Mushroom

People’s Light will develop and produce the world premiere of a new work written by playwright and actress Eisa Davis. The play is inspired by Davis’s extended residency in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania—known as the “Mushroom Capital of the World”—where she met with multiple generations of immigrant Mexican and South American farm workers and their families. Mushroom centers on a workplace dispute, tracking the intersecting narratives of the workers and farm owners involved, while exploring relationships among the land, the workers, and the food on American tables. Collaborator David Mendizábal, a bilingual director and one of the producing artistic leaders of The Movement Theatre Company in New York, will direct a predominantly bilingual cast. “I know the profound experience of suddenly feeling represented on a stage,” Davis says. “Your heart can participate in a place where you once were prohibited to enter.”

Additional unrestricted funds are added to each grant for general operating support.