What This Place Makes Me

“You are going to face here the web of cultural quandaries of family, home, place and most of all, Being. Multi-sensory and multi-vocal forces will drag you across the immigrant and stage universe. Bilingual breath will surround you—India, Africa, Middle East, Korea and the triturating screams of river-crossing water in its borderland phantasmagoria. You are going to be loved, and pulled, teased, blurred, mud-mashed and sculpted by stories, longings, losses and migrant-soaked river blood. A new grammar, a new rhythm of writing, speaking, performing, sounding, movement and Queer speakers will thrash you—is this the immigrant experience? Is this America? Arrival? Accommodation? Is this Transcendence? Or is this Immigrant Liberation? Fractured spaces, cultures and the gone shackles of true persons call for a new Freedom. Wait until you meet La Sirena, the border river, freakish Mermaid riding your back - part Virgen de Guadalupe, part LLorona, part Mouth-spirit of the migrant drownings, howling through the fences of “Fascist” Border Guards. I bow to these brave writers. Each play and voice steps toward Humanity, Unity, Deep Reality, Borderland-Talk, the Unknown that America fears. We have been waiting for such Enlightenment, Art & Love. We are not ‘Invaders.’ Bravissimo, a Miracle, a ground breaking, prize-winning set and chorus of Truth.” —Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States, Emeritus

"This ground-breaking anthology shows us the people we are becoming; a nation of multilingual intimacies, our hearts split between homelands. The bold, visionary playwrights in What This Place Makes Me shatter stereotypes, and reveal the deep and beautiful human truths inside the immigrant experience." —Héctor Tobar, author of Our Migrant Souls

“This vibrant and thrilling collection of groundbreaking plays explodes well-worn 20th-century tropes around immigration to show that movement across borders is central to the story of humanity. These plays make us feel, make us think, open up new worlds, and exemplify some of today’s best dramatic writing.” —David Henry Hwang, Tony and Grammy Award–winning playwright

“This extraordinary assembly of plays speaks to the range of brilliant writing on the many meanings of being an ‘American.’ Each text projects a unique voice and a revelatory vision of immigration, belonging, and what it means to make a home in this nation. Stavchansky's selections resonate off of each other, and lead to a luminous portrait of how the theater can tell the stories that make us who we are, and help us see each other more clearly.” —Melia Bensussen