Next Act Theatre presents: SANCTUARY CITY

King Hang and Ashley Oviedo in Next Act Theatre's production of SANCTUARY CITY, through October 5, 2025, in Milwaukee. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

By Mary Boyle

The 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Maryna Majok is an immigrant.  Born in Poland but raised in New Jersey, her work tends to focus on the lives of immigrants or the struggles of working-class people, such as in Cost of Living, her prize-winning play.  In SANCTUARY CITY, which premiered in 2020 and is the opening production in Next Act Theatre's 2025/26 season, Majok tackles some of the hardships of being the child of undocumented immigrants in the post-9/11 United States.

On a cold night in New Jersey, we meet two teenagers known only as G (Ashley Oviedo) and B (King Hang), school friends and the children of undocumented immigrants (aka, DREAMers) who are both encountering different but common problems for kids in their situation.  In a series of rapid vignettes, we learn that G is constantly taking refuge at B’s to escape an abusive stepparent – her mother can’t call the police because that would reveal their immigration status, just as B makes up excuses for when she misses school because signs of physical abuse could lead to an investigation that would also reveal their immigration status, getting them deported from the only home she has ever known.  Meanwhile, B’s coming up against his own difficult choice: his single mother, in fear of being discovered, has decided to return home but, being so close to graduation, B does not want to go with her.  Then again, even if he stays and finishes school, as an undocumented immigrant, he doesn’t qualify for financial aid for continued education, so he has no hope of going to college, not to mention the limited choices of jobs he must find in order support himself, while living in constant fear of being discovered and sent back to a country he’s never lived in.

The term “Sanctuary City” was used for places like Newark, New Jersey, where law enforcement and city agencies practiced a “don’t ask” policy on immigration status, making it a little easier to live without fear of being deported – though that status did nothing to stop federal immigration agencies, so the risk was always present.  Before DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was introduced in 2012, the children of undocumented immigrants had no legal protection – unable to apply for federal aid or even work legally, they faced constant fear of being deported, even if they were born in the United States and never lived in their parent’s country of origin.  One of the few paths to permanent residency was marrying a US citizen and, in the story, when G gets her citizenship because her mother finally receives hers, she decides to use it to help B get his by doing the only thing she can: marrying him.  Unfortunately, this path is not as simple as it seems.

Directed by Jake Penner, Sanctuary City utilizes the power of live theatre to put a human face on groups of people who are marginalized, or worse, demonized to score political points in a game where nobody wins.  These two friends trying to hang on to each other – clinging to the only safety and sanctuary they’ve known – underscores how love and belonging should transcend citizenship.

Understudy for the role of G, Patricia León de la Barra, happens to be a Venezuelan international student at Marquette University and has played G in a production there in 2024, finding her to be a character she can really identify with and a story that is all too relevant right now:

“SANCTUARY CITY shows how policies that seem abstract on paper devastate real lives, dictating who gets to feel safe, who gets to love freely, and who is forced into impossible choices.  Though set in the early 2000s, its story mirrors today’s reality: a nation still denying immigrants’ belonging.”
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Both Oviedo and Hang deliver strong performances in this production.  I particularly liked the first section of the play and its rapid vignettes, which told a compelling and moving story about what these kids faced at that time, but I am still unsure how I feel about the direction the play takes after that, which is on the writer, not the actors.  Without committing any spoiler sins, I will just say that the additional layer of complexity and hardship that the playwright adds, I feel, only serves to take attention away from the heart of the issue and, though I certainly don’t need a play to end in a neat and tidy bow, this ending doesn’t seem to serve the story well which, to me, should be to open people’s hearts and minds on the topic of immigration.  The story takes you there and then it gets a bit too messy to be the deep awakening of empathy and compassion I would like the play to be.  Let me know what you think.
 
SANCTUARY CITY runs through October 5, 2025, at the artistic home of Next Act Theatre, located at 255 S. Water Street in Milwaukee.  To learn more or purchase tickets, go to https://nextact.org  or call (414) 278-0765.
 
About Next Act Theatre
Since 1990, Next Act Theatre has been engaging the hearts and minds of audiences with intimate, compelling productions intended to stimulate thought, foster the exchange of ideas, and promote the development of new perspectives and understanding.  Next Act believes that stories work best when they involve characters in the midst of a struggle or a quest. Audiences identify with them, becoming emotionally and intellectually invested. The character’s situation, tragedy or triumph becomes the audiences’ to endure, mourn or celebrate. The theatre proves itself, then, as essential to the nourishment of our human spirit by bringing us together to examine, experience and explore the human condition, perhaps coming away with knowledge and perspective that only a good story can deliver.