![Artwork for [Home] Going, a radio play by Zola Dee directed by Josiah Davis at National Black Theatre](/media/shows/home-going-national-black-theatre-radio-play.jpg "Artwork for [Home] Going, a radio play by Zola Dee directed by Josiah Davis at National Black Theatre")
[Home] Going, the play that earned Zola Dee the 2025 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting, comes to audiences as a radio play from National Black Theatre, with a cast now set for its December 10–13, 2026 listening window.
The Harlem company commissioned the play and developed it through its I Am SOUL Playwright residency, where Dee was the 2023 resident playwright. It is directed by Josiah Davis, a former resident of the theater’s SOUL Directing program who staged a.k. payne’s Amani for NBT, so the presentation pairs artists from two of its residencies.
The story belongs to Presence, a twelve-year-old convinced that her family is under a curse older than she is. Its name in the household is “the sadness.” When the family loses its ancestral home on the Carolina Sea Islands to a forced sale and her mother breaks down once again, Presence goes looking for the cause. A dream carries her back to South Carolina during Reconstruction, where she comes face to face with her forefather, Ernest.
Victoria Omoregie plays Presence and Calvin Leon Smith plays Ernest. They are joined by Amandla Jahava as Harriet, Melvin Abston as Uncle James and Abraham, Tonye Patano as Miss Sarah, Ciara Monique as Misha and Aigner Mizzelle as Eunice.
The creative team includes set designer Simean “Sim” Carpenter, costume designer DeShon Elem, sound designer and composer Michael Costagliola, audio engineer Chaitanya Tamayo, dialect coach Kim Bey, language dramaturg and cultural adviser Simeon Daise and stage manager Angela Lopes.
The format is the point of the exercise: a way for NBT to put a writer it backs in front of listeners well beyond Harlem. BroadwayWorld reports that tickets are $25 plus fees, that the recording streams on Vimeo from December 10, and that audiences attending in person will see renderings of how the play might one day look on stage. Details are on National Black Theatre’s website.
