Somewhere Over the Border Study Guide

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Table of Contents 3.) Letter from the Education Team 4.) Production Page 5.) Meet the Playwright 6.) Meet the Director 7.) Synopsis 8.) The Wizard of Oz 9.) Immigration 11.) What is Home?

12.) Elements of Design 13.) Elements of Drama 14.) References

Robert M. Hupp Artistic Director Syracuse Stage Melissa Crespo Associate Artistic Director Syracuse Stage Jill Anderson Managing Director Syracuse Stage Joann Yarrow Director of Community Engagement & Education (315) 443-1150 Kate Laissle Associate Director of Education (315) 442-7755 Theorri London Community Engagement & Education Coordinator (315) 443-1150 Tracey White Group Sales & Student Matinee (315) 443-3275 Box Office (315) 443-3275 Syracuse Stage 2

Dear Educators, The best way of learning is learning while you’re having fun.

Theatre provides the opportunity for us to connect with more than just our own story, it allows us to find ourselves in other people’s lives and grow beyond our own boundaries. While times are different, we are still excited to share with you new theatrical pieces through live and/or pre-recorded means.

We’re the only species on the planet who make stories. It is the stories that we leave behind that define us. Giving students the power to watch stories and create their own is part of our lasting impact on the world. And the stories we choose to hear and learn from now are even more vital. Stories bring us together, even when we must stay apart.Stories are our connection to the world and each other.

We invite you and your students to engage with the stories we tell as a starting point for you and them to create their own.

Sincerely, Joann Yarrow, Kate Laissle, and Theorri London Community Engagement and Education Team

2021/2022EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH SPONSORS Syracuse Stage is committed to providing students with rich theatre experiences that explore and examine what it is to be human. Research shows that children who participate in or are exposed to the arts show higher academic achievement, stronger self esteem, and improved ability to plan and work toward a future goal.

Many students in our community have their first taste of live theatre through Syracuse Stage’s outreach programs. Last season more than 15,500 students from across New York attended or participated in the Bank of America Children’s Tour, artsEmerging, the Young Playwrights Festival, Backstory, Young Adult Council, and/or our Student Matinee Program.

We gratefully acknowledge the corporations and foundations who support our commitment to in-depth arts education for our community.

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SEASON SPONSORS

PRESENTS

SPONSOR

BY

Brian Quijada O R I G I N A L LY P R O D U C E D B Y

MEDIA SPONSORS

Syracuse Stage

Geva Theatre Center

Teatro Vista, Theatre with a View

Syracuse, NY Robert Hupp, Artistic Director Jill A. Anderson, Managing Director

Rochester, NY Mark Cuddy, Artistic Director Christopher Mannelli, Executive Director

Chicago, IL Lorena Diaz, Co-Artistic Director Wendy Mateo, Co-Artistic Director

DIRECTED BY

Rebecca Martínez MUSIC DIRECTOR

Julián Mesri SCENIC DESIGN

COSTUME DESIGN

LIGHTING DESIGN

SOUND DESIGN

O R C H E S T R AT I O N S

Tanya Orellana

Asa Benally

Jennifer Fok

Jacqueline R. Herter

Julián Mesri and Yendrys Cespedes

A S S O C I AT E D I R E C T O R

D R A M AT U R G

S TA G E M A N A G E R

CASTING

Sofia Ubilla

Kristin Leahey

Laura Jane Collins

Bass/Valle Casting

Robert Hupp

Jill A. Anderson

Melissa Crespo

Kyle Bass

Artistic Director

Managing Director

Associate Artistic Director

Resident Playwright

February 23 - March 13, 2022 Syracuse Stage 4

Meet the Playwright BRIAN QUIJADA is a New York-based actor, playwright, musician, solo performer, and Co-Artistic Director of The Wild Wind Performance Lab at Texas Tech University. His original work has been developed and produced all across the country. His hip-hop solo show Where Did We Sit on the Bus? has been produced at Victory Gardens, Teatro Vista (Jeff Award), Ensemble Studio Theatre (Drama Desk Nomination), Boise Contemporary, 1st Stage, City Theatre Pittsburgh, and most recently, a digital production at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Drama League Nomination).

