Will You Come With Me?

May 11–June 5, 2022
TurkeyU.S. Premiere
“I open the door. The tear gas has dispersed, the street is quiet. Someone’s sitting on the curb opposite. My stinging eyes are half open. I can’t see properly. I walk toward her. I reach out my hand. Where are you?”
Meet the Artists

Ebru Nihan Celkan (Playwright, she/hers) received her bachelor's degree in labor economics from Uludağ University in 2001 and MBA (master's degree in business administration) from Istanbul University and started her professional career in 2003. List of publications and plays staged in Turkey, Germany and USA; Complete Plays I: After The Day Nobody Died & Where Were We? Mitos-Boyut (İstanbul 2013); Complete Plays II: Home! Sweet Home! & 17:31. Mitos-Boyut (İstanbul 2015); Complete Plays III: Babel Towers & Triggerman. Mitos-Boyut (İstanbul 2016); Complete Plays IV: Tilt & A Prince from Outer Space. Mitos-Boyut (İstanbul 2018).

Keenan Tyler Oliphant (he/him) is a Theatremaker and Director from South Africa. Keenan’s work is in the lineage of the communal theatre-making and storytelling traditions of South Africa. As a Theatremaker Keenan recalls his traditional Southern African storytelling lineage by simultaneously exchanging with histories and futures to create spaces of healing, investigation, mourning and celebration through performance. Selected directing credits include Heather Christian’s TERCE: A Practical Breviary, Will You Come With Me? (PlayCo May 2022), Jeesun Choi’s To the Ends of the Earth (JACK), Jay Stull’s The Singularity Play (Havard TDM; Alliance Theatre Reading) Sam Grabiner’s People on Earth (Columbia University), Vivian Barnes’ Intro To (Ensemble Stage Theatre), Live from Mount Olympus Podcast (The Team), Kyk Hoe Skyn Die Son [Look at How the Sun Shines] (Clubbed Thumb Winterworks) and Self-Combustion of a 30 Something Year Old... (New Ohio Producers Club). Keenan has developed work with Ars Nova, New York Theatre Workshop, The Vineyard Theatre and more. Keenan is an alumnus of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow (2020-2021), the Drama League Directing Fellowship (2021-2022) and Columbia University MFA in Directing for Theatre program.

Layla Khoshnoudi. (Performer) MFA, Brooklyn College. Select Theater: 7 Minutes (Waterwell); Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb); Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons); Bull in a China Shop (Lincoln Center); Dido of Idaho (Ensemble Studio Theater); Wyoming (Lesser America); I am Gordafarid (Noor Theater). TV: Instinct (CBS); FBI (CBS); All Hail Beth (BricTV), My Ex is Trending (YouTube). FILM: Long Nights, Short Mornings; Bad at Birthdays, Nadia Jaan; Androgen; Bookends.

Maribel Martinez (Actor) Artist existing and creating at the intersection of womanhood, Blackness, and Latinidad. Off-Broadway: Will You Come With Me? (PlayCo); Julius Cesar (New York Shakespeare in the Park). Select Regional Theatre: Mushroom (People’s Light); Vanity Fair (Shakespeare Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theater); Christmas at Pemberley (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Henry V P 1 (Folger); Black Joy Project (JAG). Film / Television Includes: Evil (CBS), New Amsterdam (ABC), The Watcher (Netflix), Sacrifice (BET+). In community with the Latinx Playwrights Circle and with Dominican Artists Collective as an Artistic Producer. MFA, UC Irvine.

Avi Amon (Sound Designer, Composer) is an award-winning, Turkish-American composer and sound artist. Avi’s multi-genre work has been developed or presented by: HBO Films, Hulu, Spotify/Gimlet, Tribeca Film Festival, Ars Nova, LCT3, New York Theater Workshop, The O’Neill, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights’ Center, Prague Quadrennial, Roundabout, SoHo Rep/Page 73, Spoleto USA, and Target Margin among others. Avi is the resident composer at the 52nd Street Project, an inaugural fellow with THE WORKSHOP, and teaches at NYU Tisch.

Afsoon Pajoufar (Set Designer) is a NYC based designer of stage and environment for play, opera, and other live performances. Afsoon’s artistic practice is often focused on the intersection of space and new technologies including XR and live video. Her recent works include Don Juan (Bard Summerscape 2022), Lady-M (HeartBeat Opera), MƆɹNIŊ / MORNING//MOURNING (Prototype Festival), Mad Forest (Theatre for a New Audience/Bard), Word.Sound.Power (Brooklyn Academy of Music, BAM), Will You Come With Me (Play Co.), Purple Room (New Ohio Theatre), s.i.n.s.o.f.u.s (HARVARD), The Silence (MIT). She is a proud member of USA829.

