An Immigrant Class

The award-winning Remy Bumppo Theatre Company and its associate artistic director Shawn Douglass adapted An Immigrant Class for the stage. As part of Remy Bumppo’s new thinkTank series, which features dramatic works with a focus on provoking timely conversation about a social, political or economic issue in which Chicago citizens have a stake, An Immigrant Class ran at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater in March and April 2007 and was praised widely by its audiences. Four of the twenty immigrant stories from the book were woven together to create a dramatic non-fiction play that took theater goers through various immigrant experiences.

Directed by Linda Gillum with actors Charin Alvarez, Phillip James Brannon, Tony Sancho and Rebecca Sohn, An Immigrant Class was accompanied each night by post-show discussions with audience members moderated by those working on immigration related issues in Chicago and the U.S. 

I hope to continue to stage the production and be able to bring it to schools and other educational venues along with additional programming and workshops related to immigration and stereotyping.