What: “Deferred Action,” a play presented by Cara Mía Theatre of Dallas at the University of North Texas’ Department of Dance and Theatre, focuses on an immigrant who unknowingly came into the U.S. without documentation, and is torn on the issue of immigration during a presidential election.

When: 8 p.m. Sept. 21-23 (Thursday-Saturday)

Where: University Theater, Radio Television Film and Performing Arts Building, 1179 Union Circle, Denton, Texas.

Cost: Tickets cost $10 for students, UNT faculty/staff and senior citizens and $15 for adults. Group rates are available. Audience members can purchase tickets at the box office, which is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and one hour before each performance at the Radio Television Film and Performing Arts Building. For more information, call 940-565-2428, email dat-boxoffice@unt.edu or visit the Department of Dance and Theatre online.

What else: After each performance, Spanish professor Teresa Marrero will facilitate a brief question-and-answer session. A panel discussion featuring four activists and organizers with the undocumented youth movement will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. Sept. 21 (Thursday) in RTFP 127, with a reception to follow before the play begins.

More information: Visit UNT’s transportation services website to learn more about parking, including new rules. Patrons have two options for parking:
1.) ADA/handicapped patrons may park directly east of the Radio, Television, Film and Performing Arts Building (RTFP) in Lot 50 in the designated spaces.
2.) Patrons may pay to park through the app ParkMobile in the Union Circle Parking Garage.

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- A play inspired by area students and one of the nation’s most hot-button issues will be performed at the University of North Texas.

“Deferred Action,” presented by Cara Mía Theatre in Dallas, will focus on DREAMers, the immigrants who unknowingly came into the United States without documentation. The show will run at 8 p.m. from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23 (Thursday-Saturday) at the University Theatre, Radio, Television, Film and Performing Arts Building.

In the play, Javier Mejía is a DREAMer whose fate remains up in the air. The issue of immigration looms in the Presidential election. The Democratic candidate doesn’t want it to be a divisive issue, while the Republican candidate promises immigration reform.

The production comes as the Trump administration announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protected such students from being deported. The U.S. Congress is expected to debate the issue.

The play was written by David Lozano and Lee Trull. Lozano, executive artistic director for Cara Mía Theatre, also directed the play. Lorenzo Garcia, chair of UNT’s dance and theatre department, had been in conversations with Lozano about bringing a play to UNT.

“When he called me, it was a no-brainer,” Garcia said. “It’s a timely issue that needs discussion. It doesn’t present an easy answer. It presents the moral dilemmas of those who are struggling.”

For the play, Lozano interviewed DREAMers, including some who attended UNT. After each performance, Spanish professor Teresa Marrero will facilitate a brief question-and-answer session. On the first night of the production, there will be a panel discussion with four activists and organizers in the undocumented youth movement. It will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. Sept. 21 (Thursday) in RTFP Building Room 127, with a reception to follow before the play begins.

Mariela Nuñez-Janes, associate professor of anthropology and event organizer, said the panel will add “an important yet rarely acknowledged and understood perspective to current discussions about immigration.”

“Here in North Texas, the four activists featured in the panel have worked tirelessly to support young people and their families through their fears, they have educated policy makers about the plights of immigrants, they have raised funds for natural disasters, they have volunteered countless of hours to provide information about the rights of U.S. and non-U.S. citizens, they have fasted and put themselves at risk of arrest and deportation.”

The play will tour several cities in Texas from Sept. 15 to Oct. 6, then go to the Encuentro de las Américas, an international convening of leading Latinx and Latin American theater-makers, from Oct. 29 to Nov. 19 in Los Angeles.