[4] Josh Wilder continued to study theatre at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts and went on to attend Carnegie Mellon for acting and playwriting at Yale.
The play was developed for The Kennedy Center's Theatre for Youth Audiences program and draws from Wilder's memories of block parties in Point Breeze growing up.
[6] Embracing magical-realism, Leftovers follows two teenage brothers, Jalil and Kwamaine, who are raised by a single mother, Raquelle, in South Philadelphia.
Wilder weaves in the real-world social ramifications of Bill Cosby’s sexual-abuse accusations and what the news meant for African Americans.
[9] In an interview with Portland Shakes, Josh Wilder revealed that as a Black adolescent growing up in his neighborhood, he saw first hand the conflict between the pursuit of following dreams and the limitations of the world around him.