His plays have been developed at The Kennedy Center, Ars Nova's Antfest, Pittsburgh CLO’s Spark Festival, Victory Gardens’ Ignition Festival, New Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Festival, and The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Musical Theatre Conference.

Commissioning institutions include Wooly Mammoth, Seattle Repertory Theater, A.R.T., 1st Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Kennedy Center.

As an actor, his work has been seen on the stages of Roundabout Theatre Company, The Public Theatre, Playwrights Realm, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Victory Gardens and more. On TV, Brian has been seen on Blue Bloods, Search Party and Manhattan Love Story.

As an educator, Quijada has taught solo performance, social justice, verse writing, and devised theatrical looping master classes for Carnegie Mellon University, Point Park University, Carlow College, Slippery Rock University, University of New Mexico, KCATCF Region 7 (Pacific Northwest) and Region 3 (Northern Midwest), Western Washington University, Hunter College, Los Medanos College, Texas Tech University's Wild Wind Performance Lab, and The Kennedy Center.

Quijada is a two-time Jeff Award winner in Chicago and a two-time Drama Desk Nominee in NYC. He is a proud member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City.

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Meet the Director REBECCA MARTINEZ is a director, writer, producer, choreographer and facilitator living in New York City. She is an ensemble member of Sojourn Theatre and with the company she has worked as a lead artist on projects including DON’T GO (USC), How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (Cleveland Public Theater & Vanderbilt University), On the Table, Finding Penelope, Islands of Milwaukee, and keynote performances for several national conferences, including Americans for the Arts, Network of Ensemble Theaters, and Independent Sector. Directing projects include: [Upcoming]: I Am My Own Wife (Long Wharf Theatre), Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Songs About Trains (Radical Evolution, New Ohio, NYC). [Recent]: Miss You Like Hell (Baltimore Center Stage), Wolf at the Door (Milagro Theatre, NNPN rolling world premiere), Anna in the Tropics (Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Henry Award for Outstanding Direction), and is collaborating on new works in association with WP Theater, New Georges, Sojourn Theatre, Working Theater among others. A long-time collaborator with Milagro Theatre in Portland, OR, Rebecca wrote the book for Oye Oyá (music by Rodolfo Ortega) and directed productions such as La Muerte Baila, American Sueño, La Noche Eterna, Xandu Ya’, Ardiente Paciencia and Sonia Flew. Rebecca has worked with INTAR, Working Theater, Signature Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, the Lark, The Playwrights Realm, New Dramatists, the 52nd Street Project, Brave New World Repertory Theatre, and Artists Repertory Theatre among others.

She served as a board member of PLG Arts and with them produced and created the participatory performance event INTERSECTIONS: Prospect Lefferts Gardens (CCNY Grant recipient). Rebecca is a member of: Sol Project Collective, INTAR’s Unit52, Latinx Theatre Commons Advisory Committee, 2019 Audrey Resident, New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2018-2020 WP Lab, Drama League Directing Fellow, SDCF Observer, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, member of SDC. Awards: four Portland, Oregon Drammy Awards; Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. Rebecca is an artist with Center for Performance and Civic Practice.

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“Somewhere Over the Border” starts in 1978 El Salvador, with a 17-year-old girl named Reina. Reina lives with her brother, mother, and her son, Fernando. The family is barely making ends meet, and with civil war on the horizon in El Salvador, Reina finds herself wishing she and her family could just fly away. Multiple families around them have already fled the country.

Reina hears from Antonia about Antonia’s daughter, Soyla, who has made a life in the United States raising two children. Antonia, who has visited Soyla in the States, sings about how wonderful life is in the U.S. Reina starts thinking about heading to the U.S. herself, but learns that the legal process can take many years (and could still wind up with her being sent home) and immigrating illegally could be very dangerous for her and her son. She learns that if she wants to go, the person she needs to find is El Gran Coyote de Tijuana. Despite knowing that it would be expensive and result in her leaving her son behind and angering her mother, Reina dreams of a better life for them all if she can get there.

With the help of her loving community, Reina pulls together the money she needs to pay El Gran Coyote to get her over the border. Reina rushes to pack and leaves in the middle of the night, pausing to say goodbye to her son and leaving a note behind in his crib while her mother sleeps.

