Elliot Norton Award), Diaspora! (New Rep); Seven Guitars (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); LORENA: A Tabloid Epic (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); Walking the Tightrope (Wheelock Family Theatre).
Amani Kojo
Ekong Ufot
Amani Kojo
Amani Kojo University: Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Good Goods, Titus Andronicus (SUNY Purchase). Education: SUNY Purchase Acting Conservatory.
Paul-Robert Pryce
Udosen Udoh
Paul-Robert Pryce
Paul-Robert Pryce Off Broadway: King Lear, Merchant of Venice (Compagnia de Colombari); Pecong (National Black Theatre of Harlem); She Talks to Beethoven (JACK!); Harry the Hunk (Cherry Lane Theatre); Empire State Works (Whitney Museum). Regional: Create Dangerously (Miami New Drama); Hamlet, Piano Lesson, Good Goods, American Night: Ballad of San Jose (Yale Rep); Julius Caesar, Pericles (Elm Shakespeare); Othello, Twelfth Night, Cymbeline (Yale Drama).
Patrice Jean-Baptiste
Shadow, US Abasiama
Patrice Jean-Baptiste
Patrice Jean-Baptiste Regional: King Hedley II (Elliot Norton Award nominee), The Taming of the Shrew, Coriolanus, Henry IV (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Trouble in Mind, Broke-ology (Lyric Stage). She can be seen in 988 Hotline’s most recent commercials and is a teaching actor with Company One. Before returning to the stage, she was head coach of the speech and debate league at Milton Academy.
Ekemini Ekpo
Shadow, US Adiaha
Ekemini Ekpo
Ekemini Ekpo Off Broadway: Reply All (Clubbed Thumb); The Switch (The Brick Theater). Regional: A Midsummer Nights’ Dream, The Tempest (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Coriolanus (Praxis Stage). Resident actor at Mercury Store, a new work development lab in Brooklyn. Education: Harvard College, Atlantic Acting School. @e.u.ekpo
Janelle Grace
Shadow, US Kimberly Gaines
Janelle Grace
Janelle Grace Regional: STEW (Gloucester Stage Company). University: The Moors, Yerma, Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., the Ain Gordon Project. Education: Boston University. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. @j_gracej
Dayenne CB Walters
Shadow
Dayenne CB Walters
Dayenne CB Walters Regional: Richard III, Othello (Dream Role Players); Fabulations, or the Education of Undine (Lyric Stage); Smoked Oysters (Hibernian Hall); Everyday Life and Other Odds and Ends (Sleeping Weazel). TV: Legacy of Love (PBS, Roberto Mighty, Celestial Productions).
Aisha Wura Akorede
Toyoima Ufot
Aisha Wura Akorede
Aisha Wura Akorede The Huntington: Sojourners.University: Potus, A Doll’s House (Emerson College). Education: BFA Theater and Performance (Emerson College, ’26). @wuraakorede
Sharmarke Yusuf
US Ekong Ufot
Sharmarke Yusuf
Sharmarke Yusuf The Huntington: K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Regional: The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare & Company); BLKS, People, Places & Things (SpeakEasy Stage); Fabulation, Or the Re-Education of Undine (Lyric Stage).
Maduka Steady
Godwin Inyang, US Disciple
Maduka Steady
Maduka Steady Broadway: Amy’s View (Barrymore Theater). Off Broadway: Mud River Stone (Playwrights Horizons), Scapin (Roundabout Theater), A Fair Country (Lincoln Center). Regional: The Firestorm (Local Theater Company), Belleville (Studio Theater), Stick Fly (Contemporary American Theater Festival), Intimate Apparel (Capital Repertory Theater), Noises Off (Studio Arena Theater), A Raisin in the Sun (George Street Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Utah Shakespearean Festival).
Maurice Emmanuel Parent
US Godwin and Udosen
Maurice Emmanuel Parent
Maurice Emmanuel Parent The Huntington: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Common Ground Revisited, Sweat, Romeo & Juliet, Skeleton Crew, Merrily We Roll Along, Raisin in the Sun.
