“Arizona: No Roosters in the Desert” (play at Zuzi’s Theater about undocumented immigrant women)
by Carolyn Classen on Oct. 07, 2010, under Arts, Life, Politics
Information on show dates/ticket prices from Tucson Peace Calendar website (with some additions/corrections by me):
“No Roosters in the Desert” at Zuzi! Theater, 738 N. 5th Avenue in Tucson, Arizona
A New Play Commissioned by Borderlands Theater by Playwright Kara Hartzler (immigrant attorney/legal director of Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project)
Directed by Barclay Goldsmith
Winner of the Edgerton Foundation American New Play Award and the NEA Access to Excellence!
October 7-24, 2010
Rolling World Premiere sponsored by National New Play Network: Mexico City, Tucson and Chicago
In this riveting play-based on actual interviews by Anna Ochoa O’Leary-four women trek the desert towards the American dream. On their way they push the limits of their physical and emotional endurance, and they establish profound yet fragile connections with each other through the magical storytelling of the youngest of them, an indigenous woman from Chiapas.
Featuring Annabelle Nunez, Anel Schmidt, Eva Zorilla Tessler, and Veronica del Cerro
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE/TICKET INFORMATION:
SUPPORT HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS
AND PURCHASE TICKETS THROUGH DERECHOS HUMANOS
@ 520-770-1373 OR EMAIL CRUZ AT CRUZ@DERECHOSHUMANOSAZ.NET
Preview Performance: October 7, 7:30pm
$17 General, $15 Senior, $10.75 Student
Opening Night Celebración: October 8, 7:30pm
$22 General, Senior and Student
Opening Night Celebración includes postres plus meet and greet the playwright and actors.
Regular Performances: October 9, 15, 16, 22 & 23, 7:30pm &
Sunday Matinees: October 10, 17 & 24, 2 p.m.
$19.75 General, $17.75 Senior, $10.75 Student
Tickets can also be purchased through Borderlands Theater, 40 W. Broadway
RESERVATIONS:
(520) 882-7406 or www.borderlandstheater.org
(For group sales or to arrange accommodations for patrons with disabilities please contact the Box Office.)
Sponsors:
National Endowment for the Arts
Arizona Commission on the Arts
Tucson Pima Arts Council/Kresge Art in Tucson
Dana Foundation
Edgerton Foundation for New American Plays
Lark Play Development Center
National New Play Network (NNPN Rolling World Premiere)
The Smith Prize
University of Arizona College of Humanities
University of Arizona Binational Migration Institute
I first read about this play in ARIZONA Alumnus Magazine (Fall 2010 issue) in an article by Margaret Regan who writes (page 32) that “the four fictional women in the play are going it alone in the desert after becoming separated from the rest of the group. They bond and tell stories and swear they’ll stick together, but when one is injured, the other three are suddenly faced with a moral dilemmma”, which becomes the central drama of the play.
Dr. Anna Ochoa O’Leary wrote a research study entitled “Women at the Intersection: Immigrant Enforcement and Transnational Migration on the U.S. Mexico Border”, which attorney Kara Hartzler read to write this play. Ochoa O’Leary is a UA Assistant Professor of Mexican American and Raza Studies. She had interviewed about 130 women in 2006 & 2007, who had been repatriated back to Mexico.
