Each night, as federal immigration agents roam the streets of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs detaining people in real life, playwright and actress Sandra Delgado takes the stage in Timeline Theatre’s “Hundred and Hundred of Stars” and portrays a green card holder who faces deportation.
This world premiere play, onstage at Lookingglass Theatre on Michigan Avenue through Nov. 9, puts a face on the headlines. It was written by Delgado and inspired by a story she heard while listening to WBEZ in 2016.
“I heard the story of a man who had been born in Guyana, South America, and had come to the United States as a toddler with proper documentation,” she recalled. “He got his legal permanent residentship or a green card, and always had it. Fast forward 30 years, and a couple of prior drug convictions pop up in the system, and he ends up getting deported.”
The events of the story inspired Delgado to write a play around a timely question: What does it mean to be an American? And more importantly, who gets to be American? Her play is among several recent local productions starring Latino casts that probe that question — even as the artists behind them are worried about protecting their own crews and audiences in the face of targeted local raids by federal immigration agents in the neighborhoods around them.
For “Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars,” Timeline has seized the moment to pair the show with critical information for audiences. In the lobby outside the theater, placards inform the audience of their rights if detained by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at home or on the street. Audiences can also find flyers with contact info for Chicago immigration lawyers, and cards are available with information on how to protect neighbors.
In the production, Delgado plays Clara, a recently divorced mother of a 12-year-old daughter. She’s been laid off from her job and is struggling with alimony payments to her ex-husband. She’s promised to take her daughter to Paris, and in the process of applying to get citizenship and a passport, she’s flagged for two prior marijuana charges — one from college and one for being cited smoking a joint outside of a bar.
That event causes a major rift in Clara’s life. She goes from being the typical American mom, to facing deportation back to a country she has never lived in.
In a scene with an immigration lawyer, she pleads her case, saying that smoking marijuana in college is part of her American experience. But she learns the laws of citizens don’t apply to green card holders (or legal permanent residents), even those like herself, who have lived in the country since infancy.
The reality of the play’s commentary on rolling news headlines is not lost on Delgado.
“Art is freedom of speech,” she said during one of the final rehearsals before the play opened. “It is an honor and a privilege, and my life’s mission to be able to create work like this and share it with Chicagoans. This is what I do. And at the age that I am now, in my 50s, I would say it’s actually taken me a lifetime to really firmly stand in my voice. And so I’m not going to be quiet.”
Delgado is not the only artist in the city presenting work reflecting the current political climate. In Albany Park, the creatives behind “Port of Entry” decided to remount the fully immersive play designed to put audiences into the lives, and homes, of immigrants.
Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Albany Park Theater Project co-executive director and Port of Entry director, runs through a rehearsal with his cast on the set of the remount of Port of Entry at Albany Park Theater Company in 2024. The theater is remounting the show for a seventh time this month with a fresh cast.
Manuel Martinez/WBEZ
The play, produced by the Albany Park Theater Project, flips a 90-year-old warehouse into a three story apartment building. Each time it is staged, the play sells out, prompting waitlists for tickets.
But this run has felt more emotional, said Miguel Rodriguez, co-executive director of the company and co-director of the show. “We have a scene in which we talk about ICE deporting a father,” said Rodriguez. “Port of Entry” portrays the stories of youth in Albany Park, many of whom are in the show. With federal agents currently in the city, safety has become a concern, but Rodriguez said the youth haven’t been deterred.
“The youth wanted to perform it, and the audience who came felt it resonated with them. And yes, it’s even more emotional now, because it feels like we’re bringing what’s happening outside, inside, into the theater space,” he said.
The show takes small groups of audience members through the apartment building where they experience cooking, games, a quinceañera, first days of school, and at times, tribulations, like deportations with the cast of actors.
“The show is not just about the hardships of the immigrant community,” said Rodriguez. “There’s a lot of celebration, and a lot of emphasis on community. These people who are from different cultures, who may have seemingly different lives, actually share a lot in common.”
Even with another sold out season on the horizon, and youth eager to perform, Rodriguez is well aware of the potential danger in staging a show about immigrants while federal agents are patrolling the city and the neighborhood around them.
“We unfortunately are operating with a little bit of fear, as we continue to be the prominent immigrant community theater company in Chicago, let alone in our neighborhood,” he said. “There’s a little bit of fear that we are almost putting ourselves out there in a way that federal agents could be knocking on our door any day now.”
The company has worked extensively to create precautions and protocols to ensure that in the event federal agents do show up, they have a response system in place. They have signage in the space so everyone in the building knows how to respond.
“The youth keep on showing up,” he said. “They keep on showing up, and this has always been, and continues to be, a safe space for them outside of their homes and even their schools. And there’s something about that that is empowering and kind of assuages the fear that I may have in my own personal life.”
“Art has always responded or reacted to national discourse,” said Jorge Valdivia, the executive director of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, which put on the eighth annual Destinos Festival featuring Latino theater works earlier this month. “This year, everyone’s talking about immigration because of what’s happening because of the ICE raids.”
Valdivia said he has heard of performing artists whose families can’t come see their shows because they are afraid. “They just don’t know if the performances are going to be raided, and that’s something that is a really hard pill to swallow,” he said.
At this year’s Destinos kickoff celebration, Valdivia said he called out arts leaders around Chicago and asked them to protect undocumented artists.
“We’re not having enough conversations around this in the arts community,” he said in a recent interview. “We are having these conversations in the Latino community. We’re having these conversations in the nonprofit sector with Latino leaders, but the wider arts community … Now is not the moment to be silent.”