Chibuba Bloom Osuala
Shadow, U/S Toyoima
Chibuba Bloom Osuala
Chibuba Bloom Osuala Regional: Leroy + Lucy (Steppenwolf Theatre); Nina Simone: Four Women (South Coast Repertory Theatre; NAACP – Best Lead Actress). Education: MFA (NYU Tisch Graduate Acting); BFA (SUNY Purchase Acting Conservatory). Awards: 2024 NAACP Award for Best Actress in a Large Theatre.
Awoye Timpo
Director
Awoye Timpo
Awoye Timpo The Huntington: The Bluest Eye. Off Broadway: In Old Age (New York Theatre Workshop); Elyria, The Homecoming Queen (Atlantic Theater Company); Wedding Band (Theatre for a New Audience); Carnaval (National Black Theatre) Good Grief (Vineyard Theatre and Audible). Regional: Studio Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Berkeley Rep, Marin Theatre Company.
Mfoniso Udofia
Playwright
Mfoniso Udofia
Mfoniso Udofia is a first-generation Nigerian-American storyteller and educator. Upcoming productions include Sojourners (The Huntington, Round House Theatre), and The Grove(The Huntington). Sojourners, runboyrun, Her Portmanteau, and In Old Age have been seen at New York Theatre Workshop, American Conservatory Theater, Playwrights Realm, Magic Theater, National Black Theatre, Strand Theater, and Boston Court.
Rebekah Brunson
Assistant Director, U/S Shadows
Rebekah Brunson
Rebekah Brunson Regional: The Winter’s Tale (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); The Taming of the Shrew (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); A Light Under the Dome (Plays in Place); Orpheus in the Overworld (Fresh Ink Theatre). Education: Emerson College Theatre; Performance BFA 2020. @rebekah_florence
Jason Ardizzone-West
Scenic Designer
Jason Ardizzone-West
Jason Ardizzone-West The Huntington: Sojourners, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, The Bluest Eye. Off Broadway: Syncing Ink (Apollo); shadow/land, The Michaels, Illyria, Women of a Certain Age, What Did You Expect?, Hungry (The Public); Monsoon Wedding (St Ann’s); Wedding Band (TFANA); Elyria (Atlantic); Good Grief (Vineyard). Regional: Redwood (La Jolla); I Am Delivered’t (Dallas / Louisville); The Importance of Being Earnest (Pittsburgh / Baltimore); Bliss (5th Avenue); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Berkeley); Once On This Island (Cincinnati / Louisville); Uncle Vanya (Old Globe); Native Gardens, The Royale (Cleveland Play House).
Sarita Fellows
Costume Designer
Sarita Fellows
Sarita Fellows was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Huntington: Sojourners, Joy and Pandemic, Our Daughters Like Pillars. Broadway: Death of a Salesman. Off Broadway: Elyria (Atlantic Theater Company); The Ally, A Bright Room Called Day (Public Theater). Regional: Theater of the Mind (Denver Center of Performing Arts); Blues for An Alabama Sky and Sweat (Guthrie); Drinking in America (Minetta Lane Theater); Seize the King (Alliance Theater); Fefu and Her Friends (American Conservatory Theater).
Reza Behjat
Lighting Designer
Reza Behjat
Reza Behjat is an Obie-winning theater artist and lighting designer based in New York. Broadway: English. Off Broadway: BAM, Atlantic Theater, Signature Theatre, The New Group, Page 73, Public Theater, MCC Theater, Flea, Redbull Theater, Audible, Playwrights Horizons, NAATCO, Ars Nova, etc.
Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen
Sound Design & Original Music
Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen
Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen The Huntington: Sojourners, A Doll’s House, Awake and Sing, Good People, Private Lives, How Shakespeare Won the West, King Hedley II, Jitney, and others.
Earon Chew Nealey
Hair, Wig, and Makeup Designer
Earon Chew Nealey
Earon Chew Nealey The Huntington: Sojourners Toni Stone, Fat Ham, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Broadway: Fat Ham (Associate Designer), Macbeth, Chicken and Biscuits, Sweat. Off Broadway: Bad Kreyól, Three Houses (The Signature); Table 17 (Makeup Design – MCC); Midsummer Night Dream, Malvolio, Twelfth Night (Classical Theater of Harlem); Hamlet, The Harder They Come, Fat Ham, Cullad Wattah, Mojada (Public Theater); On Sugarland (NYTW).
