What Inspired CELL? Playwright Cassandra Medley Explains.
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I read stories and experiences of immigrants who are detained. I read a memoir by a Haitian novelist, Edwidge Danticat, whose uncle was detained mistakenly and died in a center because he didn’t have his medication. I read about mistakes. I read about abuses. I read about detention centers being closed, and I read about centers where people were just piled in. And I saw photos of children in these detention centers penned in with their mothers, and cells that had baby cribs in them. It was all so disturbing to me, and I pursued the idea that ultimately became CELL. To my surprise, I brought new information to 99% of the audience, including the casts and directors of the various productions. So many people from the audience asked me “did this really happen?”
There has been abuse. And the latest episode of this has been in Texas when the Texas judge ruled that children and women were being kept in horrific conditions. This happened just recently. [Many detention centers are run by private corporations] and when this happens, accountability becomes far more muddy. These centers are all over the United States and Canada, places in Europe, Australia. They’re all over. And if you are caught as an immigrant, as a detainee, if you’re caught in Texas you could end up in Michigan. That’s the sadness of it. And within these facilities, abuses take place. I was interested in the blue wall of silence, so when there are people, individuals, who are perpetrating heinous acts of violence and abuse, they’re often tolerated by their colleagues in uniform. So that was all the mix of what I wanted to write about.
When I saw the photos of so many of the guards, I knew those people, those hard working women in the Industrial Midwest. They were poor, desperate for jobs, and only too eager to guard other poor people, the immigrants, who are desperate for jobs, which is the reason why they were trying to immigrate, legally or illegally. That was really compelling for me. How were these women able to do this? That became my compelling question. How were they able to stand it? Something in them [the guards] is uncomfortable with what they have to do, particularly when circumstances become such as in the play, when they see people doing things that they are horrified by. They do not want thngs like this happening to other people. At the same time, they have to have a job. And it’s that dichotomy, in that, that I’m very, very interested in.
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Fall Classes at Mo`olelo are Open for Registration
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Activate Your Imagination
6-Week Playwriting Workshop
When: Tuesdays, Sept. 22 – Oct. 27
Times: 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Cost: $360.00
Taught by Evelyn Cruz
How to Get Cast
3-Week Audition Workshop
When: Mondays, October 5 – 19
Times: 6:00 – 9:00pm
Cost: $125.00
Taught by Jacole Kitchen
Mapping Stories - Where Do Yours Intersect?
2-Day Performance/Writing Workshop
When: Saturday-Sunday, October 17 – 18
Times: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Cost: $95.00
Taught by Traci Kato-Kiriyama
The Director as Artist - Finding Your Aesthetic
2-Day Directing Workshop
When: Saturday November 7
Times: 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Cost: $75.00
Taught by Lydia Fort
Mo`olelo welcomes new staff.
Amy Oliveira joins the company as our Marketing Coordinator. Amy is an artist and storyteller focused on sustainability and peace. As a director, marketer, writer and activist, Amy’s work focuses on projects around environmental respect and social justice.
Jessica Cortez is our new Community Engagement Assistant. She is a recent graduate of the University of San Diego. She has a BA in Ethnic Studies and Theatre Arts with a minor in Leadership and certification in Nonprofit Management. Focusing her work at the intersection of theatre and education, Cortez has worked as an intern with Playwrights Project, as a tutor with the Barrio Logan College Institute, and served as an assistant with the Cesar Chavez Service Clubs.
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Mo`olelo says...
THANK YOU to Dea & Osborn Hurston for the generous sponsorship of our production of CELL.
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