New audio drama, runboyrun, launches today

Next Chapter Podcasts, GBH, the Boston Public Library, and The Huntington announce the release of runboyrun, the powerful drama written by playwright Mfoniso Udofia, which is set to premiere on June 16, 2025. The third play in Boston’s nine-play Ufot Family Cycle, runboyrun tells the story of a married couple grappling with the lingering trauma of surviving the Nigerian Civil War. The play was recorded and made available as a podcast in partnership with Boston Public Library, GBH, The Huntington, and Next Chapter Podcasts.

Jumping between chilly 2012 Worcester, MA and hot 1968 Biafra, Mfoniso Udofia’s runboyrun asks what happens when a long-ago war continues inside the body of a survivor. Every day, Disciple lives in the echoes of the Biafran War, fracturing his connection to his wife Abasiama. The survival of their 30-year marriage depends on building new vocabularies, breaking traditions built on trauma — and daring, once again, to live moment by moment.

The cast is led by playwright Mfoniso Udofia as family matriarch Abasiama Ufot, and acclaimed actor Chiké Johnson as the family patriarch with persistent ghosts, Disciple Ufot. This production marks the first time Udofia is taking on a role in her own Boston’s Ufot Family Cycle. Johnson’s casting marks his return to the role of Disciple after his previous performance in runboyrun at New York Theatre Workshop.

The audio drama was recorded in GBH’s state-of-the-art recording space. runboyrun is the third play in the Ufot Family Cycle, a cycle of nine plays about three generations of a Nigerian American family by Massachusetts-raised, visionary playwright Udofia.

runboyrun is the only podcast adaptation in Boston’s Ufot Family Cycle and, as such, has the exciting ability to transcend borders and reach listeners well beyond the Greater Boston audiences that have so far gotten to know the Ufot family through Mfoniso’s extraordinary nine-part story so far. Every installment stands alone, but together make up a multifaceted tapestry. The Cycle is marked by radical collaboration with an unprecedented scale and scope across Boston. After two years of planning and leadership from The Huntington, all nine of the Ufot Family Cycle plays by Mfoniso Udofia are being produced in their intended order in Greater Boston by 35+ partners over two seasons. The Boston Globe has lauded Udofia’s Cycle saying, “In terms of concept, scope, and execution, Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-play cycle about three generations of a Nigerian American family has proven to be one of the most exciting things to happen in Boston theatre in a long time.”

Udofia is a first-generation Nigerian American storyteller and educator, attended Wellesley College and obtained her MFA from the American Conservatory Theater (ACT). While at ACT, she co-pioneered The Nia Project which provided artistic outlets for San Francisco youth. Since 2018, Mfoniso has been working extensively in television; she has worked on such acclaimed shows as 13 Reasons Why on Netflix, A League of Their Own on Amazon, Let the Right One In on Showtime, and Pachinko (Peabody Award), Little America, and Lessons in Chemistry (WGA Nomination) all on Apple TV+. She also has developed films for HBO, Legendary, and Amazon.

“Mfoniso Udofia’s storytelling genius should be experienced by as many people as possible and in as many mediums as possible,” says Chief Content Officer at Next Chapter Podcasts, Michael Goodfriend. “It’s a privilege for Next Chapter to be working with Mfoniso on runboyrun, building on the fruitful collaboration we shared in the award-winning podcast adaptation of her Othello translation for Play On Shakespeare. Mfoniso challenges us to perceive our reality in new ways and reminds us of what it is to be human, in all our complexity, promise and fallibility. We are honored to help realize runboyrun as an audio production alongside all of the incredible producing and organizational partners who are helping to bring Mfoniso’s groundbreaking Ufot Family Cycle to life.”

runboyrun is in the Play On Podcasts feed.