Welcome to Keen Company! Our mission centers on identification and connection, two elements which thrive in comfortable and safe environments. So we’re taking a second to really say, “Welcome! We’re glad you’re here.” Our audiences are at the heart of our work, and your experience matters to us. We hope you’ll feel free to enjoy this piece of audio theater in whatever way moves you. Go ahead: laugh, cry, gasp, scream, even give it a standing ovation! Great stories invoke big reactions. We aren’t here to tell you how to connect, we just hope you feel welcome to listen.

We offer this Land Acknowledgment to recognize the long history of the territory where we live and work, and its significance for the Indigenous peoples who lived and continue to live here and to demonstrate our commitment to addressing the legacy of colonialism in our work and practices. Keen Company produces in New York City, which is the traditional land of the Munsee Lenape People. Since our activities this season are shared digitally, we’d also like to acknowledge and consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technologies. Much of the art we make leaves significant carbon footprints, contributing to changing climates that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples worldwide. We invite you to join us in acknowledging this as well as our shared responsibility: to make good use of this time, and for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship. We plan to continue this practice of land acknowledgments at all future live events, and to build on this practice in thoughtful ways, so as to better engage with Indingeous peoples and Indigenous stories.

by James Anthony Tyler Directed by Jamil Jude

CAST

Halen…………………………………………………………..MaameYaa Boafo Lymere……………………………………………………………….Ronald Emile Laith……………………………………………………………………Ari’el Stachel

Sound Design by Justin Ellington Stage Managed by Norman Anthony Small Sound Engineered by Garrett Schultz

Released Friday March 26th at 7pm EST

It’s Summer 2020, and the pandemic is raging through New York City. Eviction is looming for Lymere and Halen and their first baby is on its way. All We Need Is Us is an intimate look at unprecedented times, and a hopeful reminder that at the end of the day we can at least rely on each other.

RONALD EMILE (Lymere) is a Haitian-American actor born and raised in New York. His credits include Actually by Anna Zeigler (Theaterworks Hartford) and Feeding Beatrice by Kirsten Greenidge (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis). He received his MFA from NYU-Tisch Graduate Acting.

MAAMEYAA BOAFO (Halen) Born in Pakistan, raised everywhere and hails from Ghana. Theatre: Originated the role of Paulina Sarpong in School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play at MCC Theater then Kirk Douglas Theatre (2019 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Lead Performance, 2018 Drama Desk Ensemble Award, 2018 Lucille Lortel Award nomination, 2018 Outer Critics’ Circle Nomination, 2018 Drama League’s Distinguished Performance), Lift (Crossroads, 59e59), Hamlet (American Globe Theatre), Comedy of Errors (The Shakespeare Project), Untamed (National Black Theatre) TV/Film: “RAMY”, “Bluff City Law”, “An African City” (2015 nominee Golden Movie Award, 2016 best actress nominee for Ghana Movie Awards), “Blacklist”, “Mysteries of Laura”, “Madam Secretary”, “American Odyssey”, “Iron Fist”, “The Family Fang”, “Where is Kyra?”, “Olive”, “New York, I Love You”, “When It All Falls Down”. Up next: “The Mysterious Benedict Society”. Training: M.F.A. in Acting from Mason Gross School of the Arts-Rutgers. SDG

ARI’EL STACHEL (Laith) Broadway: The Band’s Visit (Tony Award). Off-Broadway: The Visitor (The Public Theatre - paused due to Covid), The Band’s Visit (Atlantic Theatre Company). Film: Don’t Worry Darling (dir. by Olivia Wilde), A24’s ZOLA. TV: CBS’s “Blue Bloods,” Netflix’s “Jessica Jones,” Showtime’s “Billions” and is currently recurring on “Law & Order: SVU.” PODCAST: The Two Princes (produced by Gimlet Media).

