Sweetwater: The Gospel of Iman

Public Presentation

June 26 - 29, 2025

Sweetwater: The Gospel of Iman explores the reality of chosen family through the eyes of Michael, a young gay Black writer, and Charlie, a struggling Black actress, as they navigate life in New York City during the AIDS epidemic. Their powerful bond defies conventional definitions of love, taking them on a journey that reshapes their understanding of intimacy, devotion, and legacy.

Performances will be held at La MaMA, 66 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

Nathan Yungerberg

Playwright

Nathan Yungerberg is a storyteller and Afrosurrealist who writes for TV, scripted podcasts, and theater. Nathan is a freelance writer for Sesame Street and head writer for Live from Mount Olympus, a podcast co-directed by Zhailon Levingston and Tony award-winner Rachel Chavkin. He also worked as script editor for Cultureverse, a podcast on TRAX by PRX, narrated by Yara Shahidi and Kelly Marie Tran. Nathan’s plays have been developed or featured by New York Theatre Workshop, The Cherry Lane Theatre, JAG Productions, LAByrinth Theater, The Apollo Theater, The National Black Theatre, Alliance Theatre, The Fire This Time Festival, 48 Hours in Harlem, Blackboard, The Brooklyn Generator, The Lark, Roundabout Theatre Company, The Playwrights’ Center, American Blues Theater, Crowded Fire Theater, Climate Change Theatre Action, Northern Stage and The Bushwick Starr. He was commissioned by The New Black Fest for HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, published by Concord Theatricals and adapted by BBC radio afternoon drama. Nathan’s play Esai’s Table was featured in The Cherry Lane Theatre’s Mentor Project (Mentored by Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Danya Taymor). Highlights: 2021-2024 Playwrights’ Center Core Writer, 2021-2022 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, 2021 National Black Theatre of Harlem I AM SOUL residency, Blue Ink Playwriting Award (Finalist), and a 2019 Djerassi Resident Artist.

Zhailon Levingston

Director

Zhailon Levingston is a Louisiana-raised storyteller, director, and activist. He is a Board Member for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, which he co-created, and teaches the Theatre of Change course at Columbia University. He is a Music Mentor Fellow and has done work with Idina Menzel’s A Broader Way Foundation. His directing credits include: Neptune (Dixon Place, Brooklyn Museum), The Years That Went Wrong (Lark, MCC), The Exonerated (Columbia Law School), Chariot Part 2 (Soho Rep., for The Movement Theatre Company), Mother of Pearl (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center). He is the associate director of Primer for a Failed Superpower with Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin, and Runaways at The Public Theater with Sam Pinkleton. Most recently, he directed CATS:”The Jellicle Ball” which premiered at Perelman Performing Arts Center. Along with Chicken & Biscuits which premiered on Broadway in 2021 and Patience which premiered at Second Stage UPTOWN Summer of 2022. Zhailon is also the former resident director at Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on Broadway and the associate director of Hadestown in South Korea.

CAST

Jhardon DiShon Milton

Houston, TX native - proud southern gent! Broadway credits include: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (OBC), A Bronx Tale. Off- Broadway: Jonah in the bandaged place (Roundabout Theatre), The Black Clown (Lincoln Center & a.r.t.), Carnegie Hall Picnic performances (alongside Tony Award Winner Adrienne Warren). Regional: Rent (The MUNY), Into the Woods (Rapunzel's Prince, PCLO) Trevor the Musical (Jack in the World Premiere at Writer’s Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (Seymour, Tantrum Theatre). TV credits include: Blue Bloods, Harlem, & And Just Like That. Coming up: Method Cowboy: a short film by Carlos Valdivia. I am beyond grateful to God for the gifts and for the opportunity to share them. A blessing I’ll never tire of. Thank you to Zhailon for always seeing me. Immense gratitude to B. Renae for the continuous support and sacrifice. Big big love to my friends who continuously push me to raise the bar, big brothers & the hardest working manager around, Rochel Saks. @jhardondishon