Adesola Osakalumi
Choreographer
Adesola Osakalumi
Adesola Osakalumi Broadway: Skeleton Crew, Fela!, Equus. Off Broadway: runboyrun (NYTW); Syncing Ink (The Flea). TV: Harlem, Endgame, Ice, Blue Bloods. Film: Red Pill, IBRAHIM, Enchanted, Across the Universe, Sex and the City 2.
Charles Haugland
Co-Dramaturg
Charles Haugland
Charles Haugland is the Director of New Work for The Huntington, and is currently in his fifteenth season with the company. His dramaturgical credits at The Huntington include world premiere productions by Kirsten Greenidge, Craig Lucas, Gina Gionfriddo, Lydia Diamond, and Melinda Lopez, along with co-creating the audio play series Dream Boston.
Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Co-Dramaturg
Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Donnetta Lavinia Grays Dramaturgical credits: Ojai Playwrights Conference and as former Artistic Director of Coyote REP Theater Company. Playwright/Screenwriter: Where We Stand (Lucille Lortel, Drama League, and AUDELCO nominee), Last Night and the Night Before, Kudzu Calling, and the upcoming feature film Otis and Zelma. Acting Credits: The Huntington’s Well.
Dawn-Elin Fraser
Voice and Dialect Coach
Dawn-Elin Fraser
Dawn-Elin Fraser The Huntington: Sojourners. North American Dialect Coach: Hamilton. Broadway: Lempicka, SUFFS, JaJa’s African Hair Braiding, Here Lies Love, Parade; & Juliet, Macbeth, Tina, What the Constitution Means to Me, Once on this Island, Waitress. Off Broadway: FLEX (Lincoln Center); Buena Vista Social Club (Atlantic Theater); Richard III, Merry Wives (The Delacorte); Fat Ham, SUFFS, Barbeque (The Public Theater); Nollywood Dreams (MCC); How to Defend Yourself, Half God… (NYTW); Twilight: Los Angeles, Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theater).
Janet Foster, CSA
NY Casting Director
Janet Foster, CSA
Janet Foster, CSA has been casting for over 35 years. At The Huntington, she recently worked on Sojourners, Leopoldstadt, Toni Stone, and The Band’s Visit. Eight years at American Conservatory Theater included working with directors Carey Perloff, Mark Lamos, Mark Rucker, Annie Kaufmann, Loretta Greco, and many more.
Emily F. McMullen
Production Stage Manager
Emily F. McMullen
Emily F. McMullen has stage managed over 30 shows over the past nine seasons at The Huntington, including Sojourners, Leopoldstadt, Toni Stone, John Proctor is the Villain, The Band’s Visit, The Lehman Trilogy, Clyde’s, The Art of Burning, Common Ground Revisited, Hurricane Diane, Sweat, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Indecent, Romeo and Juliet, A Doll’s House, Part 2, Man in the Ring, The Niceties, Top Girls, Bad Dates, Tartuffe, and Merrily We Roll Along.
Lauren J. Burke
Stage Manager
Lauren J. Burke
Lauren J. Burke The Huntington: Sojourners, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Regional: Front Porch Arts Collective, American Repertory Theatre, Boston Baroque, North Shore Music Theatre, Plays in Place, SpeakEasy Stage, Revels, Central Square, Lyric Stage, Hangar Theatre, WAM, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Reagle Music Theatre, Poets’ Theatre, Israeli Stage, Boston Ballet, Boston Opera Collaborative. University: Brandeis University, Boston University, Harvard University, Suffolk University. Education: BA from Suffolk University. Lauren is a member of Actor’s Equity Association.
Kandyce Whittingham
Assistant Director, U/S Shadows
Kandyce Whittingham
Kandyce Whittingham Regional: Holy Chicken Sandwich (Moonbox Productions); Beyond Words (Central Square Theater); Taming of the Shrew (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sh!t-Faced Shakespeare); Hamlet (Apollinaire Theater Company). University: Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (Director), Antigone (Co-Director). Kandyce holds a BFA in Acting from Emerson College and is a proud Georgia native. kandycewhittingham.com
Jesse Hinson
Fight Director
Jesse Hinson
Jesse Hinson is a Boston-based violence designer, intimacy choreographer, actor, and educator. The Huntington: Leopoldstadt, Fat Ham. Regional: Pru Payne, Cost of Living, Casa Valentina (SpeakEasy Stage); Rx Machina (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); The Minutes (Umbrella Arts). Anna Christie, The Little Foxes (Lyric Stage Company); Bud, Not Buddy (Wheelock Family Theater).
