We Are All We Have
2022 – 2023 Season
We Are All We Have
About the Book
When a teenage girl’s single mom is taken by ICE, everything changes—all of her hopes and dreams for the future have turned into survival.
Seventeen-year-old Rania is shaken awake in her family’s apartment in Brooklyn. ICE is at the door, taking her mother away. But Ammi has done everything right, hasn’t she? Their asylum case is fine. This was supposed to be Rania’s greatest summer: hanging out with her best friend, Fatima, and getting ready for college in the fall.
But it’s 2019, and nothing is certain.
Now, along with her younger brother, Kamal, and a new friend, Carlos, Rania must figure out how to survive. A road trip leads to searching for answers to questions she didn’t even think to ask.
In an exciting partnership Luna Stage, the young adult novel We Are All We Have comes to life!
Scenes from the novel have been adapted for live performance and author Marina Budhos and Luna Stage can come to your school or community organization for thought-provoking performances, discussions and dynamic workshops on immigration, cultural identity, and diversity in America today.
By Marina Budhos
Meet Marina
Marina Budhos is an author of award-winning fiction and nonfiction. Prior to We Are All We Have, Marina has published several novels for young people, including The Long Ride, Watched, Ask Me No Questions, and Tell Us We’re Home. Marina also co-authored, with her husband Marc Aronson, Eyes of the World: Robert Capa & Gerda Taro & The Invention of Modern Photojournalism and Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom & Science, which was a 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist. She has published the adult novels The Professor of Light and House of Waiting, and a nonfiction book, Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers. Marina Budhos has received an NEA Literature Fellowship, three Fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, and has been a Fulbright Scholar to India. She is a professor emerita of English at William Paterson University, and frequently gives talks throughout the country and abroad.
Meet Ari
Ari Laura Kreith is the Artistic Director of Luna Stage, where her directing credits include the World Premiere of MRS. STERN WANDERS THE PRUSSIAN STATE LIBRARY, HEARTLAND, and PIRIRA. She commissioned and directed #RIFT, a play over text message about navigating political divides, conceived and co-created Luna's VOTING WRITES PROJECT exploring challenges to civic participation, and developed Luna's SECRET CITIES program focusing on underrepresented local stories and history. Ari conceived and directed THE JACKSON HEIGHTS TRILOGY—three full-length plays collaboratively written by 18 playwrights featuring 37 actors in 93 roles in 14 languages inspired by the world's most diverse neighborhood—and directed the World Premiere of MOURNING SUN in the US and Uganda. Ari has received a LPTW Lucille Lortel Visionary Award and a NYIT Caffe Cino Fellowship. She directed one of the “Top 10 Productions in New Jersey” (Star Ledger) and under her leadership Luna has been repeatedly voted “Favorite Small Theatre In New Jersey”(JerseyArts). Ari grew up in 27 countries.
Meet The Cast
Gisela Chípe, (Lidia, Ice Agent, Maria Auntie, Airport Guard 1) a multi-hyphenate Actor/Writer/Narrator/ Producer worked as Producer on the anticipated series This Boy’s Vida by Joseph Castillo-Midyett, the award-winning Black?, Con Dios, and The Graduate Series (Co-writer). Film/TV Acting credits include: Good Burger 2, The Unholy, AWKWAFINA is Nora from Queens, FBI, SVU, and Manifest. Spanish: Wasp Network opposite Penélope Cruz, Bel Canto. Portuguese: The Olympic Games in Brazil. Gisela recently made her Broadway debut with the comedy POTUS… (d. Susan Stroman) Off-Broadway/Regional Theaters: Papermill, Actors Theatre, The Guthrie, & recently in Quixote Nuevo, opposite the late Emilio Delgado. Her audiobooks are numerous including Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, THE TALK, Night Vision, among others, with awards for narration of The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende, Velvet Was The Night, and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Gisela creates greater visibility for black and brown stories. University of Delaware—PTTP (M.F.A.) Para mi Familia. @giselachipe
Davi Santos (Airport Guard 2, Carlos, Mr. Gonzalez) was born in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and was raised in Queens, New York City. He attended performing arts middle school and highschool while appearing in theater and working in commercials. He remotely finished his bachelors of science at CUNY while he worked on sitcoms in Los Angeles. His first major role was Sir Ivan the Gold Power Ranger on the Nickelodeon television show. He moved to CBS where he starred in the thriller Tell Me A Story and then the medical drama Good Sam. In his films, he’s run from a tornado in 13 Minutes, swam through a shark inhabited Mayan tomb in 47 Meters Down, faced a ghost in Polaroid, and found love in Something Like Summer. He splits his time between Los Angeles and New York and he is honored to perform for you today. @davi_santos
Indika Senanayake’s (Ammi) NYC credits include: Be the Death of Me and Occupy Your Mind (The Civilians), A Family of Perhaps Three, Yes is for a Very Young Man, Women of Trachis, The Knights and The Birds (Target Margin Theatre), Money Thinks I’m Dead (Mabou Mines RAP), A Midsummer Nights’ Dream (Classic Stage Company), Arden/Everywhere (BPAC), The House of Bernarda Alba (NAATCO), and The Jackson Heights Trilogy (Theatre 167). Internationally: Villa (dir. Guillermo Calderon, ICES, Sri Lanka). Regionally: Measure for Measure (Shakespeare and Company), Confluence (Guthrie Theatre), Serendib (Hippodrome Theatre), Miss Witherspoon (New City Stage), and Cecilia's Last Tea Party (Passage Theatre). Film/TV: Beast (2022 Tribeca Festival premiere), Lost Cat Corona (with Ralph Macchio), Big Dogs, and Love and Badminton. She has had the pleasure of working on new plays in development at The Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, and WP Theatre, among others. A TCG/Mellon Foundation Global Connections Grant recipient, she holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University, where she was a Deans’ Fellow.
Lipica Shah (she/her) (Rania) is an actor, voice actor, and alto who thrives on collaboration and has a passion for script development. She has originated roles at Manhattan Theatre Club, The New Group, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Cal Shakes, and American Conservatory Theater, among others. On screen she’s appeared on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, HBO, USA, Showtime, Comedy Central, and Netflix. Hear her in the English dubs of Pokémon, A Silent Voice, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Vampire in the Garden, and more. As an inclusion advocate, she co-founded 1497(a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and uplifting talent of South Asian descent and challenging their underrepresentation in the American film and television industry) and is on the Steering Committee of AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition), with whom she received 2022 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre. www.LipicaShah.com