Matthew Greene and Dr. Wade Hollingshaus, Theatre and Media Arts

The purpose of my ORCA project was to create a piece of theatre centering on the issue of immigration in the United States. I wrote in my proposal: “Illegal immigration is a significant issue in the current political, economic, and social arenas. In exploring this issue through theatre we can help bring the immediacy of the border situation closer to our audience.” The project ultimately did accomplish this goal but did so in a manner somewhat unexpected.

My original plan evolved significantly since I originally conceived of the project. I originally wanted to interview several different people and put together a play based on this information. This would serve the purpose I had of growing as a playwright and telling a compelling story to an audience. Several logistical complications precluded my traveling to the Mexican-American border to conduct the interviews as I had originally planned. I found myself looking for a way to achieve my original goal.

I realized as I worked on this project that if my goal was to discuss the issues of immigration it would be wise to involve more than just my own voice. I decided rather than having one playwright with a wide focus, it would be better to involve several playwrights with narrower individual focuses. I chose James Goldberg, Zach Kempf, Katherine Gee, and Lyvia Martinez to be involved and gave them the general prompt to write a short scene connected to the issues of illegal immigration in the United States.

I was happy with this choice because it first of all opened me up to write what I’m more comfortable writing and second, there were more perspectives and points of view that I wouldn’t have written. The combination of the different voices unlocked a rich variety of expression and opinion that I knew would be interesting to watch.

This was the first aim of the project: to help me grow as a playwright. I grew by writing about an important issue I felt passionately about. I also grew by working with other writers in helping develop and improve their work. Being exposed to different perspectives was also illuminating and interesting.

The second goal was to provide a good experience for the actors involved. In this case I also involved a director, Kiely Smith, who was grateful for the opportunity to direct. The actors were given a chance to be in a show that prompted discussion and deep thought and the plays necessitated strong performances. They had to show a lot of diversity and range in portraying a lot of characters from different writers.

The third thing I wanted to accomplish was to present to an audience a piece of theatre that would instruct and delight. We did the final show at the Provo theatre in November. The final production was something that presented various points of view and different ideas. I was happy that the play had the diversity it did and I am confident that the final product was something I was proud to show an audience.