Somewhere Over the Border is a story of a 16-year-old girl who left her child in El Salvador to search for a better life. Though most of the story includes the dangers of such a massive voyage, the playwright, Brian Quijada, took the story, made it one of laughter and joy and paralleled the plot to the Wizard of OZ.
“When you think about stories of immigration and stories of crossing the desert, you often hear about how bad and sad and traumatic they are but the story has a lot of hope and joy and my mother saw things on the way to the border that she had never seen before…La Pachula, Mexico and Guadalajara…she went on a ride you know and its filled with a lot of joy. A lot of drafts of the show have been about connecting those two in a harmonious way, "Quijada said.
Quijada’s story of his mother’s journey includes all the elements of the Wizard of Oz. His goal was to make the story something people of all backgrounds can relate to.
“The more specific you are, the more universal it is. It’s the story of a mother and her son. We all have parents and some of us have children, it’s not hard to relate to this story," Quijada remarked.
Director Rebecca Martinez aimed to convey the strong relationship between and a mother and her child. She hopes audiences not only leave with a feeling of joy, but also feel connected to Reina.
“I want them to feel joy, I want them to see folks who are coming to this country, however they are coming from another country, from another place as full humans and to have empathy if they don’t already, for folks who need to leave their home and come to a new place to make a better life and find better opportunities …or get to a place of safety or get to a place that gives another chance for their family and to be able to look at that and say let’s make room, we’ve got room," Martinez said.
You can attend a showing for Somewhere Over The Border from now until March 13th. Tickets can be purchased at SyracuseStage.org.