Westport Center for Arts explores immigrant issues at Fringe Festival

As the 2013 Fringe Festival gets going, the Westport Center for the Arts has an interesting offering.

“Anonymous: Immigrant Voices” will examine the experiences of contemporary immigrants and the reasons they came here.

Here’s more from the Center:

Actors Walter Coppage, Vi Tran, Erika Crane Ricketts, Armando Herrera, Atul D. Kulkarni, Isamara Cortes Cruz, Isabella Gonzalez, and Sherri Roulette-Mosley recount the first-hand experiences of recent immigrants on their journeys and arrival to the United States.

Based upon playwright Cecilia Lopez interviews with recent arrivals to the country, “Anonymous” focuses on the emotional and physical journeys of immigrants and explores what they left behind and their hopes in a new country. Lopez, an international student from El Salvador, wrote “Anonymous” in an attempt to understand why so many are drawn to re-settle here.

The play is directed by Sheilah Phillip.

More about the performers:

  • Vi Tran is a storyteller, performing artist and arts advocate, He was born near Sai Gon, Vietnam and raised in southwestern Kansas. He began performing as a toddler in the refugee camps of southeast Asia. He has performed with Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, Starlight Theatre, Unicorn Theatre and Coterie Theatre.
  • Erika Crane Ricketts’ recently performed roles in theatre include Mute in “The Fantasticks” (OCTA), Hero in “Much Ado About Nothing” (OCTA), and Nurse Kelly in “Harvey” (Bell Road Barn Players).
  • Walter Coppage has appeared with The Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre, The Unicorn Theatre, The Coterie, KC Actors Theatre and The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. He is a founding member of KC Actors Theatre, an Advisory Board member for The KC FilmFest and KC Jubilee and is The Unicorn Theatre’s Actor Ambassador for the National New Play Network. Coppage has also won principal parts in feature film and television, including the lead in James Ellroy’s Stay Clean and costarring in the mini series Gone In The Night (CBS), The Only Witness (Lifetime), All Roads Lead Home (Showtime), More than Puppylove (Showtime), A Deadly Vision (ABC), Truman (HBO), and the indies, Suspension, The Only Good Indian and Last Ounce of Courage. He recently completed work on the features films, Destination: Planet Negro! , Jayhawkers and the featurette, State Of The Union.
  • Armando Herrera is from Mexico and moved to the US when he was 15 year old (he’s 24 now). He came because his parents brought him; he didn’t know he was going to stay here for so long. He is a student in the JCCC Legal Interpreting Program.  He has performed in the JCCC children’s theatre tour of La Culebra and, played the role of the Lector in Anna in the Tropic, directed by Richard Alan Nichols.
  • Atul D. Kulkarni is originally from Maharashtra, India.  He works as a Structural Engineer at Dearborn Mid-West Conveyor Co. in Fairway Kansas.  Kulkarni has acted in couple of plays, street plays, and skits in Marathi and Hindi languages in the Kansas City area.
  • Isamara Cortes Cruz is originally from Mexico and is a student at Donnelly College. She performed in as part of the cast in Donnelly College’s first theater production.
  • Isabella Gonzalez is going into third grade at Trailwood  Elementary School.  She is in the Mini Stars at Beller Studio and also enjoys taking gymnastics lessons and playing basketball through GABL.  This is her first theater production.
  • Sherri Roulette-Mosley has performed on several stages in NYC, Chicago and mostly KC for over 25 years.  Her most recent local credits include the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre’s production of For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, The Kentucky Cycle, and The Piano Lesson.  She has also performed in productions at the Coterie, Jeric Productions, and InPlays. Roulette-Mosley received her theatre arts degree from Grambling State University.

Details:

  • Performances are 4:30 p.m., Sunday, July 21; 6 p.m., Wednesday, July 24; and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 27.
  • All performances will be held at the H&R Block City Stage Theatre at Union Station, 30 Pershing Road.  Tickets are $10 with a Fringe Festival button.

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