Ground Floor Theatre(Austin) Presents THERE AND BACK At Teatro Paraguas

Teatro Paraguas partners with Austin, Texas' Ground Floor Theatre to present the New Mexico premiere of There and Back, a play by Raul Garza. The show opens on Thursday, November 8, running for two weekends at Teatro Paraguas with performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m, and a Sunday matinee November 11 at 2:00pm. Tickets are $10-$20 sliding scale. Tickets are available online at thereandback.brownpapertickets.com, or by making a reservation at 505-424-1601. Teatro Paraguas is located at 3205 Calle Marie in Santa Fe.

There and Back is a riveting play that presents the human face of Mexican immigration - a topic very timely for Santa Feans. The play defines the tipping-point of injustice to immigrants mandated by the Trump presidency and offers a human voice to narrate the long American journey there.

In There and Back, a young woman travels from Mexico to join her husband on a migrant farmworkers' camp. Her arrival on President John F. Kennedy's inauguration day reveals stark contrasts between the American dream and her reality. A series of visits by a liberated Virgen de Guadalupe offers a glimpse of her future, and presents a life-altering choice: stay in the United States as a member of the underclass, or abandon her dream of immigration to claim dignity and fulfillment. Ground Floor Theatre recently staged There and Back's world premiere in Austin to great critical acclaim.

Playwright Raul Garza returns Teatro Paraguas, where he staged Confessions of a Mexpatriate. His full-length play Fantasmaville received the National Latino Playwriting Award. His plays have been presented at Primary Stages Theatre in New York City, The Austin Latinx New Play Festival, Los Angeles Theatre Center, and the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

Ground Floor Theatre co-director Patti Neff-Tiven directs There and Back, with a cast that includes Karina Dominguez (The Leftovers) as Gloria, Mical Trejo (Confessions of a Mexpatriate, Latino Comedy Project) and Giselle Marie Muñoz (Producer, Maenad Films) as Guadalupe.

This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% Lodgers' Tax.