John Guerra’s ROOM BY THE SEA to be Presented at Outside In Theatre

When does protection become a form of confinement? Room by the Sea, a new play by John Guerra and directed by Brian Hashimoto, runs February 14 through March 10, at Outside In Theatre, in co-production with Coin & Ghost and After Hours Theatre Company. The play centers on a disabled teenager in a wheelchair and his father living under a ruler who trades safety for obedience, and examines how care, fear, and power shape the lives of those caught inside that system.

At the center of the play is a disabled teenager who uses a wheelchair and wants control over his own life. He lives with his father, an immigrant architect, under a ruler who ties safety to obedience. When the father is asked to design a sealed environment meant to contain someone deemed dangerous, his work pulls him deeper into a system that defines care through control. As the son pushes toward independence, the father becomes increasingly bound to the logic of containment. Alongside them, the ruler's daughter observes the effects of isolation, secrecy, and inherited fear.

Room by the Sea examines when love and protection begin to feel restrictive. The play asks how much control can exist inside care, and how fear shapes decisions made in the name of safety. Architecture and space function as tools of governance, shaping who is allowed to move freely and who is confined for the comfort of others.

The cast includes Carene Rose Mekertichyan, Bruce A. Lemon Jr., Cole Massie, and Robert Paterno, with Tom Lucein, and Gerald Isaac Waters serving as understudies.