A Line in the Sand:
Behind the Script
with Marisela Treviño Orta
By Yazlin Juarez
Poet and playwright Marisela Treviño Orta continues her mission for immigrant advocacy through her recent play, A Girl Grows Wings (2024), as a member of the Latino Theater Company’s Circle of Imaginistas. Orta utilizes her background in poetry to craft a wordless play, employing movement and mythology to tell the story of Alma, an undocumented Mexican-American youth. A Girl Grows Wings made history as the LTC’s first bi-national production, developed and devised with the Mexican experimental theater ensemble, Organización Secreta Teatro. This production had its world premiere in Mexico in Summer 2024 and arrived in the U.S. right in time for the Latino Theater Company’s Fall season and Encuentro: A National Theatre Festival. Orta created a narrative that can be enjoyed equally regardless of language or nationality to create empathy for Dreamers and reimagine our relationship with the U.S. border.
A Girl Grows Wings follows protagonist Alma from her birthplace in Chiapas, Mexico to her early adulthood in the United States. After her family flees and crosses the desert to the U.S., Alma grows up believing she can achieve the American Dream, until her “wings” are clipped by a grim reality. The play centers on Alma’s emotional fallout after discovering her DACA status, and her spiritual journey to reconnect with her indigenous Mexican roots and rediscover her strength.
Orta launched her playwriting career with social justice theater, discussing immigration and families with mixed citizenship status through her acclaimed scripts, Braided Sorrow (2008) and American Triage (2009). “One of the most powerful things about theater is its ability to inspire empathy,” says the Imaginista. Orta joined the Circle of Imaginistas in 2021 along with a cohort of established and emerging playwrights. Among the 10 inspiration packets presented by the LTC, she was most drawn to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) community in the United States, also known as Dreamers. Orta was paired with fellow playwright Karen Zacarias, who offered support to Marisela when she first considered writing a wordless play. “Karen encouraged me to talk to Jose Luis about my idea and to explore ballet and dance as a way of looking for inspiration.”
After Orta completed her initial script in 2022, Jose Luis Valenzuela introduced her to Rocío Carillo, Artistic Director of Organización Secreta Teatro. The ensemble specializes in creating plays with little to no dialogue, exploring scenic poetics and interdisciplinarity in a permanent laboratory. Org. Secreta Teatro previously created two other myth-based plays during their 2022 residency at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Orta and Carillo bonded over their shared love of mythology in their daily lives and playwriting; both have adapted Greek myths into social justice pieces that speak to the struggles of women, immigrants, and other marginalized identities. Orta is currently developing her own series of dark Latinx fairy tales based on folklore, including The River Bride and Wolf at the Door.
As the duo developed this story over Zoom in Summer 2023, they considered the role of the U.S. Southern border in the story and the lives of Mexicans and Americans. When developing Alma’s character arc, Orta looked to the “fractured nature of Mexican American identity…” Orta says it was important to show both sides of Alma’s cultural identity in her healing journey because “that border is a wound, a scar.” For many Mexican Americans, the border has been a force of tension that has divided families and escalated violence toward Latino immigrants. She realized that for Alma to reemerge from a cocoon of doubt to a fiery phoenix, she would have to reckon with this fractured identity by reconnecting with her cultural roots. Drawing from her background in fairytales and folklore, Orta revisited the script and began devising a “forest scene,” in which Alma encounters Aztec deities that would guide her through her emotional journey.
In November 2023, Orta embarked on a 10-day research trip to Mexico to gather inspiration for this new scene and to work in person with the Organización Secreta Teatro ensemble. Carillo and the cast accompanied her to national museums and pre-colonial sites that expanded the scope of her Mexican heritage. These trips included a Temazcal ceremony, in which the ensemble gathered in a sweat lodge shaped like a plumed serpent, a dedication to the deity Quetzalcóatl. Orta notes in her field journal, “The events of this day mark the beginning of our process as an ensemble as we work on our play together.” The playwright encountered several coincidences between her research and her relationship with the ensemble, as if tied together by fate. One of these coincidences occurred in the Los Pinos museum, where Org. Secreta Teatro actress Mercedes Olea worked. Marisela read the story of the Popul Vuh, the Mayan creation myth, in which a pair of twins journey to the underworld – just like the protagonist Alma in the forest scene. “As it turns out, twins run throughout my own plays,” Orta wrote. “For me, twins represent the U.S./Mexico border. I’ve often thought of cultural identity as a reflection extending from that border.”
“One of the most powerful things about theater is its ability to inspire empathy.”
Although Orta came to Mexico with the lingering fear of being set apart as an Americanized Mexican, or “pocha,” she had a life-changing experience that grounded her in her mission. While visiting a museum, Orta overheard a child reading placards aloud and wished she could see herself represented in American museums the same way. “But then I realized that there in Mexico I was indeed seeing myself. That these ancient civilizations are my antepasados as well… As Evelina Fernández said at our press conference in Mexico City, we (Chicanos) are Mexicans, we just live on the other side of the border.”
