Banana Boat Productions and New Perspectives Theatre Company Present MAMMA DECEMBA

Banana Boat Productions and New Perspectives Theatre Company present a revival of MAMMA DECEMBA by noted Jamaican-British author Nigel D. Moffatt for a limited run May 4-13, 2023. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:00pm and Sunday at 2:00pm. at New Perspectives Studio, 458 West 37th Street.

Winner of the Samuel Beckett Award in 1985, Mamma Decemba is a bitter-sweet play about an older Jamaican woman in England who finds herself widowed, jobless, and deserted by her children. Her attempts to cope involve hauntingly honest, sometimes humorous and often painful reflections on her past, raising larger questions for all of us about the nature of life-long relationships.

The production is directed by Merlina Rich. Set design is by Rich; Lighting Design is by Ethan Steimel. The cast includes Dianne Dixon, Paula Galloway and Christopher Laing.

NIGEL MOFFATT began his career writing poetry, playing acoustic guitar, and singing in pubs and clubs. His song "Peace, Love & Harmony" was recorded with Paul Weller in 1984 at Abbey Road Studios and produced on the Love The Reason Album. His poetry has featured in many notable magazines and television broadcasts. Mamma Decemba premiered in 1985 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, for which he won the Samuel Beckett Award; it was later adapted for BBC Radio. Lifetime won the Giles Cooper Award for BBC Radio in 1987 and Moffatt went on to write many more plays for radio. When Love Dies was produced by Channel 4 television in 1990 and is currently playing on All4. He has written for the Royal National Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre, Leicester Haymarket Theatre, Temba Theatre, and Birmingham Repertory Theatre, for whom he wrote Musical Youth about Birmingham's first boy band who reached number one around the world. He won the Butler Trust Award in 1998 for his outstanding work as writer-in-residence at Shrewsbury Prison and the Colorado Festival Jury Prize for his film Short Trousers in 2013. Moffatt has written myriad short story collections, novels, and albums over his long career. He recently obtained an Arts Council grant to go to Jamaica to write From Birmingham To Montego Bay. Moffatt is published by Faber & Faber and Methuen Publishing.

MERLINA RICH is the Founder and Artistic Director of Banana Boat Productions. As a producer, director, writer, and actor, she has been involved in various productions over the past twenty-five years, most of them having to do with Caribbean life and its representation in the larger world. Among the plays Merlina has produced are Patricia--A Love Story, Cinderella Syndrome, Nine to Five Government Style, The New Hardware Store, Have Mouth Will Travel, All I've Got, and Pretty Papers. In partnership with the Caribbean-American Repertory Theatre, she co-produced Jestina's Calypso and My Children! My Africa!, which was nominated for an Audelco Award in 2005. Merlina's collaboration with NPTC began in 2007 with the NY premiere of The Ritual, with revivals in 2009 and 2019 (the play's 40th Anniversary). The NY premiere of Mamma Decemba was co-produced in 2008. Additional Banana Boat/NPTC collaborations include the Audelco-nominated The Key Game in 2018, and multi-play presentations Dueling Voices, Women in Transition and Crossing Boundaries.

BANANA BOAT PRODUCTIONS was established in 1998 with the aim of creating theatrical experiences of specific interest to the English-speaking Caribbean community of the greater New York metropolitan area. Caribbean culture is a multicolored and rich palette of expressions, experiences, and lifestyles that is in need of more exposure in the realm of truly meaningful theater. Banana Boat Productions seeks out plays that focus very specifically on dramatic themes that reflect the historical and cultural development of Caribbean life as well as the present reality of the culture as it has migrated to global settings. Through Banana Boat's readings, staged productions, and outreach programs, we bring thoughtful Caribbean theatrical experiences to a larger audience that will become capable of recognizing and appreciating the struggles and resolutions, the humor and sadness, and the indomitable spirit of Caribbean life.

NEW PERSPECTIVES THEATRE COMPANY is an award-winning, multi-racial company performing at its home in the Theatre District, communities throughout NYC and as of 2015, internationally. Now in its 31st Season, notable productions of original works have included Exhibit #9 by Tracy Scott Wilson (Audelco Award); Jihad, The Play by Ann Chamberlain (OOBR Award for Excellence); Admissions by Tony Velella (10 Best Plays Citation, Backstage); the premiere of The Shaneequa Chronicles by OBIE-Winner Stephanie Berry (with Blackberry Productions); Anatomy of a Love Affair by Deirdre Hollman (Optioned by Essence Entertainment); MOTHER OF GOD! by Michele Miller (Princess Grace Foundation Finalist), She Calls Me Firefly by Teresa Lotz (with Parity Productions, Outstanding Short Play, Innovative Theatre Awards) and most recently, How to Melt ICE by Amalia Oliva Rojas (winner, NYC Women's Fund Grant). The Company's mission is to use theatre as an agent for social change by developing and producing new plays and playwrights, especially women and people of color; presenting classic plays in a style that addresses contemporary issues; and extending the benefits of theatre to communities in need. Our aim is not to exclude but to cast a wider net.

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