Archives: Plays

Author: José Casas

Year: 2003

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: The play is based on the true events that occurred in the Arizona desert in May of 2001 where 14 people died of dehydration after a group of 30 were abandoned by a smuggler in their attempts to cross the border. The real-life interviews of Americans and Mexicans who live in these border towns have been collected and made into a series of monologues from a wide array of characters. The play acts as a mosaic of reactions and feelings reeling from the major loss of life, from devastation, to blame, to indifference. The words of the people come together to question what humanity means in relation to immigration. The collective of people come together to communicate a human approach to the events the splayed open the American notion of immigration at the U.S. Mexico Border.

Publication: Dramatic Publishing 2018 Published edition: Dramatic Publishing

Author: Hilary Bettis

Year: 2020

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: The distance between Tucson, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico is 72 miles. Though not technically far in distance, the miles have the weight of an ever-changing country where home and safety are never near. Anita is deported for trying to cross the U.S. border illegally, 72 miles away to Mexico, from her American born family in Tucson, Arizona. Anita is now living away from her family in a shelter as they grapple with the loss of their mother. The play takes place over ten years as a family in the face of the big picture issues of immigration laws deal with zoomed-in interpersonal dramas as humans. The family desperately try to close the distance of those 72 miles in between them but are faced with a mangle of red tape and challenges that makes those miles feel farther and farther away.

Publication: Samuel French Inc. Published edition: Samuel French Inc. Concord Theatricals

Author: Nilo Cruz

Year: 2007

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: Three characters whose lives seem to be moving nowhere set out to build a dream, even if that dream seems perilous. This stirring portrait of three Cuban exiles and their harrowing journey across the Caribbean Sea examines the universal themes of freedom and oppression, hope and survival.

Publication: Cruz, N. (2007 2022). A Bicycle Country. In Two Sisters and a Piano and Other Plays (pp. 138–190). : Theatre Communications Group, Inc..

Author: Fahmy, Kareem

Year: 2023

Geography: Americas > Northern America > United States of America

Synopsis: Kareem Fahmy’s A Distinct Society is set in the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a real building that straddles the border between Vermont and Quebec. Inspired by true events, the play follows an Iranian father and daughter separated by the Trump-era U.S. travel ban, commonly known as the ‘Muslim ban,’ who use the Haskell Free Library as a rare meeting place across the U.S.–Canada border. With a focus on family separation and travel bans, family and art, the quiet public building becomes a holding space where families reunite and friends meet. Following five characters, including a French-Canadian librarian, a U.S. border patrol agent and local community members, each has different investments in the border. The play shows how state policy can turn ordinary family reunion into a restricted and risky act.

Publication: Fahmy, Kareem. A Distinct Society. Dramatists Play Service, 2025. Concord Theatricals, https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/99610/a-distinct-society.