(New York, NY) Wednesday, July 9th, 2025 – Playwright Rishi Varma has officially announced the cast for his highly anticipated eco-gothic drama, Sulfur Bottom, which is set to grace the stage at The Jerry Orbach Theater. This powerful production explores environmental collapse through a family’s perspective over four decades. The cast features talented performers Kendyl Davis, Kevin Richard Best, Joyah Dominique, Eric Easter, Feyisola Soetan, and Isaiah Joseph, each bringing their unique skills to this powerful narrative.
Sulfur Bottom will premiere at The Jerry Orbach Theater, located at The Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street. Previews are scheduled for Wednesday, August 13th and Sunday, August 16th, leading up to the official opening night on August 20th. Performances will take place on Wednesdays at 7:30 PM and Saturdays at 1 PM, allowing audiences to engage with this vital story of survival and resilience.
Bold, surreal, and emotionally raw, Sulfur Bottom is a new eco-gothic drama that explores the quiet devastation of environmental collapse through the eyes of one family over 40 years. Set within a decaying home on the edge of industrial sprawl, the play transforms the slow violence of pollution into something both intimate and unsettling. It reveals the profound impact of environmental neglect on personal relationships and the struggle to hold onto love and memory in a changing world.
Rishi Varma’s inspiration for Sulfur Bottom stems from a deep contemplation of what it means to stay in a place that one loves, even when it feels increasingly unhealthy. This exploration of theatrical absurdity offers a striking meditation on legacy, denial, and survival in a poisoned world, resonating with contemporary audiences facing environmental crises. Varma’s work challenges viewers to reflect on their own connections to home and the planet, making it a
timely and essential piece of theater.
The cast of Sulfur Bottom brings together a talented group of young actors, including Kendyl Davis, who portrays the central character, searching for a way out of the toxic landscape, Kevin Richard Best, the fumbling patriarch trying to cement his legacy, and Joyah Dominique, the no-filter tornado of energy who struggles to find her own footing. Feyisola Soetan, Eric Easter, and Isaiah Joseph complete the cast, delivering a compelling portrait of family and environmental struggle in this evocative new work.
For tickets to Sulfur Bottom, please click HERE
As the anticipation builds for the debut of Sulfur Bottom, audiences can prepare for an experience that is not just a theatrical performance, but a catalyst for conversation about the environment and its impact on our lives. In the words of Rishi Varma, “The climate crisis doesn’t always arrive with a bang. Sometimes it leaks, drips, accumulates. Sulfur Bottom is about what it means to live in that slow accumulation of poison, of memory, of silence… and how we find ways to keep living inside it.”
For more information on Sulfur Bottom, please visit www.sulfurbottom.com
Rishi Varma writes at the crossroads of comedy and drama, often veering completely into the surreal and absurd. A playwright, screenwriter, actor, and producer based in New York City, whose work has appeared at Theaterlab and Urban Stages. Rishi studied playwriting at Northwestern University, where he led a full production and writer’s room before moving to NYC to become an actor-writer (very original!). His writing mixes humor and heart to dig into the weirdness of how people behave. And sometimes, it can get very weird. Outside of writing and acting, Rishi teaches SCUBA diving in the city (yes, really). He also shares life’s daily drama with his dog, a steadfast companion who remains unimpressed by résumés or curtain calls.
For more information on Rishi, please visit www.rishivarma.com and check out his instagram: @sirrishi
Megumi NakamuraMegumi Nakamura (they/she) is a Brooklyn-based director and actor who hails from San Francisco, CA. Most recently, Megumi directed the world premiere of Isaiah Stavchansky’s Anne Frank in Mt. Vernon, OH at JACK in Brooklyn. This summer, they are set to direct the regional premiere of their original musical The Twelfth Night Show co-written with Jacob Brandt at Weston Theater Co. in Vermont. Megumi has served as the resident Associate Director of the Lyrics & Lyricists series for their 2022-2025 seasons where they have worked on over ten productions with an array of award-winning directors. As an actor, Megumi most recently appeared on Broadway in Amy Herzog’s Mary Jane at Manhattan Theater Club.
