“Emeka:1985” Debuts in Westwood

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Cast members and the playwright of Emeka: 1985.

By LAUREL BUSBY

Contributing Writer

When Chijioke Elizabeth Obi’s 16-year-old father came to the United States, he was a talented Nigerian who had earned a scholarship to study economics at a North Carolina university.

“My dad was the last of 10 kids,” Obi said. When he left home, “my aunts and cousins said he was a super jolly, really, really nice, open-minded and carefree person.”

Unfortunately, his kindness was exploited by a seeming friend who abused his trust. This event, which her father revealed to her once and then refused to talk about again, became the inspiration for Obi’s new play, Emeka: 1985, which premiered this month at the Los Angeles Performing Arts Conservatory in Westwood.

To honor her father, who died five years ago, Obi transformed his coming-to-America story into a play centering on an immigrant and his daughter struggling to connect because of misunderstandings about his past. While Obi had an incredibly close relationship with her father, she researched challenging parental relationships of immigrants to bring reality to her storytelling. She also imagined a scheme in which a naïve young person might get embroiled by an unscrupulous person. In addition, Emeka: 1985 includes a peek into the love story of her parents, which ended in tragedy when her mother died unexpectedly during a trip home to Nigeria.

The characters “are really personal to me and inspired by my family members and people I’d heard about from my parents,” said Obi, 32. “I feel like I’ve put my life on the stage.”

A standing-room-only crowd on October 2 included many Nigerian immigrants who were obviously stirred by the play, gasping when Emeka made poor decisions and chuckling at the play’s sprinkling of Igbo words and cultural references. The resonant emotional performance of Ayodeji Adejugbe as Emeka in his later years also affected the audience, many of whom stayed after the play’s end to ask questions of the actors and Obi.

The overall ensemble gave strong and poignant portrayals, including Akil Williams, a gentle soul who made the younger Emeka loveable, Anna Maria Orlu, who played his wife with warmth and brightness, Ure Egbuho, who brought empathy and passion to the role of his daughter, and Vincent Banye, who made the disreputable Festus fun to watch.

The cast was filled out by the lively Daniel Edu who bounded onto the stage as Emeka’s best friend Lynwood, Ayodeji Fatigun as Emeka’s gruff mentor, Ela Rodriguez as the caring nurse, and Armando Torres, a skilled chameleon who took on three roles.

“I am so incredibly proud of what we accomplished together,” Obi said about the production. The cast and crew’s “unwavering dedication, commitment, and energy brought Emeka 1985 to life in a way that moved hearts and made an impact far beyond the stage.”

A scene from the play Emeka:1985.

For Obi, the premiere is only the beginning for Emeka: 1985. She plans to both lengthen it and raise funds for a longer run. The L.A. native, a graduate of Cal State Long Beach, caught the playwriting bug while living in New York City working on her master’s degree in social work at Fordham University. Her first play, the comedy Betrothed, premiered this April in Long Beach.

The following month, she began crafting Emeka: 1985, finishing it a little over a month later. Obi’s fast pace of development and performance is part of her ethos as is her intense personal connection to her work.

“The time we have together is so limited,” Obi said. “I don’t want to live without doing what I want to do and saying what I want to say…. Things don’t have to be perfect, but I have to try. There’s no time to waste in my life.”

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