FIU Theatre produces play highlighting immigration

Cast members of “The Pot” during rehearsal

A love story. A Thanksgiving dinner. A 20-page midterm paper. And two undocumented immigrants.

So begins “The Pot” – a play written by Glenn Hutchinson, FIU’s interim director of the Center for Excellence in Writing. The play’s main character struggles to answer his midterm topic: Who am I? Meanwhile his sister introduces their family to her boyfriend, an undocumented immigrant who has been living in the United States since he was 16 years old.

This play marks the first time FIU Theatre produces a play written by any FIU faculty member since then-Theatre Chair Leroy Clark’s “Shakespeare’s Journey” in 2001. Under the direction of Theatre Instructor Ivan Lopez ’03, “The Pot” features an eight-student cast playing characters from college students to a 45-year-old senator. The play kicks off tonight and runs until Sunday, Oct. 23.

“While immigration is a major driving force of the play, it’s a play about identity.” Hutchinson says.

As the characters struggle to define themselves, multiple viewpoints clash. And the love between the narrator’s sister and the undocumented immigrant faces numerous obstacles.

“This is a play that asks a lot of different questions,” Lopez says. “It ended up making me consider things I hadn’t considered. And it made me learn things. The play is grounded in these characters’ lives. These characters fight for love and the American Dream.”

Hutchinson says he hopes the play will entertain – and spark conversation. “These are stories that need to be heard and told more.”

Juan Gutierrez, one of the actors in the play, says that “the play humanizes the immigration situation” and shows both sides of the argument.

He adds that one of the major lessons he learned as both an actor and a person while preparing for this play was listening.

“Just take the time to listen to other people,” Gutierrez says. “You don’t have to agree with everyone, but just listen more. You’re going to be able to get a lot more advice and understand more points of view and be more open-minded.”

Inspiration

Glenn Hutchinson is the Interim Director of the Center for Excellence in Writing.

The story’s topic of immigration comes from a place of passion for Hutchinson. Several years ago, he witnessed one of his friends struggle to help her brother, an undocumented immigrant, after he was arrested and ordered to be deported.

While creating an original storyline and letting his “imagination run wild,” Hutchinson also wove details from his personal experiences and those of his friends into the story. Hutchinson is currently a volunteer of Friends of Miami-Dade Detainees, a visitation program for the Krome Detention Center in which volunteers visit detainees at the center.

For inspiration on designing the set, theatre major and set designer Jade Mesa turned to art installations featuring puzzle pieces. The play’s set includes several chairs, and the back of each chair is a puzzle piece.

At the beginning of the play, Mesa says, the chairs are scattered across the stage in a chaotic order. But by the end of the play, the chairs are lined up together.

“I tried my best to relate my set to the characters,” she says. “The puzzle pieces are colored different because the characters are so different, but at the end of the day, we’re all human and we all have to come together at some point.”

For more information about the play, click here.