Torée Alexandre

Torée is beyond grateful to be a part of this poignant production. Throughout this process, she has learned so much about courage and the many hues of true love. Most recently she was a part of Dominique Morisseau’s Bad Kreyòl at Signature Theatre. Torée sends her love to everyone affected by the AIDS epidemic. She’d like to thank NBT, Nathan, Zhailon, Adesola, Kiara, Jhardon, Jungle, Mo, Paige, Mama, Mommy, Mama Edith, and her dear friends for their support. Bless! @toreetea

CREATIVE TEAM

Amiah McGinty

PRODUCTION MANAGER & PRODUCING RESIDENT

Amiah McGinty (she/her) is a producer, director, and arts administrator hailing from Augusta, Georgia. Amiah left her hometown to attend the illustrious Howard University, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Acting. Her tenure at Howard exposed her to passions beyond performance, leading to the unearthing of excitement and adeptness for new work development, artistic programming, community engagement, and curation. This fiery newly found passion led her to enriching opportunities and collaborations, including serving as the Podcast Development Intern at Monkeypaw Productions, New York Theatre Workshop’s 2023-2024 Artistic Workshop Fellow, Directing Fellow for Broadway’s Hell’s Kitchen, Emerging Producer at Little Island and Producing Resident at National Black Theatre. As an emerging producer, Amiah is tenacious in her mission to create work and cultivate spaces that authentically represent the multitextured lives of Black folks, celebrating Black culture and highlighting our multitudes. Simply put, Amiah aims to create dope work with dope Black people. @_per.cep.tion_

Marika Kent

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Marika Kent (she/her) is a Brooklyn based lighting designer. Also With National Black Theater: Bernarda’s Daughters; Amani. Select recent/upcoming in NYC: Ulysses; Seagull (Elevator Repair Service), The Great Privation (SOHO REP); Get Your Ass in the Water… (The Wooster Group), Catch as Catch Can (Playwrights Horizons). Regional: The Suffragette's Murder (Denver Center), Sweeney Todd; Clyde’s; Choir Boy; Gem of the Ocean; School Girls, or the African Mean Girls Play (Portland Center Stage), Fences (Trinity Rep), POTUS (Arena Stage). Marika teaches design at NYU’s Playwrights Horizons Theater School and is a proud member of USA Local 829. www.marikakent.com

Christopher Darbassie

SOUND DESIGNER

Christopher Darbassi: Off-Boadway (select): THE ANTIQUITIES, AMUSEMENTS (Playwrights Horizons),THE COUNTER (Roundabout), TABLE 17 (MCC), SIX CHARACTERS (LCT3), GRANGEVILLE, A BRIGHT NEW BOISE, A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD (Signature NYC), THE APIARY, CAMP SIEGFRIED, PATIENCE (2ST), I’M ALMOST THERE (Audible @ Minetta Lane/Francesca Moody Productions @ Edinburgh Fringe), THIS BEAUTIFUL FUTURE (Cherry Lane), the UNCLE VANYA in a loft, PS (Ars Nova), BLACK EXHIBITION, DEMONS (Bushwick Starr),and work at Petzel Gallery, The Goodman Theater, The Alliance Theater, Playmakers Rep, The Brooklyn Museum, The Studio Museum and more. @c.darbassie

DeShon Elem

COSTUME DESIGNER

DeShon Elem (she/they) Costume Designer. Hunter College '17. DeShon is an Afrofuturist/Afrosurrealist artist and designer from The Bronx, by way of Harlem. Her design career has been centered around working on shows that highlight and uplift Black stories and voices. She is Emmy Nominated for her work on The Roll Call: The Roots to Strange Fruit (PBS/All Arts) Some of their theater works include The Worthy (The Flea Theater), The Gospel Woman (National Black Theatre), This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre), (pray) (Ars Nova & Nation Black Theatre), Being Up in Here and All the Other Businesses that Don’t Concern You OR When You See a Buncha Black People Running, What Do You Do? (Exponential Festival & The Brick), King James (Northern Stage), Bowl EP (National Black Theatre & Vineyard Theatre). They are excited to add SWEETWATER: The Gospel of Iman to the list of Black artistry she has been a part of.

