Artist's Statement: Adapting T. C. Boyle's novel The Tortilla Curtain and Subsequent Production by the San Diego Repertory Theatre

Abstract

From March 17 to April 8, 2012, the San Diego Repertory Theatre produced my stage play adapted from T. C. Boyle's 1995 novel The Tortilla Curtain. Broadly speaking, the novel and the play explore xenophobia, racism, economic inequality, and the power and responsibility of citizenship—and the vulnerability of those who lack it—within the context of undocumented migration from Mexico to the United States. What follows are an artist's statement and four responses to the San Diego Repertory Theatre's production of Tortilla Curtain.