JAMIL JUDE (Director) is a highly accomplished director/producer/playwright/dramaturg focusing on bringing socially relevant art to the community. Jamil is the Artistic Director at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, GA. He is the Co-Founder of The New Griots Festival, which is dedicated to celebrating, advocating, and advancing the careers of emerging Black artists in Minneapolis- St. Paul, MN. JAMES ANTHONY TYLER (Writer) is the recipient of the 3rd Annual Horton Foote Playwriting Award and an inaugural playwright to receive a commission from Audible. His plays include Some Old Black Man (Berkshire Playwrights Lab at St. James Place and 59E59 Theaters, and a University Musical Society filmed production), hop thA A (Upcoming World Premiere on Audible Feb 18th) Artney Jackson (World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2018 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award), Dolphins and Sharks (LAByrinth Theater Company and Finborough Theatre in London). He has a MFA in Film from Howard University and a MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University. He is also a graduate of The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program, and he recently was the Staff Writer for the new OWN Network show “Cherish the Day” created by Ava DuVernay. JUSTIN ELLINGTON (Sound Designer) is an award winning sound designer and composer that has offers his talents in the areas of theater, film, the recording industry and audio book production. Mr. Ellington has been awarded by The American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) and The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammy) for his work in the recording industry. Mr Ellington has also received a Cinema In Industry Award (CINDY) for his music soundtrack to the MOVE ACT FREE exhibition in the National Museum for Human and Civil Rights (Atlanta, Georgia). Ellington has received multiple awards for his work in theater including the distinguished Henry Hewes Design Award for his sound design of Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons). Justin’s most recent offerings include: Sulwe (Penguin Random House/Listen Library); Hop thA A (Audible); The Bleeding Class (Geva Theater); What is Left, Burns (Steppenwolf Theater). www.justinellington.com

NORMAN ANTHONY SMALL (Stage Manager) Off Broadway—Keen Company: Digging in the Dark; WP Theater: Where We Stand; Atlantic Theater Company: Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven; The Public Theater: A Night of Wild Beauty. New York Theater—Brave New World Repertory Theatre: The Plantation; Harlem Shakespeare Festival: Othello: The Moor of Venice; New Heritage Theatre Group: The Sable Series: The History of Black Shakespearean Actors; King Lear (Take Wing and Soar Productions). Tour—Apollo Theater/Baltimore Center Stage: Twisted Melodies; National Public Radio (NPR): Water +. Regional—Baltimore Center Stage: Where We Stand, Crossing Rivers; Berkshire Playwrights Lab: Some Old Black Man; Passage Theatre Company: Illuminating Spirits. Education— MBA: Metropolitan College of New York (Media Management); BM: University of Miami (Music Engineering Technology).

GARRETT SCHULTZ (Editor/Sound Engineer) works in production audio and post-production sound design/mixing for film, tv, podcasts, radio, and ads. He is a Columbia College Chicago graduate from the Audio Arts and Acoustics department, and has been making sounds and noise for over two decades. He founded Destrier Audio in 2008 which has afforded him to work on some exciting projects. You can see some of his latest works at destrieraudio.com. He likes coffee and beer. Any remembrance of the last year of our collective lives has to start with a moment of reflection. We have to stop and honor the lives of the more than half a million lives lost due to COVID and a failed government response. We have to acknowledge the ways in which our perception of the safety and security we had come to expect as our rights as Americans was a fallacy. Many of us saw first-hand how our stations in life could be immediately challenged and we were forced to make decisions, endure situations, and attempt to live through previously unfathomable realities. When my good friend and collaborator James Anthony Tyler reached out to me and asked me to work on this show, I felt all of those emotions. James has a beautiful hand in crafting characters, creatures of their circumstances, that hold multiple realities. In this play, as we better understand about our lives, these characters find themselves caught in a precarious time, with all of their identities wrapped up in the American social fabric, yet their desire ties them to us all - a desire to seek the best possible situation for their families, regardless of the costs. It was a privilege to work on this play, I'm thankful for the artists who touched it, and I hope that you, our family of listeners, acknowledge and reflect on this past year as James' story ushers you into the world of this play. Positive vibrations.