Enver Chakartash (Costume Design) is a British born Turkish Cypriot costume designer. Enver’s work has been presented internationally at numerous venues including: BAM, The Public Theater, Steppenwolf, Centre Pompidou, the Barbican and the Sydney Opera House. Most recently, Enver designed: English (Atlantic Theater Company/Roundabout Theatre Company); Wolf Play (Soho Rep.); and Tina Satter’s Is This A Room on Broadway. Other recent works include: Tina Satter/Half Straddle’s Ghost Rings; The Wooster Group’s A Pink Chair, The B-side, The Town Hall Affair, Early Shaker Spirituals; Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men; Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group’s POWER.

Reza Behjat was born and raised in Iran where he worked with some of the most prominent directors for several years before moving to the United States in 2014. Off-Broadway: Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons); The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public); Out of Time (The Public/NAATCO); English (Atlantic); P.S. (Ars Nova); Disclaimer (The Public’s UTR); Henry VI (NAATCO); Hamlet (Waterwell). Regional and others: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, PlayMakers Rep, Actors Theater of Louisville, Baltimore Center Stage, Geva Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare, New Georges, Long Wharf Theater, etc. Awards: Knight of Illumination Award (Nina Simone: Four Women, 2019)

Stefania Bulbarella (Video and Projections Designer) from Buenos Aires, Argentina based in Brooklyn, NY. Broadway credits include: Kimberly Akimbo as associate video designer (The Booth) Desiger credits include Off Broadway: Space Dogs (MCC), Semblance (New York Theatre Workshop), The Watering Hole (Signature Theatre), Will You Come With Me? (The Play Company), Turtle on a Fence Post (Theatre 555). Opera: Letters You Will Not Get (American Opera Project). Regional: House of Joy (St Louis Rep), The Mountaintop (Weston Playhouse). Other: Eva Luna (Repertorio Español), Desaparecidas (Jack) Nominations: Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Video/Projection Design for Space Dogs. www.stefaniabulbarella.com

Dee Lamar Mills (they/she) is a lens-based artist and motion designer with their eyes on a bright star somewhere far beyond the perimeter of this universe. Recent: New York Hall of Science, The Shed (Open Call), Clubbed Thumb, Interior Design, MAP (Adidas, Collina Strada, GQ). dddiiiooonnn.com. For Mom – in vivid memory.

Christina M. Woolard (Stage Manager) stage manages for theatre, dance, and live events. Previous credits include Space Dogs (MCC), Kinky Boots (Bucks County Playhouse), Preparedness (The Bushwick Starr), Passing Through (Goodspeed Musicals), Will You Come With Me? and Notes on My Mother’s Decline (The Play Company), Wilder Gone (Clubbed Thumb), American Hero, and A Doll’s House, Part 2 (George Street Playhouse). Proud AEA member and alumna of Rutgers University. For Mom — your song is in my heart.

Siena Yusi (Stage Manager) is a stage manager, theatre maker, and arts educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Her artistic endeavors revolve around cultivating and supporting creative spaces where theatre and artistic processes can be utilized to foster healing and spark change. Siena is passionate about new plays and has had the honor of working on over 15 world premiere productions in NYC. Recent stage management collaborations include 59E59 Theaters, The Hearth, Mabou Mines, PlayCo, Abrons Arts Center, The Brick, Playwrights Horizons Downtown, Brooklyn College, and Columbia University, among others. BFA: NYU Tisch. www.sienayusi.com

Umut and Janina meet and fall in love in Istanbul, where rebellion simmers amongst the queer and displaced youth. Using video recordings and phone calls to fight against physical and emotional distance, Umut is caught between the momentum of sociopolitical change at home and the promise of a quieter life in Berlin with Janina. By turns explosive and intimate, WILL YOU COME WITH ME? explores the chaos and complexities of living through an uprising with generosity, love, and tenderness.

Related Media

Written by

Ebru Nihan Celkan

Translated by

Kate Ferguson

Directed by

Keenan Tyler Oliphant

Featuring

Layla Khoshnoudi Maribel Martinez

Set Design

Afsoon Pajoufar

Costume Design

Enver Chakartash

Lighting Design

Reza Bahjat

Sound Design & Original Music

Avi Amon

Projections Design

Stefania Bulbarella Dee Lamar Mills

Intimacy Director

Cha Ramos

Production Stage Manager

Christina M. Woolard

Production Manager

Stuart Parman

Company & House Manager

Daniel George

Casting

Victor Vazquez, C.S.A., X Casting

Artwork

Desiree Nasim

Press Representation

Blake Zidell & Associates

Venue

MITU580 580 Sackett Street Unit A – Ground Fl Brooklyn, NY