Eat At The Table Theatre Company
Founded in 2015 by Emma “Zinha” Morgan-Bennett and Kai Naima Williams, Eat At The Table Theatre Company (E.A.T.T.) was a non-profit theater arts organization dedicated to providing young actors of color with performance opportunities in New York City. Our mission focused on both celebrating and reviving established works by BIPOC playwrights and devising new plays with our cohort of actors and creatives. Over five years in operation, we staged, and supported, productions that each delivered on our goal of telling diverse, complex stories in unique ways.
In 2016, our debut revue, Suddenly, A Wave showcased monologues and scenes written by a cohort of high-school aged actors of color.
In 2017, we produced Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size, a contemporary tale set in the Louisiana Bayou that interweaves West African mythology with music and dance and explores themes of freedom and intimacy between formerly incarcerated Black men.
In 2018, E.A.T.T. was originally slated to produce a performance of the 1976 choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange. After an unexpected licensing issue arose, our team decided that instead of selecting another established work to perform, we would create an original piece; a response to For Colored Girls from a new age, with new voices. GOLD IF SHE NEEDS IT is a 21st century take the choreopoem, one that engages with themes explored in Shange’s revolutionary play, while including experiences unique to our cohort such as queerness, cultural appropriation and the challenges of attending predominantly-white universities. The show was devised with writing from poets Gisselle Yepes, Naomi Williams, Caridad Cruz, Rachel Godfrey, Franchesca Peña, Zurich Deleon, Michelle Nivar, Inayah Cashir, Citlali Pizarro, Simone Roberts-Payne, Kaya Fridman, Emma “Zinha” Morgan-Bennett and Kai Naima Williams.
In 2019, we created the Elings Grant, an award that would help fund an existing project in development by BIPOC theater-makers. The grant was awarded to Dena Igusti and Mohammad Murtaza for their play SHARUM, a documentary theater piece that narratives the experiences of a Muslim family based in Queens, New York.
Eat At The Table ceased operations indefinitely at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but we hope to return to the stage - and screen! - in the future.