Synopsis

Reina’s first stop on her trip is Guatemala, where she meets Cruz. Cruz dreams of attending university, a dangerous prospect where he’s from since the government considers educated people a threat. Reina tells Cruz where she’s headed and he decides to join her on the trip. Their next stop, in Tapachula, Mexico, sees them meeting Silvano. Silvano’s family left Mexico to move to Pittsburgh, but Silvano couldn’t be convinced to go with them. But after listening to Reina, Silvano decides to go reunite with his family. At their third, and final, stop, they meet Leona: a nun who dreams of being a rock star and traveling to Cleveland.

With the promise of El GranCoyote’s help, and some borrowed courage from Reina, Leona also decides to travel with the group.

Finally in Tijuana, the group meets El Gran Coyote, who instructs them on how to take the three day journey across the desert. They will have to take the journey alone, moving only at night to hopefully remain unseen. El Gran Coyote will meet them on the other side. After three long nights dodging helicopter searchlights and drinking from cacti to stay nourished, they finally reach the other side and meet up with El Gran Coyote.

Here, the group is forced to separate. To try to get through immigration, Reina has to hide in the back of El Gran Coyote’s truck while her friends hide in the back of a separate mattress truck. Once Reina and El Gran Coyote successfully make it through immigration, Reina learns that he has no idea whether or not the other truck made it. Reina is left frozen, unsure of where to go or where her friends might be.

Thankfully, Soyla finds Reina and takes her to Los Angeles, where Reina begins cleaning houses for rich people. Pushing through poor treatment, while fearing for the lives of her family members back home, Reina eventually moves to Chicago. After 10 long years, Reina returns to Chanmico, apologizing to her mother and reuniting with her son, finally ready to bring him to the U.S. with her.

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Published in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written by L. Frank Baum, with art by W.W. Denslow. Baum, who was born in Chittenango, N.Y., before moving to and attending high school in Syracuse, would see his greatest success come from the story of Oz. In the introduction to the book, Baum said that it was “written solely to pleasure children today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.” His story was so popular that it would go on to see adaptations both for the stage, which Baum had shown an interest in from a young age, and the screen.

The Wizard of Oz Somwhere Over the Border is inspired by the story of The Wizard of Oz. Learn more about The Wizard of Oz and the many adaptations of this classic story.

It wasn’t quite smooth sailing for Baum to get to the iconic musical we know today. His 1901 spec script, which stuck close to his original novel, was rejected by producer Fred R. Hamlin and director Julian Mitchell, resulting in Baum writing a new script to accommodate their wants. This version replaces Dorothy’s dog Toto with a cow named Imogene and has the notable absence of the Wicked Witch of the West (though Locasta, the Good Witch from the North appears).

The show would open in Chicago in 1902 before moving to Broadway the following year.

Since then, the story from Oz has seen many interpretations and adaptations, including the 1939 MGM movie starring Judy Garland that most people think of today. Other notable adaptations include the all-Black Broadway and film hit The Wiz (1978), Kermit and Miss Piggy’s trip down the yellow brick road in The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz (2005), the James Franco-starring prequel Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and Wicked, the prequel telling the story of Elphaba, the soon-to-be Wicked Witch of the West, which opened on Broadway in 2003.

Fun Fact!

Did you know Central New York is home to the longest running Wizard of Oz themed festival in the world! Learn more about Ozstravaganza by following the QR code!

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History of Immigration in the US

Immigration Somewhere Over the Border is the story of someone immigrating from one place to another, but what does that mean? Learn more about immigration, its history, and how it is handled in the United States today.

What is Immigration?

Immigration is a fundamental aspect of human history that involves people leaving their country to become permanent residents or citizens of another country. Immigration, in many cases, has resulted in multicultural societies around the world and modern countries that feature a variety of cultures and ethnicities. For example, after World War II, the United Kingdom, through the 1948 British Nationality Act, gave citizens in former colonial territories the right to British nationality. Immigrants then played a key role in the rebuilding of Europe’s infrastructure after the war. However, immigrants have also historically suffered from discrimination, which has led to the isolation of ethnic groups and minority communities.