Kendyl Grace Davis (she/her) is an actress and creator from the East Coast and a 2025 BFA Musical Theatre graduate of Western Connecticut State University. She’s a CT Critics Circle and BroadwayWorld nominee for Hysterical! (ThrownStone) and The Prom (Playhouse on Park). Other credits include Photosynthesis, The Carol of the Bells (Goodspeed), Fairview, Bat Boy, and The Crucible (WestRep Stage). She made her film debut in 2024 as Destiny in Midas (STARZ). Represented by Foundation Media Partners and The Osbrink Agency. @kendylgracedavis | www.kendylgracedavis.com
Kevin Richard Best Kevin Richard Best is a 1st generation Guyanese- American actor from New York. The artistic seed was planted when he saw his older sister in a school play. called “Smagniola Spoils the Drop”. At a young age he would always impersonate movie characters for family and friends. His acting journey started at Hofstra University when he would get his Bachelor in Arts. Just like his favorite actor Denzel Washington, he followed in his footsteps by starting with theatre. Kevin won Best Dramatic Male writer for a short film he starred in titled Wounds. Most recently, he has filmed two feature films ” Shattered Silence” and “As Good As Dead”. Both feature films will be available on streaming networks in the fall. When he is not acting, Kevin enjoys reading books that challenge the mind, writing, and spending time with family. He is excited to return to his first love, theatre, with this wonderful cast and crew.
Joyah Dominique (JD, they/them, She/Her) – Joyah is thrilled to be joining this delightful band of artists for such a poignant show. JD is a New York based performer, baker, and educator who started her journey in the mean streets of rural Pennsylvania before meandering over to Philly to study at the since shuttered University of the Arts and the ever prevailing National Music Theater Institute. Some previous credits include; Fable in House of Telescopes (Pipeline) Nurse Kathy in the Elementary Spacetime Show (Powerhouse/NYSAF), Sattie Douglas in The Civility of Albert Cashier (Players Theater), and her solo cabaret It Takes One (Philadelphia Fringe). Thank you to all the moms, tias, and aunties for getting her here. Follow her everywhere, her social media is @ButJDisBetter.
Eric Easter – On a random Tuesday during a lunch break in the first grade, a representative from The Washington Ballet gave Eric Easter’s class an impromptu lesson, and that moment changed his life. He would go on to join the young company, and at the age of 8, would fall in love with the mysticism that is the performing arts. While his dreams of being a ballerino long ago subsided when he realized he was incapable of doing full splits, the passion for performance has stuck with him. Eric Easter is an actor, writer, and director from Washington D.C. and he has recently received his BFA in acting from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Through NYU, he has had the pleasure of playing Florizel in The Winter’s Tale and Duke of York in Richard II at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Peter in An Enemy of the People, Mike in A Lie of the Mind, and Hunter in NYU Tisch MainStage’s production of The Duck. Sulfur Bottom will be his Off-Broadway debut and he is beyond excited to be working on it with this cast and team!
Feyisola Soetan is an actor-writer from Brooklyn, NY. Her love of storytelling blossomed in primary school with drama class and poetry class. Soon after, the stage and the page became fun modes of expression for her. Fey spends her spare time doing yoga, reading fantasy novels, and playing with her cats. Her recent performance credits include starring as the lead role in Christmas feature film, Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza, and appearing as a supporting character in the anthology sci-fi TV series, Shatter Belt. Her voiceover credits include a radio play called Rapunzel Alone, for which she played the titular role. Her stage credits include Processing… with Theatre East, Eclipsed with the McCarter Theatre, Spring on Fire with Princeton University, and Zoyka’s Apartment with the McCarter Theatre. Her playwriting credits include A Spectrum Unspoken with Princeton University, for which she was awarded the Suzanne M. Huffman Memorial Prize in honor of her gender studies-based research.
Isaiah Joseph is an actor local to New York City, represented by Dream Maker Talent Management and Crystal Ship Artists. Although he never had professional training, his hustle and hard work has allowed him to land many roles including in New York Homicide on Oxygen, to Zooman and the Sign Off-Broadway, to Searching for Willie Lynch Off-Broadway, to As Good As Dead feature film, and many more. He credits his faith and hard work for allowing him to make it this far.
