Arena Stage set for A Good Day To Me Not To You
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announced the cast and creative team for A Good Day to Me Not to You. Written by Drama Desk Award-winning actor Lameece Issaq (The Public Theater’s Stuff Happens) and directed by two-time Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans (Signature Theatre’s Oratorio for Living Things), this deeply human and riotously funny one-woman show “opts for all-out vulnerability, dissecting the psyche as if the stage were an operating table” (The New York Times). A Good Day to Me Not to You will run March 27 – May 3, 2026, in Arena’s Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.
“What drew me to Lameece Issaq’s writing is its fearless honesty,” said Arena Stage Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif. “In A Good Day to Me Not to You, she explores the moment when the life we imagined for ourselves suddenly falls away, and we’re forced to begin again. I was compelled by the way this play holds space for both laughter and heartbreak, inviting audiences to sit with the messy, unexpected paths our lives can take—and to recognize the resilience it takes to start over.”
A Good Day to Me Not to You centers the unpredictable, topsy-turvy life of a 40-something dental lab tech whose life detonates when she gets fired and is forced to move into a rooming house headed by nuns. Amidst fending off her unhinged and sometimes deranged cohabitants, she wrestles with her unfulfilled path to motherhood and the lingering grief of her younger sister’s untimely death. Wildly candid and darkly comic, A Good Day to Me Not to You is about chasing dreams, dodging disasters, and surviving whatever the world throws your way. The play’s world premiere was produced by Waterwell in 2023, directed by Evans and starring Issaq. The Arena staging of the Waterwell production will be led by Constance Zaytoun (Hulu’s Saint X) as the Narrator, with Leila Buck (Mosaic Theater’s Hkeelee) serving as understudy.
“What an absolute joy to bring A Good Day to Arena and DC audiences,” shared Issaq. “I’m so moved by the dedication to this piece, and having our design team back in full force alongside Lee and the terrific new members of our creative team, is thrilling. I’m excited to pass the acting torch to the powerhouse that is Constance Zaytoun and for folks to experience her wit and gorgeous honesty. Though this play is entirely fictional, I wrote it while grappling with my own questions about the timeline of motherhood and the grief, hope, and unpredictability of such a journey at middle age.”
Working alongside Evans to bring this visionary work to life, the creative team for A Good Day to Me Not to You includes set designer Peiyi Wong (Classic Stage/NAATCO/Transport Group’s Bus Stop), costume designer Jian Jung (Second Stage’s Meat Suit), lighting designer Mextly Couzin (Broadway’s Job), and sound designer Avi Amon (Perelman PAC’s The Following Evening). Casting is by Raiyon Hunter, CSA. The stage manager for this production is Kate Kilbane.