Wambui Bahati - 70 Years and Beyond

A Fun, Nostalgic Trip from the 1950s to Today

Wambui Bahati walks onstage carrying a small vintage suitcase—and inside it is more than seventy years of memories.

One by one, familiar objects emerge: a No. 2 pencil, a report card, white gloves, a recipe card, a rotary telephone, a 45 record, and even the television remote control children once had to become. Each object opens the door to another lively scene as Wambui transforms into the teachers, mothers, teenagers, gas-station attendants, television announcers, and unforgettable characters who helped shape everyday life from the 1950s to today.

This is not a lecture. It is a warm, funny, highly interactive theatrical experience in which the audience becomes part of the show—calling out favorite songs, remembering family cars, comparing Sunday dinners, revisiting television programs, and sharing ordinary childhood memories that should never be forgotten.

With humor, music, storytelling, character work, and audience participation, Broadway veteran Wambui Bahati celebrates how much the world has changed without pretending everything was better in the past. The result is an experience filled with laughter, recognition, conversation, and connection across generations.

Available in flexible 45-, 60-, and 75-minute formats, 70 Years and Beyond is ideal for conferences, association events, senior and active-aging audiences, community celebrations, libraries, cultural organizations, and intergenerational programs.

The audience doesn’t simply watch the journey. They help unpack the suitcase.

Wambui Bahati was born John Ann Washington in North Carolina. She chose her name later, on purpose. In Swahili, Wambui means "singer of songs." Bahati means "my fortune is good."

She has been performing for fifty years. She trained at the New York University School of the Arts, made her professional debut in Godspell at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and went on to star on Broadway in Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. Her touring and regional credits include The Wiz, The Magic Show, Nunsense, Crowns, Little Ham, Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope, and Joseph Papp's rock version of Two Gentlemen of Verona.

She has also been on welfare. She has been homeless. She was told she would spend the rest of her life in mental institutions. She has dined with a former President of the United States. She says all of that plainly, because all of it is true, and because it is the reason her work lands the way it does.

She wrote, produced and starred in two award-winning one-woman musicals — Balancing Act, about surviving severe bipolar disorder, and I Am Domestic Violence, in which she plays seven characters using nothing but a rack of coats. Balancing Act toured ten cities under a grant from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and earned her the Lionel Aldridge Award, a national honor for extraordinary service on behalf of people with mental illness. After a performance of I Am Domestic Violence, one college reported an increase in student counseling appointments.

Awards and commissions: The Lionel Aldridge Award. The Woman of Achievement Award, Greensboro Commission on the Status of Women. The Belle Ringer Image Award, Bennett College. Custom presentations commissioned by The Carter Center, the National Organization for Women, and Habitat for Humanity. She has performed across the United States, Canada, and Australia.

She is the author of You Don't Know Crazy, a memoir of life before, during, and after mental illness, and Peace and Joy in Our Hearts, a children's Christmas book about courage and finding your voice.

AUDIO
* One professional wireless headset microphone (preferred), or a high-quality wireless lavalier. This is a moving performance — hands must be free.
* One onstage monitor (wedge) facing the stage so Wambui can hear her vocal levels.
VISUAL
* Projector and screen, sized to the room.
* One wireless slide advancer.
Wambui travels nationwide and is happy to talk through anything unusual about your venue.