Levi Mngomezulu. Photo credit Annielly Camargo.
Presented by Boston Arts Academy with advisory support from The Huntington and in collaboration with Wheelock Family Theatre
By Mfoniso Udofia
Directed by John Oluwole ADEkoje
Choreography by Shaumba- Yandje Dibinga
July 10 – 26, 2025
Boston Arts Academy Main Stage Theatre
174 Ipswich St.
Boston, MA 02215
Critique by Kitty Drexel
An explanation: We use the word kid, child, kids or children to describe a young person under the age of 18. You might feel grown; you may even act grown, but you are not yet grown.
BOSTON — Kufre n’ Quay is the fifth play in Mfoniso Udofia’s cycle of nine plays, the Ufot Family Cycle. It follows the events of Udofia’s fourth play, Her Portmanteau, which is about the reunion of matriarch Abasiama Ufot with her two adult daughters: First-born Iniabasi Ekpeyong, born in the U.S. and raised in Nigeria, and Abasiama’s second daughter, Adiaha Ufot, raised in Massachusetts and living in New York City. Her Portmanteau meets the stark differences between Nigerian and American family politics. The NETG critique is HERE.
Kufre n’ Quay, the fifth story of the Ufot Family Cycle, occurs several years later and tells the story of Iniabasi’s (Ramona Lisa Alexander, watching intently and gathering intel) 2018 trip to New York’s Little Senegal with her inquisitive son Kufre (Levi Mngomezulu). In it, we watch Kufre, Abasiama’s (a strong but silent Jackie Davis) grandson, attend summer camp at a community center’s Discovery Zone in Harlem while Iniabasi visits nursing colleges offstage. Kufre has many hopes for his potential new home: good music, new friends, and fun adventures on the world-famous streets of New York.
When Kufre meets the other kids at the Discovery Zone, though, he is unprepared for his culture shock, just as they are unaware of their unconscious, and previously unknown biases against new and unusual people. So, Kufre thinks he won’t make friends in New York until he meets an African American girl, Quay (Ngolela Kamanampata), a theatre enthusiast with a generous spirit. Together, with a big assist from Miss Jada aka Miss Ey Yo Miss (an ever-patient, endlessly supportive Jalyse Ware), Kufre and Quay discover that their hearts’ longings are more similar than they are different. Most importantly, this play explores the contrast between African, African American, and Black American cultures. The kids’ ensemble includes Ayannah Joseph, Ja’Mon Johnson, Shai-Anne Neufville, Londyn Lacy, Ezra Schwarz-Bart, Jedrian Latimore, Selah Thande, and Zay Williams.
The young cast. Photo credit Annielly Camargo.
Playwright Udofia tells us in the playbill’s heartfelt “A note from the Playwright” that Kufre n’ Quay is her love letter to the young Black and Brown students whom she loved to teach. It’s for the kids who made her laugh, feel challenged, and drove her “a bit wild.” The ones she said she loved with a fierce, expansive heart. Since it is written for them and not us, it becomes our duty as adults to receive this play from that perspective: Adults, you may or may not recall that childhood is stressful. It looks carefree from decades later, but it isn’t. Kids are growing into themselves in an overwhelming world of harsh lights, loud noises, marketing schemes, and unrealistic expectations that isn’t designed for them; it’s barely even designed for us. So kids deserve to make understandable mistakes within a healthy environment; And, they need to watch us learn and rebuild from our own mistakes. If children learn from watching us, we might as well act like it.
With this perspective in mind, New England Theatre Geek has a general policy to refrain from critiquing child actors. Critiques are a natural part of theatre-making: Adult actors should be resilient enough to handle constructive criticism’s emotional and mental stress. (This is not always the case.) We believe it is important to support the ongoing educational growth of child actors by shielding them from direct critique until they are adults. We do this by making general, supportive statements on the kids’ behalf. Young actors should trust the feedback they receive from the teachers and mentors who love them and not some middle-aged white lady with an internet presence.
To that end, the sincere, enthusiastic work of the child actors and crew in Kufre n’ Quay speaks to the level of their current talent and the talent they have yet to unlock within themselves. Should they desire, each young person on the Boston Arts Academy Main Stage has a future in the arts. The actors executed advanced theatre techniques as a natural extension of their characters: They employed accents and foreign languages; they performed choreography and silly improv games. They projected without mics and mimed conversations without distracting the audience. There are so many professional adult actors who struggle with these skills, while this cast nails them.
Remember to plant your feet, enunciate so we can hear you clearly, and don’t let the haters stop you from doing what you love. This world needs you in it.
Newcomers to the Ufot Family Cycle will enjoy this play as much as those who have seen every other play in the cycle so far. If you enjoy this play, we heartily endorse seeing the subsequent plays. From soup to nuts, each production in the cycle has been thoughtfully staged, skillfully acted, and inventively designed.
