Borderlands Theater is making its return to the stage after eight years with a moving family drama that explores love, identity and the unspoken costs of war.
“Claudia’s Family,” an original work by local playwright Julieta Gonzalez, tells the story of the Martinez family as they confront personal tragedy and navigate a changing world in the wake of World War II. The play depicts the challenges and triumphs that shape families across generations.
“The overall message is, what does it really take to accept an outsider?” director Marc David Pinate said. “It's really a story about accepting change. It's also a story about immigration, and anti-immigrant sentiment, and those are big issues that we're seeing today.”
Angela Vasquez, left as Ana, and Jonathan Heras, as Raul, reminisce during a scene in a rehearsal for Borderlands Theater’s production of “Claudia’s Family.” The play’s overall message is “What does it really take to accept an outsider?” director Marc David Pinate said of the play. “It’s really a story about accepting change. It’s also a story about immigration, and anti-immigrant sentiment, and those are big issues that we’re seeing today.”
The show will run from Oct. 30 to Nov. 16 at the Scoundrel & Scamp Theater, 738 N. Fifth Ave., Suite 131, kicking off Borderland Theater’s first traditional theater season since 2017.
Pinate said Gonzalez’s artistic legacy and her dedication to telling the stories of Tucson’s Mexican-American community align closely with the mission of Borderlands Theater, making “Claudia’s Family” the right project for its return.
“It fits right into our mission. It's telling a story of a community that's been rooted in the Sonoran Desert region,” Pinate said.
Borderlands Theater started in 1986 with a focus on stories with social justice undertones and the unique cultural landscape of the borderlands.
“Really, in a nutshell, we're trying to tell the stories of Southern Arizona,” Pinate said. “We're working with all communities rooted in the history of the Sonoran Desert region to tell their story, their lived experiences, through theater and other cultural programming.”
Since 2017, Borderlands has been focused on bringing its work and performances directly into Tucson communities through initiatives like its Barrio Stories Project, a theater-based heritage initiative in Tucson neighborhoods, Pinate said.
Rosanne Couston, as Maria Luisa, contemplates a wall of photos of Europe during World War II in a Borderlands Theater rehearsal of “Claudia’s Family.” The show will run from Oct. 30 to Nov. 16, kicking off Borderland Theater’s first traditional theater season since 2017.
Now, because of new, multi-year grants and support from organizations including the Mellon Foundation and the National Latino Theater Initiative, Borderlands Theater is once again taking to the stage, this time to bring Gonzalez’s story to life.
Gonzalez originally wrote “Claudia’s Family” some 30 years ago, and the play itself is set in 1945, but Pinate said its messages are timeless.
At its core, “Claudia’s Family” is a powerful story of acceptance, and its themes around familial bonds are both relatable and universal, Pinate said.
Sean Patrick, playing Clayton, dives under the dinner table in a PTSD attack in a rehearsal of Borderlands Theater’s production of “Claudia’s Family.”
“I think people can expect a compelling story about a family,” he said. “They can expect to see very honest performances of people being human beings in all their beauty and all their flaws and all the mistakes that they make, and then how they recover from those mistakes.”
The story follows Raul Martinez, played by Jonathan Heras, as he returns to Tucson after World War II, along with his German bride, Claudia, played by Kelli Gonda. With her arrival, the Martinez family is forever changed, and Claudia must navigate her new life in a new land, as two cultures and histories collide in one Tucson household.
Director Marc Pinate offers up his notes to his cast following a rehearsal of Borderlands Theater’s production of “Claudia’s Family.”
“The story is about not just a family growing to accept this new person, but the war brings a lot of changes,” Pinate said. “The younger girls in the family, because they had a chance to work at the airplane factory, they're wearing pants, they don't want to be housewives. So there's these changing gender norms, changing values around gender.”
Pinate said the play reimagines immigration dynamics by placing a white European at the center of a Hispanic family’s scrutiny, while the older generation reckons with shifting gender roles that occurred because of World War II.
Tucson playwright Julieta Gonzalez says the story in “Claudia’s Family” was partially influenced by her own family’s experiences.
“These challenges clearly resonate with our country today, which is why we chose this play,” he said.
Gonzalez, the playwright, was the first Latina to graduate from the University of Arizona’s drama writing master's of fine arts program, and originally wrote “Claudia’s Family” as part of her graduate thesis.
Taylor Hernandez’s Margarita is confronted by her father Juan, played by Guillermo Jones, rehearsing a scene “Claudia’s Family.”
She said she was initially inspired to begin her work as a writer after noticing a lack of diversity and Mexican-American representation in theater.
“I remember being at a performance in the late ’80s, but it started bothering me way before then, that there were no plays by or about Mexican Americans being performed in Tucson,” Gonzalez said.
“I wrote a letter to the artistic director, and I said, ‘I've been a supporter of the theater company for many years, both as a donor and as a season ticket holder. And I'm very disappointed in the fact that there are no plays by, or about Mexican Americans in this area, Latinos, etcetera.’ And he wrote back a very nice letter and said ‘thank you for your letter,’ and something to the effect of, ‘if we had plays to choose from, select from, we would have certainly looked at them for our one of our seasons.’”
Claudia, played by Kellie Gonda, and Juan, Guillermo Jones, get to know one another as they rehearse a scene of Borderlands Theater’s production of “Claudia’s Family.”
That’s when Gonzalez decided it was time for her to pick up the pen and create the kinds of stories she wanted to see.
In writing "Claudia’s Family," Gonzalez said she wanted to highlight the role of Mexican Americans in World War II.
“I wanted to tell the story about the contribution that Mexican Americans made to a very critical historical period in our nation's history that had not been publicly recognized,” Gonzalez said. “That was a very important period of time for Mexican Americans in our community and Latinos nationwide. A lot of changes came about in roles for women.”
Jonathan Heras, left, and Rosanne Couston get their notes on the performances at the end of the rehearsal.
The Martinez family in the story, Gonzalez said, is a microcosm of what happened nationwide, following the end of the war, and the story was partially influenced by her own family’s experiences.
“My dad was a medic in World War II,” she said. “One of my dad's first cousins did indeed bring home a German war bride.”
While the play may be a drama, Gonzalez said “Claudia’s Family” is also about the hope that people had at the end of the war, as well as the love and strength that come from family. She promised there are still plenty of comedic moments in the production.
“That's the thing about drama, you don't put an audience or your characters through very traumatic dramatic events without letting them take a deep breath and laugh,” she said.
Gonzalez said it is a great honor to have her work performed by Borderlands Theater.
“I have absolute 100% confidence in the director and whatever the director's concept will be,” she said. “I'm jumping up and down excited, really am. And I'm very grateful to Jonathan and to Marc and to everyone who is involved.”
The preview showing starts Oct. 30 at 7 p.m., and all seats will be $25.
The play will run Thursdays-Saturdays from Nov. 1- Nov. 16, with shows at 7 p.m., and 2 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays. No show on Nov. 7.
General admission tickets are $35, $30 for military, and $25 for theater artists and students.
You can buy tickets online