-Jamil Jude

Welcome to another engrossing piece of audio theatre! Playwright James Anthony Tyler has been a close member of the Keen community since we commissioned Around 2 for our Keen Teens program in 2018. As in that play, James has beautifully interwoven an intimate and personal tale while at the same time adroitly addressing the present moment. Director Jamil Jude, Sound Designer Justin Ellington and an incredibly talented cast have created a moving and immersive story for your ears. I urge you to take some time out of your day to immerse yourself fully in James’ world. You’ll be glad you did.

-Jonathan Silverstein

No New York Neighborhood has been as uniquely impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic as Harlem. For most of 2020, while the applause for essential workers wafted through the city air every night at 7pm, thousands of Harlem dwellers were being evicted from their apartments. In New York City, there were nearly 30,000 private eviction filings between June 20 and Nov. 29, according to the New York University’s Furman Center. Despite the government protections, housing advocates point to the fact that the eviction moratorium measures do not apply to all tenants and don’t stop landlords from filing eviction cases, leaving renters in a position where they can be evicted and removed from their home in the pandemic at a moment’s notice.

According to ChildTrends.org, "the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the health and well-being of individuals—like Black Americans—who have been historically disadvantaged in the United States. More specifically, the pandemic has exacerbated longstanding inequities in income, food security, and access to affordable, stable housing for Black families. These existing inequities are an extension of the nation’s history of systemic and institutionalized racism, including discriminatory housing policies. While there are temporary eviction moratoria in place at the federal, state, and local levels to protect families from eviction and foreclosure, millions of households— including many with children—are facing housing instability and potential homelessness in the wake of the pandemic; this is especially the case for Black and Latino households. Given that Black families are more likely to be disproportionately impacted by discriminatory housing practices and policies, they are also more likely to experience housing instability."

For information on how to aid those facing housing instability due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, please visit coalitionforthehomeless.org. By CHIARA MONTALTO-GIANNI 1. What is your earliest memory of writing? I have two early memories that stick out. When I was around age 5 my mom would buy me these Mead Notebooks to write in and I would fill them up within hours. My mom had to start tearing out a few pages a day because she was like, “I don’t have money to be buying new notebooks every day.” I would fill the pages with stories, and I really enjoyed just using my imagination. My other early memory is of 2nd grade where my teacher had this thing she would do to get all of us excited about writing. She would put a bunch of different images into a box and each kid had a chance to come up and reach their hand in the box to grab an image. After all of us kids had our image, we had to write a story based on that image and after we finished writing we had a chance to share our stories with the class. It was by far, my favorite thing about 2nd grade.

2. What do you think makes a good story and what kinds of stories are you drawn to? I love stories with strong nuanced characters and a clear but complicated conflict. I’m most drawn to stories steeped in realism, but I watch and enjoy all kinds of genres.

3. When did you know you were a “writer” and that it was what you wanted to pursue professionally? I knew this the summer before I started 8th grade. That summer me and my brother spent a few weeks with my aunt and uncle at their house in Oceanside, California. I remember my uncle asking me, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” And like most middle school kids I had absolutely no idea and I told that to my uncle. My uncle then pointed out that I watch a lot of movies and TV and that people write the things that I’m watching. It blew my mind. For some reason, I just never thought about that fact, and that’s when I decided that I wanted to do that for a living.

4. What are some of your favorite books, plays, movies, tv shows, or authors? For some reason, some of the things that I have recently enjoyed are all coming to mind, so I’m going to share them. Favorite books: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and Begin Again by Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Favorite Plays: Barber Shop Chronicles by Inua Ellams and Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, Favorite Movies: Steve McQueen’s Small Axe, Anthology Film Series and Sounds of Metal, Favorite TV Shows: Sopranos, The Wire, Treme (Yes, I re–watched these series during quarantine, and they hold up), Sex Education, Happy Valley, and Last Tango in Halifax. Current Favorite Authors: Paul Beatty, Mat Johnson, and Toni Morrison.