Belynda M’Baye

PROPS DESIGNER

Belynda is a Harlem-planted dweller uprooted from Baltimore many years ago. Belynda is currently the National Black Theatre's Soul Series Residency Program Manager. For the past 10 years, she has supported the playwright, director, and producing residents through their time at NBT, from development to production. As Props Designer, she has worked on all of the Residency Workshops and main stage productions, such as Sweet by Harrison Rivers, Fried Chicken and Lakes by Rain Pryor. She has also been the Production Stage Manager for many of NBT's productions and facilitator of the Keep Soul Alive Development Reading Series. She has experience working with mainly new developments of plays; including the powerful (pray) directed by nicHi douglas and produced by Ars Nova and NBT. She has also been delighted to have worked with playwrights; Marjuan Canady; Jason Michael Webb, Lelund Durond Tompson; Kambi Gathesha, Mfoniso Udofia; Lee Edward Colton II, Liza Jessie Peterson, and Aurin Squire to name a few.

Izmir Ickbal

SCENIC DESIGNER

Izmir Ickbal (Scenic Designer) is honored to be designing for National Black Theatre again. He is a multi-disciplinary designer who has worked with numerous theaters and productions across the country and internationally including the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Company One Theater Boston, The Tank, LAByrinth Theater, 59E59 theaters, New York Theater Workshop, Dixon Place, Noor Theatre, Center Theater Group and Theater For A New Audience. Others include The Esplanade Theatres, Singapore, and the Auditorio De Tenerife, Spain. In 2023 he was awarded Best Lighting Design at the Houston Press Theater Awards, and in 2019 he was nominated for Best Scenic Design at the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and the Elliot Norton Awards in Boston. He received a Master of Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama and teaches at Syracuse University. He is a member of USA-829. More info: izmirickbal.com @izzyduzzit

R. Christopher Maxwell

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER

R. Christopher Maxwell hails from the bustling southern metropolis of Little Rock, Arkansas and currently resides in Harlem, New York. CMax earned a B.A. in Theater Arts-Dance and Sociology from The University of Arkansas in Little Rock, and received a Master's of Fine Arts in Stage Management from Columbia University's School of the Arts. Christopher is also an adjunct faculty at SUNY. He is a 6th year Stage Manager at Actor's Equity Association. He also serves as Director at Large and New York Metro Regional Representative for the Stage Manager’s Association. Off-Broadway Credits: (ASM) Eco Village, (ASM) Safeword; (ASM) American Moor; (PSM) We Won’t Sleep. Arden of Faversham (PSM) Regional Credits: (ASM) Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles; (ASM) Mlima’s Tale; (ASM) Fairview; (PSM) The Inheritance; (PSM) Guys and Dolls. The Mountaintop /Silent Sky (PSM) He gives honor to his parents and ancestors. @maxwellsmaart

Adesola Osakalumi

CHOREOGRAPHER

Adesola Osakalumi is a New York based award-winning Choreographer, Director, Actor and Creative Director whose career spans film, television and theater. Ade has Choreographed: Skeleton Crew (MTC), The Grove (Huntington Theater), Diary of A Tap Dancer (A.R.T- additional choreography), Leroy & Lucy (Steppenwolf Theater), Cullad Wattah, Coal Country, Othello (The Public Theater), Good Grief, This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theater), In Old Age, Eyewitness Blues (NYTW) and the film School of Rock. He co-created & co-directed the Drama Desk-nominated Jam on the Groove, the first Hip-Hop Theater production featuring members of The Rhythm Technicians & The Rock Steady Crew. A Bessie Award winner and co-founder of GhettOriginal Productions Dance Company. @adesolaosakalum

Sujotta Pace, C.S.A

CASTING DIRECTOR

Sujotta Pace, C.S.A. (She/Her) is a freelance Casting Professional working in theatre, short films, podcasts, and new media. She is a casting associate with Roundabout Theatre Company/C12 Casting (Broadway, Off-Broadway) and serves on the Casting Society Board of Directors. Select credits include the world premieres of Cats: The Jellicle Ball (PAC NYC) and Bad Kreyol (Signature Theatre). As an associate, she contributed to Hippest Trip – The Soul Train Musical (Regional), & Juliet (Broadway), Home (Broadway), Yellow Face (Broadway), Tammy Faye: A New Broadway Musical (Broadway), and Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical (Broadway). With 20+ years in entertainment, Sujotta brings a thoughtful, actor-centered approach to casting. @sujotta