CTC Announces the Cast of I COME FROM ARIZONA

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) is proud to announce the cast for the world premiere production of I Come From Arizona, running October 9 through November 25, 2018, written by Carlos Murillo and directed by Lisa Portes. The cast includes Ayssette Muñoz as Gabi, Ricardo Vázquez as Reymundo, Nora Montañez as Dolores, Sha Cage as Ms. Chan, Luca La Hoz Calassara as Jesús, Madison Neal as Fiona, Antonio De La Vega as Ricardo and Ananda Cordova Stuart, Enzo La Hoz, and Sara Magnuson in the ensemble.

Gabi Castillo, a bright, 14-year-old Mexican-American girl living on the South Side of Chicago, is accepted into a very different, elite high school. Through her Global Perspectives class, she learns secrets about her past and her parents, discovers her own inherited strength, and begins to understand what it means to take risks. In today's world of immigration raids and Dreamers, fear and uncertainty, Gabi inspires a modern-day lesson in bravery, courage, and finding power in what seems like a powerless situation.

"It seems nearly every day now we hear stories of ICE picking up folks-fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles-and deporting them back to their country of origin," stated Director Lisa Portes. "Just the other day I heard a story on NPR about a mother holed up in a sanctuary church, getting her kids ready for school, and walking them to the door of the church, unable to step outside for fear of the ICE agents waiting outside. The kids don't fully understand what's happening. I Come From Arizona tells the story of a U.S. born Mexican-American teenager coming to understand exactly what's happening. Gabi Castillo, like so many American schoolkids, must face the complexities of immigration in this country and how they directly affect her, her little brother, Jesús, and her parents, Reymundo, and Dolores."

"I Come From Arizona is a play written by Carlos Murillo who began this project a number of years ago by interviewing people in the Latino community of Chicago," states Artistic Director Peter C. Brosius. "He was very interested in where the question of immigration in this nation was sitting with them. Out of these interviews came this story of an extremely intelligent young woman who has been accepted into a school for the best and brightest of Chicago, which means leaving the comfort and safety of her neighborhood school, to one where she may be one of the few, if any, Latinos from the Southside. This causes all kinds of tension in her family for reasons she doesn't fully understand. We learn that it has to do with the secret immigration status of her family. This play throws us right into the middle of the debate that is currently wrenching our nation. And we see it all through the lives of these kids who are wrestling with a terribly uncertain future over which they have no control. It's a lyrical, moving, quite funny piece that provokes us and challenges us to see this complex situation with new eyes."

THEMES: Immigration (legal, illegal, and undocumented terminology utilized); citizenship; school transitions; global perspectives; prejudice; micro-aggressions; empathy; family dynamics; current events; Mexican folktales and culture; politics; bi-lingual in English and Spanish.

To post a comment, you must register and login.