Borderlands Theater

Borderlands theater strives to build equitable, joyful, and meaningful collaborations with the local community through innovative theatre and responsive cultural programs ingrained in the heritage, narratives, and lived experiences of peoples rooted across the Sonoran Desert.

As a theatre company storytelling is our expertise. Through original plays and creative placemaking strategies we foster a sense of belonging, pride, and social cohesion to diverse communities of Tucson and Southern Arizona. We use theatrical spectacle to amplify heritage and historical narratives in large, outdoor, public settings that are free and accessible to family members of all generations. Our flagship program, Barrio Stories - a theater-based heritage festival grounded in oral history collection - centers Southern Arizona's historic barrios as reservoirs of Sonoran heritage, folkways, and values. In Barrio Stories Nogales (2022), we uplifted historical narratives of a porous border where people, goods, and culture moved freely to produce artists, cuisine, and culture unique to the borderlands. That project fueled ongoing efforts by merchants and artists to turn Nogales' downtown Morley Avenue into an Arts District that will provide new economic and cultural opportunities.

As the only Latinx theatre serving all of Southern Arizona, we have taken our artistry and expertise far and wide - to the rural town of Ajo, Arizona where we've developed and shared our new work-in-process; the Tohono O'odham Nation in Sells, Arizona where we helped O'odham youth tell their stories; to historic barrios throughout Tucson where our ethnographic based theatrical works have given Tucsonenses a renewed sense of pride and belonging. Borderlands Theater has collaborated with nationally renowned Latiné theater makers like when we developed and premiered Luis Alfaro's "Electricidad" (2003) prior to its production at Chicago's Goodman Theatre; premiered Emmy winning writer Hilary Betis' "Ghosts of Lote Bravo' (2016); developed and premiered Virginia Grise's adaptation of Helena Viramontes' "Their Dogs Came With Them;" and hosted Richard Montoya and San Francisco based Campo Santo for the development and premier of "Nogales: Storytellers in Cartel Country" (2016). We continue to work with some of the nations top theater makers, dramaturgs, and playwrights.

Collaboration with our community in all phases of new work development is the bedrock of our process. We establish of a resident steering committees who work with lead artists for up to two years advising and co-designing projects Using an ethnographic fieldwork model, we collect oral histories from elders which become the basis of our plays. We hold community development readings and ask for feedback in various modes to ensure we are telling the community's story accurately. We cast local folks of all ages for many productions having them work alongside professional actors, designers, and directors.