MTC Expanded Programs is proud to present American Triage, the culmination of The Canal Project.  Starting in 2006, Marin Theatre Company brought Marisela Treviño Orta to San Rafael to teach bilingual playwrighting classes for students in the Canal community. American Triage was inspired by her experience working with those students, and by the immigration raids that took place during the time she was teaching her class.  Directed by Nick Avila, the play will be a part of MTC’s Nu Werkz series in December 2007, and will receive a workshop production at MTC and at Pickleweed Community Center in February of 2008 with live Spanish translation.

The Canal Project is made possible by generous grants from the Joseph R. Parker Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and the James Irvine Foundation.

The Canal Project

Starting in 2006, Marin Theatre Company brought Marisela Treviño Orta to San Rafael to teach bilingual playwrighting classes for students in the Canal community. American Triage was inspired by her experience working with those students, and by the immigration raids that took place during the time she was teaching her class. Over the past few months, we've held private readings of various drafts of Marisela's script with professional actors. This gave Marisela the opportunity to hear the play read aloud, and to make revisions based on what she heard and on feedback from the actors, director Nick Avila, and MTC staff, including Literary Manager Maryanne Olson. When MTC applied for funding for The Canal Project, we didn’t know what kind of play would result from it — the point of the project is to connect a talented emerging playwright with a specific Marin community, and to provide space for that connection to grow into a compelling story.

After the Nu Werkz series readings in December, Marisela will go back to the script for another rewrite — basing her tweaks and changes in part on feedback she receives from the audience. A community organization called The Canal Alliance is sending a group of teens from the Canal District to attend one of these readings, and to give their feedback to Marisela as well. Then, in February of 2008, MTC will mount a workshop production of the revised script in the Lieberman Theatre. After one weekend of performances here, that production will then move to the Pickleweed Community Center in the Canal District for a second weekend of performances, with live Spanish-language translation. We're very proud to announce that the translator will be acclaimed playwright Caridad Svich. Canal Alliance Director of Youth Services JuanCarlos Arauz will be one of the guest speakers leading a discussion following those performances.

Where American Triage goes from there is still unknown. It is a powerful piece of theatre, and our hope is that it will receive a full ‘premiere’ production sometime soon. For now, we hope that this production will tell a compelling story about Marin, and will raise awareness about the complexity of the challenges that are faced by our community.

The Canal Project is one of MTC’s Expanded Programs. As the Artistic Director of Expanded Programs, I’ve been tasked by MTC Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis with creating opportunities for engagement with theatre for all the different communities that make up Marin County. That includes our summer camps and afterschool drama classes, our school tour production, and programs like this that reach out to a specific community in hopes of finding and sharing powerful stories. Marisela’s voice as a poet and playwright is an important one, and it is my great pleasure to present American Triage.

-Josh Costello, Artistic Director of Expanded Programs

American Triage

Fatima is a teenage girl growing up in the Canal district of San Rafael. Ever since a near-death experience following a soccer game accident, her little brother Lalo has been able to see his guardian angel – who happens to be a statue in the San Rafael church. When their parents are deported in the immigration raids, Fatima and Lalo are left alone. A social worker named Soraya, also the child of an immigrant father, encourages Fatima to apply for college even if it means leaving Lalo in foster care. Lalo sends his guardian angel to Mexico to protect his parents as they attempt to cross back into the United States – but in order to separate from Lalo, the angel must remove her wings and live as a mortal human.

Triage is the necessary but tragic practice of choosing to sacrifice one patient or victim in order to save another. In an impossible situation, what sacrifices would you choose?

Nu Werkz staged reading:
December 2 and 3

Workshop Production at MTC:
February 16 and 17, 2008

Workshop Production at Pickleweed Community Center:
February 22 and 23, 2008