“Sanctuary Stories: A Journalism Theater Project” debuted Wednesday evening at the McCormick Foundation Center, opening with an excerpt from a 1953 film about diversity in America.
“We are the people of America, a mixture of the people of the world,” the clip proclaimed.
Produced and directed by Medill Prof. Craig Duff, the performance centered on residents of Chicago — a “sanctuary city” that withdraws from civil federal immigration enforcement — amid increased immigration crackdowns. Their stories were told in a live documentary style, interspersed with multimedia elements featuring videos, background sounds and live music.
“I decided to pursue (this) because I could see things starting to happen around immigration,” Duff said. “It’s become such a big issue and a big push by the administration. Can we find good stories out there to help us put this in context?”
To learn more about immigration in Chicago, Duff worked with journalist Stephen Franklin to interview community members impacted by federal immigration policies. These interviews were then transcribed and brought to life by professional actors who delivered their words verbatim during the performance.
The project included the perspectives of eight people, including an immigration judge who decided to quit his job amid increasing politicization, a Catholic priest who regularly prays at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility at Broadview and a Venezuelan businesswoman concerned about her loss of Temporary Protected Status.
While some sources remained anonymous for safety concerns, among the interviewees were Mayor Daniel Biss and Rev. Dr. Beth Brown, an activist and pastor at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church who founded the Faith Community Initiative.
Amber Dow (Communication ’99), who played Rev. Brown, said it felt both powerful and educational to read her character’s words.
“You want to serve their words well, and you also want to not get in the way of it,” she said. “To have something so relevant and to be able to lend a voice to tell the story is such an honor and a gift.”
The process of delivering Rev. Brown’s words required Dow to reflect on the show’s primary message and apply her passion to deliver it authentically, she added.
Gabriela Barrios, who played the businesswoman, resonated personally with her character because of their similar backgrounds as Venezuelan immigrants. She said she is concerned about her community’s safety amid federal immigration activity.
“Sometimes I feel like my status can be taken away from me, so it was very important for me to be a part of something that was giving them a voice,” Barrios said. “Hopefully it helps people understand that immigrants are not only here to make a life for themselves, but also to add to the lives of everyone.”
“Sanctuary Stories” also partnered with Borderless Magazine, a nonprofit, Chicago-based news outlet that reports on immigrant communities.
The performance included a live interview with Mauricio Peña (Medill ’14), the magazine’s chief of staff, on the importance of telling immigrant stories and how audience members can support their mission.
“I’ve never quite seen journalism repurposed in this way,” Peña said. “It’s a different point of entry to these stories that are so powerful and so rich, and shows the many different ways people are impacted by the immigration system here in this country.”
Duff said the project was born after he realized the power of combining journalism, theater and multimedia elements to elevate storytelling.
He added that great journalists tell compelling and impactful stories in a way that people can understand, but being in the room while it’s happening is “a really special thing.”
“This is a living project,” Duff said to the audience toward the end of the performance.
A showing of “Sanctuary Stories” is currently scheduled for January. As federal immigration enforcement continues to increase in Evanston and Chicago, Duff and the show’s cast and crew said the project should be continuously developed and performed with new stories.
According to Dow, the gathering of like-minded people who share compassion transformed the performance into a “think tank,” sparking new ideas and highlighting resources to help support immigrants.
“There was a clear energy to say that this should be told elsewhere,” Duff said. “We need to get these stories seen by other people, and we need this to be a living thing.”
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