Ademola Bello
Cultural Consultant
Ademola Bello
Ademola Bello was born in the city of Ibadan in Southwestern Nigeria. He is a journalist, teacher, and a playwright. As an Embedded Reporter for Playbill Eugene O’Neill National Theater Conference in June 2014, he wrote about twenty articles for Playbill on musicals and plays: interviewed directors, actors, playwrights, critics, and other theater makers. As a journalist, he has written for some Nigerian leading newspapers such as Punch, This Day, and Tribune, among others.
Dr. Ayshia Mackie-Stephenson
Intimacy Coach
Dr. Ayshia Mackie-Stephenson
Dr. Ayshia Mackie-Stephenson is an intimacy choreographer, performance artist, and award-winning poet from Brooklyn, NY. She uses theatre and media performance to investigate pleasure, sexuality, and human rights. Her critical and creative work appears in Routledge, Black Camera, Qualitative Inquiry, Boston University Press, International Review of Qualitative Research, Theatre Topics, Howlround and Research in Drama Education.
Aubrey Dube
Associate Sound Designer
Aubrey Dube
Aubrey Dube The Huntington: Toni Stone, Fat Ham, The Bluest Eye, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Clyde’s, The Lehman Trilogy (Associate Designer). Regional: Paradise Blue, The Thin Place, Stew (Gloucester Stage); Simona’s Search (Hartford Stage); The Fortune Teller (Chuang Stage); How We Got On (Arts Emerson); Trayf, Good (New Rep); Clyde’s (Berkeley Rep); Queens, Torch Song, The House of Ramon Iglesia (Moonbox Productions); Vinegar Tom, Monster, Serious Money, Pentecost (PTP/NYC); A Taste of Honey (BCAP); Potus, A Case For The Existence of God (SpeakEasy Stage); Fences (Umbrella Theatre); Downtown Crossing, Vietgone, Morning Noon & Night (Company One); The Renaissance Mixtape (Apollo Theatre NYC).
Lucia Aremu
Emerging Artist Observer
Lucia Aremu
Lucia Aremu second year actor at Brown/Trinity Rep, Brown University.
As of January 2025.
Special Events
Get HYPED! You’re invited to a special pre-show event: The Lounge at The Grove on Saturday, 2/15 at 6:30 pm. Free food + drinks with HYPE ticket purchase.
From the playwright Mfoniso Udofia:
“The second play in the Ufot Family Cycle, The Grove, holds a special place in my heart as it was the first play I ever wrote. Following Adiaha, Abasiama’s daughter, as she navigates coming of age, The Grove explores the delicate balance between personal desires and the traditions of the close-knit Nigerian community she holds dear.”
From Artistic Director Loretta Greco:
“Much like August Wilson’s cycle plays, each play within Mfoniso’s cycle stands brilliantly on its own, prompting new questions, ideas, and conversations. The Grove leaps forward in time and invites us to Abasiama’s daughter, Adiaha’s college graduation party complete with the magnificently interwoven dreams and hopes of her parents, uncles, siblings, and friends.”
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Patrons who are Deaf and/or blind/low-vision and their guests can purchase tickets to designated ASL-Interpreted, Audio Described, or Open Captioned performances for $20 each.
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$25 tickets are available to all performances for full-time students. Use promo code DISCOUNT to access Student pricing. Valid ID required.
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The Huntington acknowledges that our physical spaces stand on the occupied homeland of the Massachusett people. We’d like to begin by acknowledging the Massachusett Tribe from whom the Colony, Province and Commonwealth of Massachusetts have taken their name. We’d like to pay respect to the ancestral bloodline of the Massachusett Tribe and their descendants who still inhabit the land to this day. We honor and respect the many native peoples who are connected to this land, past, present and future, including the Nipmuc and Wampanoag peoples.
This land acknowledgement was created by staff of The Huntington with input from the council of The Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. To learn more about the tribe or to donate in support of their current programs, visit their website www.massachusetttribe.org