New Play I WAS A STRANGER TOO Highlights Hope Amid Danger In Asylum System

Asylum seekers and refugee needs in the U.S. and around the world fill the news. But what can one person do?

'I Was A Stranger Too,' a new play by Cynthia L. Cooper and directed by Carolyn Levy, tells the stories of people who are seeking asylum and those who help them. The play will have four performances, Jan 26 -29, at The Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center) in St. Paul.

Drawn from dozens of interviews, 'I Was A Stranger Too,' is set in Minnesota, where refugee resettlement is among the nation's highest per capita. The play follows a woman who, propelled by the memory of her mother's rescue from the Holocaust, is drawn to help asylum seekers. In unfolding monologues, she encounters a rich mosaic of people who are fleeing persecution, anti-LGBTI violence, civil strife and other threats, and individuals determined to welcome them.

"The play takes audience members beyond stereotypes to the power and capacity of the human spirit, sharing the hopes that can emerge from a single act of caring," said Carolyn Levy, director.

Featured in the play are Bethmari Márquez Barreto, Kirby Bennett, Nicole Frethem, Mahmoud Hakima, Megan Kim, Jasmine Porter, Shona Ramchandani, Abigail Ramsay, and Phasoua Vang; Karina Hunt is the Production Manager and music is by Leslie Steinweiss.

Carolyn Levy, director, is a former professor of theatre at Hamline University, where she founded a Social Justice Theatre program. She has worked at Theatre Unbound, Park Square, Penumbra Theatre Summer Institute and the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company.

Playwright Cynthia L. Cooper is a two-time Jerome fellow at the Playwrights Center. An award-winning playwright with productions off-Broadway and across the country and plays in 17 volumes, Cooper lives and is active in the theater in New York.

'I Was A Stranger Too' was selected as a finalist in the Jewish Plays Project, for the Trish Vrandenberg Prize, a semi-finalist at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and is a grant recipient of Rimon (Minnesota Jewish Arts Council), and the Alliance of Jewish Theatres.

Performances will be Thursday January 26 and Friday January 27 at 7 pm, Saturday January 28 and Sunday January 29 at 2 pm at the Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center), 179 Robie Street East in St. Paul. Tickets are pay what you wish (suggested $10).

Performances will be followed by talk backs with experts and community activists in the field.

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