Writing a wordless play challenged Orta to get out of her comfort zone, but she was able to create a hauntingly beautiful narrative. “My instinct told me to tell a story with images, to return to my roots as a poet,” says Orta. “I am an Imagist. Inspired by images and focusing on imagery in my poems.” During her trip to Mexico, Orta experimented with symbolism tied to Aztec mythology and Mexican history to reimagine the border crossing narrative. She knew she wanted to portray the “coyote,” a guide that leads immigrants across the U.S. border, as an alebrije, but still needed a “green object” to represent the green card – a crucial key to survival in the United States. After visiting the Los Pinos museum, she learned of the significance of corn in an exhibition emphasizing “maíz es la vida.” This green object became an ear of corn, a humble symbol of Mexican agricultural innovation and resistance that is threatened by American monoculture.
“My instinct told me to tell a story with images, to return to my roots as a poet. I am an Imagist: Inspired by images and focusing on imagery in my poems.”
The script for A Girl Grows Wings is a mere 12 pages long, but was replete with stunning imagery, accentuated in production with other-worldly sound design by percussionist Paula Bucio and costume/set design by Erika Gomez. Rocío and Orta had workshopped the script throughout their virtual discussions, but during the devised session, the ensemble created Orta’s favorite scene. In the desert scene, Gomez had covered the grandmother’s ghost (Mercedes Olea) in a tulle veil as she consoled her daughter (Beatriz Cabrera Tavares) in a gentle embrace. Orta expresses her gratitude to Org. Secreta’s ensemble for bringing the story to life. “It was truly co-creation,” she says. “I gave them a narrative skeleton and they developed an incredible play.”
In July 2024, the production premiered in Mexico City as Alma Migrante, sponsored by La Secretaría de Cultura de México. Through her wordless play, Orta provides a story that transcends the language barrier and brings international audiences closer to the plight of undocumented youth. To Orta and many Mexican-Americans, the border is an arbitrary guideline imposed on citizens that negates the shared cultural history of the Mexican diaspora. “It’s merely a line in the sand.”
A Girl Grows Wings found a home at the Encuentro 2024 festival, where 19 theater companies from across the country gathered to share performances and methodologies. Running alongside a handful of other immigrant-focused plays, the bi-national production contributed to a broad dialogue about the U.S.-Mexico border and the hardships faced by the Latino community. “I think the plays about the border and immigration in the festival worked together to offer a picture of not only the impact of U.S. policies, but how people challenge those policies to help others. Our play was a very specific emotional journey that hopefully got our audiences to think about what it is like to live with an undocumented status—the stress of needing to keep your status hidden from authorities, the uncertainty of one’s future, and the fight to stay in the only country Dreamers have ever known since they were children.”
That fateful week in November, The Los Angeles Theatre Center became a place of mourning and resilience as members of Encuentro reckoned with the 2024 presidential election results. In his latest campaign, President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on his platform of white supremacy and mass deportation, even threatening to deport entire families despite their DACA status or birthright citizenship. Although many Americans feel helpless to stop this wave of political extremism, Orta writes to educate the public about social justice issues through impactful storytelling and a call to action. The playwright insists that through love and empathy, we can create real change in our community. “If I can get people to care about my characters, then hopefully they will care enough to learn about the issues impacting real people. Hopefully, they will question the laws or political climate directly impacting members of our community.”
“If I can get people to care about my characters, then hopefully they will care enough to learn about the issues impacting real people. Hopefully, they will question the laws or political climate directly impacting members of our community.”
Orta and Organización Secreta Teatro want to bring A Girl Grows Wings on tour to the rest of the U.S., though it would be a tall order considering the size of their ensemble and costume department. Nevertheless, she remains hopeful that it will take the stage once again and create a political awakening in global citizens. “I think a lot of places might benefit from seeing this play, especially given our current political climate which is once again threatening the existence of the DACA program and undocumented immigrants in our country.” In this divisive political landscape, American and Mexican citizens must create and protect spaces where immigrants and their stories can live on in safety and with dignity. Only then, can the Latinx diaspora begin to heal and find strength in our shared ancestry. As Orta says, “We are one community, divided by a border.”
“We are one community, divided by a border.”
Marisela Treviño Orta is a graduate of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center, and a member of the Circle of Imaginistas. A poet for many years, she found her way to playwriting while working on her first MFA at the University of San Francisco where she studied poetry. Her awards include the 2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama, 2009 Pen Center USA Literary Award in Drama, 2013 National Latino Playwriting Award, 2018 National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, and 2019 Kendeda Finalist. Marisela’s plays have been presented at Arizona Theatre Company, Brava Theater, Camino Real Productions, Halcyon Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater, Milagro, Nashville Children’s Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shotgun Players, Stages Repertory Theatre, Su Teatro, and Those Women Productions. Recently her plays The River Bride and Wolf at the Door were published by Samuel French. Her Audible commissioned play Nightfall will be available on their platform this June.
Yazlin Juarez is a writer and multidisciplinary artist based in Pico Rivera. She takes every opportunity to forge spoken word poetry, photography, and design into instruments of social change. Yazlin discovered her love of theater through the Cultural Arts and Diversity Resource Center, where served as the Poet’s Corner director. She is published in the Red Wheelbarrow Anthology, TWANAS Press, PubLab, and Stage Raw and continues to capture her history from a queer Chicana lens.
📸 A Girl Grows Wings, 2024 Production Photos by Pili Pala, Erika Gomez, and Ti Shen Ang