Funded and developed in part by Dramatic Question Theatre

       Sueños is an autobiographical story about a little girl arriving in a foreign land, and her struggle to find her place in this world. The story follows Marina, a little girl from Venezuela, after her parents divorce. Her Mom gets into a terrible car accident with the man she’s been having an affair with. After all hell breaks loose at the hospital, her Dad takes Marina to NYC for the summer. Marina’s reality is turned upside down when she realizes she is never going back to Mom. We follow her trying to navigate a foreign language, new school, and desperately trying to make friends all whilst carrying an index card in her pocket containing her identity. Marina learns she is now illegal and must follow certain rules. She has no one to talk to and her nightmares and worries become unbearable. She’s gifted a set of Worry Dolls and she begins using them every night. Once she’s asleep they immerse themselves in her dream world and help her battle her daemons. Her Worry Dolls are her confidant. Once she begins to feel like she has her footing, her newly divorced Dad’s anger has reached its limit, resulting in the beating of her life, followed by a flight back to Caracas.
      All the years of turmoil, moving, index cards and searching have all lead up to now.  She has finally found herself through story telling—the only place where she is free to speak her own language, to say anything and everything, uncensored, for the first time ever, and without fear of a consequence.

Thank you to the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, The Dramatic Question Theater,  Artspace and The Jim Henson Foundation.

Sueños  is the proud recipient of the 2022 Jim Henson Foundation workshop Grant



Photo by Richard Termine