This nation was built by immigrants, but you would never know it from the political brouhaha that has arisen from the current border crisis over the issue of immigration.
Refuge, the saga of a young Honduran girl’s harrowing journey crossing our southern border into the inhospitable, barren land of Texas, completes Florida Atlantic University Theatre Lab’s season of world premieres. It opened Saturday and runs through April 23.
The project began four years ago, when Indigenous Mexican-American composer-playwright Satya Chavez and her co-author Andrew Rosendorf were commissioned by Denver’s Curious Theatre to write a border story.
“So Andrew and I, along with the artistic director of Curious Theatre, Chip Walton, took a trip down to the border,” says Chavez. “And we came back feeling really empowered to tell the story of not just migrants and immigrants but also the nuance of border patrol agents, the nuance of people who live in these bordering towns.”
What eventually emerged was a play with music, populated with puppets and told bilingually, alternating between English and Spanish.
Theatre Lab became involved when artistic director Matt Stabile saw an early script and was enthusiastic about the play’s potential. “I read a draft before there was much music at all in it,” he explains. After learning of the authors plans to add original songs and underscoring, Stabile invited Chavez and Rosendorf to test the material at the company’s 2020 New Play Festival.
The audience responded well to Refuge, even though many theatergoers became lost when the dialogue was in Spanish. Still, Theatre Lab signed on with two other members of the National New Play Network – Curious Theatre and Kansas City’s Unicorn Theatre – to each produce the play in what the network calls a “rolling world premiere.”
Those productions might have happened a couple of seasons ago, but COVID intervened.
Michael Gioia, who has appeared in such Theatre Lab shows as Harlowe and Most Wanted, participated in the 2020 reading, playing a border patrol agent known simply as The Rancher. As he recalls, “It was much more scene. song, scene, song, as opposed to the fully integrated piece that we’re doing now. The ensemble is new. They didn’t exist as far as I remember.”
New to the cast since the festival reading is Nathalie Andrade, who plays a character known only as The Girl, an immigrant seeking a new life in the States. “From the small pieces of the script I got for the audition, I could tell this would be something special,” she says. “As a Latina, as a first generation Peruvian-American, it just resonated with me. Especially the bilingual component, being able to use my Spanish as a professional actress, I was drawn to the material immediately.”
In her introductory script notes, Chavez insists that there be no surtitles translating the Spanish. If that leaves some theatergoers in the dark, that is part of the point,
“If you’re feeling lost, relax, hold on, you’ll get there eventually,” insists Chavez. “Also, it you’re feeling lost, you’re feeling equally as lost as one of the characters in the show is feeling. Each character has to kind of figure out what the other person is saying. These are real people who don’t understand each other. And it also sort of forces us to empathize with an immigrant coming into a country and not understanding the language.”
“There’s a moment near the beginning of the play where the information is delivered in Spanish,” notes Stabile. “So anybody who is a Spanish speaker understands this one element of the show 15 minutes into the play. But when it gets revealed later, which is an equally important moment, it gets revealed in English, so the English speakers go, ‘Oh, that’s what that is,’ but the Spanish speakers are going,
‘What are they saying right now?’ It happens on both sides.
“So it’s not just a play for English-speaking audiences that has some Spanish in it. It’s actually a play for multilingual audiences that will have different access points throughout the play. You will get all the information you need to get, you just won’t get it at the same time. Which is what’s happening to all the characters too.”
For instance, The Rancher knows no Spanish and The Girl knows no English, yet they must communicate. “It’s something the audience can empathize with,” says Gioia. “It gives the audience permission to go, ‘Oh, I don’t have to get everything. I just need to get the gist of what’s going on.’ We’re teaching the audience that it’s OK to not get every single verb and adverb and adjective. The story is what’s important.”
“I’ll just add that as a performer who is also bilingual, it adds a layer of authenticity,” says Andrade. “I guarantee you’ll understand the emotions behind what we’re saying, even if not the exact words.”
Although the situation at the border is politically charged, Refuge consciously avoids a political debate. “I think we very intentionally approached this play separate from politics, and were more focused on the personal experiences of each of these characters,” says Chavez.
“It really asks, ‘What are you willing to do to help another person?’” offers Stabile. “It’s not saying ‘Are we getting this right policy-wise? Are we getting this right politically?’ It’s saying, ‘Are we getting this right as human beings?’ They’re not asking ‘Which side of the aisle do I want to yell from on this topic?’”
Even if you have been following the immigration issue closely, Andrade feels certain you will find Refuge eye-opening. “It is something you’re going to learn something from,” she says. “You’re going to learn something about yourself from seeing this play. Love it or hate it, you are going to walk away talking about it.”
REFUGE, FAU Theatre Lab, Parliament Hall, Florida Atlantic University campus, Boca Raton. Now playing through Sunday, April 23. $35-$45. 561-297-2124.