New play ‘Abuelita’ centers culture, community at Capri Theater

“Abuelita,” a play that centers BIPOC actors and stories while highlighting the work of women whose labor sometimes goes unnoticed, will make its premiere at the Capri Theater on March 14.

The piece follows 72-year-old white grandmother Davia and her mixed-race grandson, Jesús, as they move to 1993’s Spanish Harlem. After her daughter dies, Davia wants Jesús to be immersed in his culture.

Written by Nathan Yungerberg, directed by Shà Cage and presented by PRIME Productions, “Abuelita” showcases a new beginning for the two through setting and culture.

As the director, Cage said she believes the story is a coming-of-age story for Jesús and a look at what it means to love someone and nurture them. The story spotlights grandmothers, aunts and other women who show up for young Black and brown boys.

“They are the invisible worker bees throughout society, throughout centuries here locally even in the Twin Cities,” she told the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. “They do the work that keeps showing up, they carry the bricks on their back, they lug the water and it’s sometimes a thankless task but they do it because they know that it’s essential.”

Highlighting these members of the community, and telling a story from a person of color, is important, Cage said.

Yungerberg expanded on his personal influence in a February press release.

“For many of us, our identities change over time, and we must figure out who this new person is. And when the people we love are on this journey, we walk it with them,” he said. “I was a Black midwestern child raised in a white family, and now I’m a Black man raising his two mixed race Puerto Rican children in New York City. Yes, it can feel like the ground is shifting underneath your feet, but are you going to respond by falling, or are you going to dance?”

Yungerberg’s ability to include his own personal experience as a person of color makes the story authentic and original, Cage said.

“Being able to grab on and uplift these narratives from playwrights of color is not only a radical act but should be something that more theaters are doing,” Cage said. “It attempts to balance the scales on one end but I think on the other end, it’s just offering a very full plate for communities, not just communities of color, but definitely for communities of color and artists of color as well.”

The first show being at the Capri Theater feels right, Cage said, because it is a BIPOC story.

“I love the proximity of this type of story being right on the North Side … I’m excited to bring to life a story that really kind of luxuriates in the storytelling, the art of storytelling and that we get to witness so many beautiful people of color on stage.”

The script for “Abuelita” came to PRIME Productions through a recommendation from director Sue Lawless, according to the press release.

“We quickly fell in love with Davia and Jesús’s journey and the wise, sassy community of Nuyorican women they meet,” the release said. “After a well-received online staged reading in 2022, we partnered with the Playwrights’ Center for a 2023 workshop. With the support of an MSAB grant awarded in early 2024, we are thrilled to bring this powerful story fully to life.”

However, it was stressful to decide to continue putting on a play during the ICE occupation, Cage said.

“I think the story didn’t just drop in PRIME productions lap, I believe that there’s a reason for everything and timing is part of a master plan,” she said. “I think it is really essential that we tell the story now in a time where the climate is just so anxious and many people have decided that they don’t want to come out and definitely not necessarily partaking in live theater.”

Theater helps keep people’s motors moving, Cage said.

“When communities are constantly being traumatized, it is so easy for the ‘go to’ to be shut down… folks stopping, folks becoming complacent or numb. I think theater drives folks to know that there is a better way, that there are options. It puts up a mirror for them to see themselves.”

Some of the best social change right now is actually joy, Cage believes.

“Thank you for theater, for being brave, for showing up, for not giving up, for giving us a journey that allows us to kind of step into that light.”

“Abuelita” is not all flowery, but it is essential, Cage said.

PRIME Productions, a theater production company based in the Twin Cities, was founded to amplify the stories of women over fifty.

Writer Yungerberg said he is proud the play found its first home where it did, in the press release.

“The women of PRIME understand that visiting uncomfortable places to stake out a space for yourself can be fun, joyous, and affirming!”

The company is committed to embracing diverse perspectives across genders, race, sexual orientation and abilities, according to the press release. That commitment translated onto the cast, crew and rehearsals.

Cage said this diversity in race and age helped build a strong community and is especially important for emerging actors.

“I believe that [actors of color] deserve like anybody else to be in the center of the circle and a story like this does that… a lot of times places like Minnesota, the Midwest, et cetera, BIPOC actors are the only one or one a few so stories like this allow them to be surrounded by that very full orbit of other people of color,” she said.

Earlier this week during a rehearsal, Cage saw that sense of community in action. One of the elder actors in the cast was struggling through a scene, and Cage witnessed everybody deciding to come in early and rally around her.

“That’s the kind of stuff that puts goosebumps on my arms and reminds me of why I do theater because nobody’s gonna see that but we have our microcosm of ‘what does beautiful community look like?’”

“Abuelita” will run from March 14–29 at the Capri Theater. Tickets are “pay as you are.”

For tickets and more information, visit www.simpletix.com/e/abuelita-by-nathan-yungerberg-tickets-253724.

Damenica Ellis welcomes reader responses at dellis@spokesman-recorder.com.