In response, some countries have limited future immigration, while others, like the United States, have chosen to approach immigration with a “melting pot” focus, attempting to unite diverse cultures under one understanding of citizenship (which critics have also seen as a repression of differences). With countries maintaining control over their borders, able to monitor and determine who can stay permanently, immigration is closely tied to both citizenship and social and political rights.

The United States has technically been a nation of immigrants since 20,000 years ago, when the ancestors of the country’s indigenous peoples crossed between Asia and North America during the last Ice Age. Then, in the early 1600s, European immigrants, including the Pilgrims and Puritans, migrated to what would become the United States searching for religious freedom and greater economic opportunities. Hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans then arrived in the country against their will.

In 1790, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1790, which allowed any free white person of “good character” who had lived in the country for at least two years to apply for citizenship, which would allow them constitutional protections like the right to vote, own property, and testify in court. The early 1800s saw a rush of immigration from Western Europe, with the Irish accounting for around one-third of all immigrants to the States.

This time also saw the rise of the country’s first anti-immigrant political party, the Know-Nothing Party, as a reaction to the number of German and Irish immigrants settling in the country.

The 40-year period bridging the late 19th and early 20th century saw over 20 million immigrants arrive to the country. However, alongside a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment in the country, the U.S. passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the country’s first act placing broad restrictions on certain immigrant groups, barring Chinese immigrants from entering the country. In 1892, Ellis Island opened and would see over 12 million immigrants enter through it over the next 62 years.

With the Immigration Act of 1924, the U.S. limited the number of immigrants allowed into the country by installing quotas that limited the number of immigration visas to 2% of the total number of people of each nationality represented on the 1890 census, which favored immigrants from Northern and Western European countries. The same year saw a rise in illegal immigration and the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol. It wasn’t until 1952’s McCarran-Walter Act that the exclusion of Asian immigrants to the U.S. was ended and 1965 saw the end of the country’s origin quota system.

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Reading List

Immigration in the US today Today, immigration remains a polarizing issue in the country’s politics. Over one million immigrants come to the United States each year from areas around the world to study, work, and reunite with family. As of 2020, more than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, which equates to about one-fifth of the world’s migrants. Since the end of the national quota system, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. has more than quadrupled. Immigrants may be living in the U.S. on immigrant visas (aka green cards, for those who want to live as permanent residents), nonimmigrant visas (temporary for a specific duration/purpose), or as refugees or asylum seekers.

For years, Congress has been unable to agree on comprehensive immigration reform, moving some major policy decisions into the executive and judicial branches and fueling debates across the country. During the Obama administration, executive actions were taken to provide temporary legal protections for undocumented immigrants, including the start of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The country would later see a surge of over 60,000 unaccompanied minors at the southern border. The Trump administration then vowed to expand the U.S.-Mexico border wall, claiming it would stop drugs and gangs from entering the country, and advocated for sharply reducing immigration, regardless of the legality of the immigration. The Biden administration campaigned on overturning almost all of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, though it has faced roadblocks along the way and tens of thousands of migrants remain detained in emergency facilities.

Learn More!

Learn more about immigration by following this QR code!

Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation by Edwidge Danticat and illustrated by Leslie Staub

Saya’s mother is sent away to a detention center for “not having the right papers.” She starts to send Saya bedtime stories on cassette tapes, which inspires Saya to write a story of her own. Follow Saya as she writes a powerful story that may be able to bring her mother home.

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

Jude loves living in Syria with her family, but when her hometown becomes dangerous, she and her mother are sent to live in Cincinatti. Her new home in the US is fast, loud, and nothing like the American movies she used to love.

She is also faced with the new label of Middle Eastern, something she has never known before. However, the US also brings new friends, family, and adventures. Follow Jude’s story as she adapts to her new life and rediscovers her identity.

La Linea by Ann Jarmillo

Miguel has dreamed of joining his parents in the US for many years, and on his fifteenth birthday, he finally has a chance. With his sister in tow, he makes the journey from Mexico to the US border, which is filled with dangers he never imagined. Follow Miguel as he chases his dreams and discovers that dreams are not always what you imagined. Syracuse Stage 10 Syracuse Stage 10

What is Home?

What do you think about when you hear the word home? Do you think about the place where you sleep? Do you think about the people who live with you? Use the space below to express what home means to you.