5. What inspires you, and why? This is such a tough question because so many things inspire me, but I’ll say that right now I’m really inspired by the stories of other artists when they describe their process for making art. We all have a process and struggles that are very specific which make them universal, and usually hearing about process affirms my belief in the power of art.

6. Tell us about your writing process. I usually write very late at night when it’s quiet and most people are in bed. I have to be in a quiet space to do my work. I usually build in a half hour or an hour to do some reading or watching of some silly YouTube videos before I get serious and actually start putting words on the page.

7. Has writing ever surprised you? If so, how? I’ve had many times where writing has surprised me. After a while characters will take on a life of their own and you can just hear their voices and at that point I’m just there to dictate/put it on the page. At times where that has happened, I’ve had characters that have said something that made me think, “Oh no, I can’t put that on the page.” What a character has said has really made me feel fear, but I now know when that happens, I have to face the fear and put it on the page. I know when that happens that a character is speaking their truth and it’s part of my job to honor that.

8. Do you have an interesting “writing quirk” – if so, what is it? With my playwriting a recent writing quirk that I’ve had the past few years is to find a font and style of placement for the page that invokes the mood of the piece overall. Another writing quirk of mine is to find a random question from a newspaper article or a book or even something I’ve heard on a podcast, and I’ll ask a character in the story that same question and I’ll free write in the voice of the character the answer to the question. I find that this silly little exercise just helps me to learn more about the character and it often times helps me with specificity.

9. What do you like to do for fun, or when you’re not writing? I really enjoy going out to eat with friends. I can’t wait until we all can safely return to safely doing that.

10. Any advice or tips for anyone struggling with writing? I give the same advice all the time. Try to make writing a daily practice and to set just a very minimal goal for yourself. My goal used to be to write 1 page a day. On most days I would end up writing more than one page a day, but if you write one page a day by the end of a month, you’ll have approximately 30 or more pages, so if you’re writing a screenplay that’s your 1st Act, a 1 hour TV drama that’s 2 Acts and if you’re writing a play that’s 90 minutes then in two more months you’d have it completed. So, I’m always giving the advice to make time daily to write.

This interview originally ran on writersguildinitiative.org on January 8, 2021. Jonathan Silverstein - Artistic Director Jeremy Stoller - Director of New Work Jasminn Johnson - Director of Education Ashley DiGiorgi - Managing Producer Reed Ridgley - General Manager Billy Recce - Marketing Manager

Keen Company is an award-winning Off-Broadway theater creating narrative driven work that provokes identification, reflection, and emotional connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, the company tells stories about the decisive moments that change us. Through our educational arm, Keen Teens, we raise the quality of plays written for the high school stage and provide a free professional training program for teens. Through the Keen Playwrights Lab, we bring together three mid-career playwrights to develop new work and facilitate that work's exposure to a greater audience. On-stage Keen champions the impact of integrity, and we uphold that same mission backstage. It is important to our company, and our work, that everyone feels safe, valued, and inspired to do their best.

Keen Company’s 21st Season will reimagine the classic radio drama with the debut of five world premiere audio plays from a multifaceted group of Off-Broadway playwrights. Hear/Now welcomes patrons into a theater of their imagination, showcasing new work by Pearl Cleage, Kate Cortesi, finkle, James Anthony Tyler, and musical team Melissa Li and Kit Yan. Our audiences can expect a season of unique pieces of audio theater - each will be intimate, engrossing, fully-produced shows that will feel just as satisfying as a great night at the theater!

We are endlessly grateful for the support of our community which has fueled Keen Company for over two decades. Thank you to all of our donors, patrons, and friends for your steadfast generosity this year. We are honored to continue to create and connect. The theater may be dark, but storytelling is alive and well at Keen Company. Thanks to you!

You’re welcome to explore more about Keen Company at www.keencompany.org Streaming Everywhere You Listen to Podcasts