Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s "Cullud Wattah" to Make Michigan Premiere in Grand Rapids

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Demetria Thomas directs Erika Dickerson-Despenza's lyrical drama about the Flint Water Crisis.

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The Michigan premiere of cullud wattah arrives in a state where the question of water - who can trust it, who is denied it, and who is made to endure its failures - remains painfully unresolved. Erika Dickerson-Despenza 's cullud wattah is set in the aftermath of the Flint Water Crisis, centering a Black matriarchy navigating contamination, bureaucracy, and the slow violence of systems that govern the most basic conditions of survival. At its heart are three generations of women bound not only by family, but by inheritance - of knowledge, of grief, and of the ongoing labor of keeping one another alive.

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Presented by Actors' Theatre Grand Rapids, the production takes place at Spectrum Theater on the campus of Grand Rapids Community College. Performances run May 7–9 and May 14–16 at 7:30pm, with a matinee on May 10 at 3pm. Tickets are pay-what-you-can/want and available at atgr.org.

Directed by Demetria Thomas, the production features stage management by Ivy Frantti, lighting design by Sarah Aker, costume design by Lisa Borton, and scenic and sound design by Kyle Los. The intimacy director is Amisha T. Groce.

The cast includes Channelle Holiday as Ainee, Michelle X Taylor as Big Ma, Patricia Coleman Ansari as Marion, Riley Lopez-Shue as Plum, and Atong Mach as Reesee.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/michigan/article/Michigan-Premiere-of-CULLUD-WATTAH-is-Coming-to-Actors-Theatre-Grand-Rapids-20260504)._