More Questions to Think About 1.) What connections did you find between Somewhere Over the Border and The Wizard of Oz? 2.) What character did you relate to the most and why?

3.) How did the music add to telling of the story?

4.) What parts of the show surprised you or taught you something new?

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elements of drama PLOT

What is the story line? What happened before the play started? What does each character want? What do they do to achieve their goals? What do they stand to gain/lose?

THEME

What ideas are wrestled with in the play? What questions does the play pose? Does it present an opinion?

Any piece of theatre comprises multiple art forms.

As you explore this production with your students, examine the use of:

WRITING VISUAL ART/DESIGN MUSIC/SOUND DANCE/MOVEMENT

CHARACTER

INQUIRY

Who are the people in the story? What are their relationships? Why do they do what they do? How does age/status/etc. affect them?

How are each of these art forms used in this production? Why are they used?

How do they help to tell the story?

LANGUAGE

What do the characters say? How do they say it?

When do they say it?

MUSIC

How do music and sound help to tell the story?

SPECTACLE

How do the elements come together to create the whole performance?

ACTIVITY At its core, drama is about characters working toward goals and overcoming obstacles. Ask students to use their bodies and voices to create characters who are: very old, very young, very strong, very weak, very tired, very energetic, very cold, very warm. Have their characters interact with others. Give them an objective to fulfill despite environmental obstacles. Later, recap by asking how these obstacles affected their characters and the pursuit of their objectives.

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elements of design LINE can have length, width, texture, direction and

curve. There are 5 basic varieties: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, zig-zag, and curved.

SHAPE is two-dimensional and encloses space.

It can be geometric (e.g. squares and circles), man-made, or free-form.

FORM is three-dimensional. It encloses space

and fills space. It can be geometric (e.g. cubes and cylinders), man-made, or free-form.

COLOR has three basic properties:

HUE is the name of the color (e.g. red, blue, green), INTENSITY is the strength of the color (bright or dull), VALUE is the range of lightness to darkness.

TEXTURE refers to the “feel” of an

SPACE is defined and determined

object’s surface. It can be smooth, rough, soft, etc. Textures may be ACTUAL (able to be felt) or IMPLIED (suggested visually through the artist’s technique).

by shapes and forms. Positive space is enclosed by shapes and forms, while negative space exists around them.

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References “30 Best Middle-Grade Books About Immigration.” (2020, November 4). Reading Middle Grade. https://readingmiddlegrade.com/middle-grade-books-aboutimmigration/ Budiman, Abby. “Key Findings about U.S. Immigrants.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 22 Sept. 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/ 2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/.

“The Current State of Immigration in the United States.” The Current State of Immigration in the United States | ImmigrationHelp.org, https:// www.immigrationhelp.org/learning-center/the-current-state-of-immigration-in-the-united-states.

“Glossary.” U.S. Immigration, https://www.usimmigration.org/glossary/immigration.

History.com Editors. “U.S. Immigration Timeline.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 21 Dec. 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/ immigration-united-states-timeline.

“Immigrants in the United States.” American Immigration Council, 21 Sept. 2021, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-in-theunited-states.

“Immigration.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/immigration.

“Immigration.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 21 Aug. 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/immigration.

Jensen, K. (2018, June 28). “YA Books About Immigration Worthy Of Your Time and Reading Attention.” BOOK RIOT. https://bookriot.com/ya-books-aboutimmigration/ “L. Frank Baum.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 26 Apr. 2021, https://www.biography.com/writer/l-frank-baum.

League, The Broadway. “IBDB.com.” IBDB, https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-wizard-of-oz-5685.

Magazine, Smithsonian. “Frank Baum, the Man behind the Curtain.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 25 June 2009, https:// www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/frank-baum-the-man-behind-the-curtain-32476330/.

“Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation.” (2021, February 12). Social Justice Books. https://socialjusticebooks.org/mamas-nightingale-astory-of-immigration-and-separation/ “Native Americans.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Native-Americans#ref742504.

“Publication, Reception, and Analysis.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Wonderful-Wizard-ofOz/Publication-reception-and-analysis.

“The U.S. Immigration Debate.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-immigration-debate-0.

“The Wizard of Oz (1902 Stage Play).” Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2874940.

“The Wizard of Oz.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz.

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