NewWorks Theatre announces an executive producing collaboration between singer, reality star, entrepreneur and actress, Drew Sidora and acclaimed playwright, director and producer Joel PE King for the two-day Atlanta presentation of EXPOSED, at Sewell Mill Cultural Center in Marietta, Georgia, October 29 and 30, 2026, at 7:00 PM.

EXPOSED is an intimate drama about the fault lines inside family, love and manhood. At its center, a man is forced to confront the distance between the life he has built against the truths he has avoided. As the people closest to him demand honesty, old wounds surface and relationships are tested in ways that make silence impossible. The play moves between confrontation, vulnerability and dark humor while examining how trauma can be inherited, hidden and repeated. Rather than treating truth as a simple revelation, EXPOSED explores what comes after: accountability, forgiveness, choice and the difficult work of becoming whole.

Written and directed by King, the play centers on relationships under pressure as private wounds, family expectations and long-held truths collide. The story asks what happens when the versions of ourselves we protect can no longer survive what has finally been revealed.

When asked about her role as Executive Producer, Sidora says, “I’m really excited for people to come check out this show. Many people that know me also know that mental health is a topic very near and dear to my heart. Throughout the play’s storyline audience members are going to be taken on a journey to exploring just how truly important it is to take one’s own mental health journey seriously.”

When asked about the inspiration behind producing EXPOSED, King says, “I wrote this play specifically for our black men. Far too many of us feel that the topic of ‘mental health’ only applies to people dealing with extreme circumstances. However, I wanted to use this play as a conduit to show the various scenarios where every day people encounter generational traumas. These traumas carry a lasting effect on the people we ultimately become as adults and have influence on the next generation.  Do yourself a favor grab a ticket for yourself and someone else because this conversation is one that you won’t want to miss.”

CORE THEMES

• Identity and Self-Discovery — Confronting who we are beneath the image we present.
• Black Masculinity — Examining expectations of manhood and the pressure to appear strong.
• Mental Health and Vulnerability — Breaking emotional silence and finding the courage to seek support.
• Generational Trauma — Recognizing how unresolved pain passes through families.
• Family Dynamics — Navigating expectations, loyalty, and complicated family bonds.
• Love and Intimacy — Exploring how hidden truths affect connection and trust.
• Secrets and Revelation — Facing what happens when private truths become unavoidable.
• Accountability — Owning harmful choices and their impact on others.
• Forgiveness — Considering what it takes to forgive others and ourselves.
• Healing and Transformation — Breaking destructive patterns and choosing a different future.
• Resilience: The Rose That Grew from Concrete — Tupac’s metaphor offers a powerful way to understand the emotional journey in EXPOSED. The concrete represents unresolved trauma, family expectations, emotional silence and the pressure to maintain an image of strength. The rose represents the person still capable of growing within those conditions.

At the center of EXPOSED is a man forced to confront truths he has avoided. His relationships expose old wounds and the ways those wounds influence his choices. Like a rose pushing through a crack, his growth requires vulnerability: acknowledging pain, accepting responsibility and allowing himself to be seen.

The metaphor also raises an essential question for the play: Can we recognize someone’s struggle while still holding them accountable for the harm they cause? Understanding where a person comes from creates compassion; becoming whole requires deciding what they will carry forward.

EXPOSED invites us to see the possibility of growth—even when the conditions that shaped us made that growth difficult.

Tickets are now available at JPEK.ORG

ABOUT JOEL PE KING

Joel P.E. King, known professionally as JPEK, brings the instincts of an actor, the vision of a director and the language of a poet to an artistic career spanning theatre, screen, music, literature and education. Originally from the St. Louis region and based in Atlanta, King creates work that entertains while asking audiences to confront the complexities of family, identity, faith, grief, love and responsibility.

As founder of JPEK CreativeWorks Theatre and NewWorks Theatre, he has built platforms for original storytelling, artistic collaboration, and emerging performers. Since founding JPEK CreativeWorks in 2006, King has developed a body of work that reflects both his versatility and his commitment to stories rooted in human experience.

His plays include Exposed, A Mother’s Cry, Meeting at the Elder’s Circle, Stand Your Ground, and A Deeper Shade of Blues. He is also the co-writer of Respect My Shoes. Across these works, humor, emotional intensity, lyrical language and cultural observation become tools for exploring what people carry and what it takes to move forward.

ABOUT DREW SIDORA

Drew Sidora is an American Television and Film actress, producer, entrepreneur, singer and philanthropist best known for her recurring role as Chantel in the Disney Channel Original Series That’s So Raven, also as Lucy Avila in the movie Steo Up with R&B singer Mario, Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum and starred as Tionne Watkins aka T-Boz in the VH1 TLC biographical film CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story. She is also known for portraying a fictionalized version of herself on the BET comedy-drama television series The Game.

Drew Sidora was born in Chicago, Illinois. She completed numerous print ads, National Voiceovers, industrial films and was the youngest member of the “Hook Players Theater Ensemble” in Hollywood, California, with residence at the Richard Pryor Theater. At age 9, she appeared in the Fox TV movie DIVAS, acting alongside Khalil Kain, LisaNicole Carson and Nicole Ari Parker. Besides her acting roles, Drew also served as producer on the film BLESSED AND CURSED, starring alongside Deitrick Haddon and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Sidora has guest starred on the television hit series GIRLFRIENDS, WITHOUT A TRACE and WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU with Amanda Bynes, and in feature films: WHITE CHICKS, NEVER DIE ALONE and PREACHERS SON which is an adaptation of TheNewYorkTimes Bestselling novel by Chris Weber. The film stars actor Christian Keyes with the sequel titled THE CHOIR DIRECTOR.

ABOUT NEWWORKS THEATRE

NewWorks Theatre is an Atlanta-based theatre company dedicated to original, conscious and multicultural storytelling. Its work develops new theatrical content and creates space for stories that engage audiences through entertainment, reflection and conversation.

ABOUT JPEK CREATIVEWORKS

Founded by Joel PE King, JPEK CreativeWorks Theatre has produced original and multicultural theatrical work for two decades, building a body of projects that spans plays, musicals, performance pieces and community-centered arts experiences.