A raw and urgent story of two undocumented teenagers fighting for love, safety, and a future in a country that promises protection, but often fails to deliver it. Set in post-9/11 Newark, the play unfolds through nonlinear moments within a nondeterministic reality, capturing the disorientation and uncertainty of lives lived in the in-between spaces of contemporary society.

 

In this production, shaped by the ProbabilisticStages approach, SANCTUARY CITY becomes a live system of shifting meaning, where every gesture, pause, and presence creates new emotional realities in the moment of performance. The stage is stripped of superimposed meaning and becomes a charged field of possibility. Here, meaning is not prescripted; it emerges, collapses, and re-forms in real time—a theatre of discovery, not repetition.

 

Directed by Roberto Prestigiacomo, with scenic design by Martha Peñaranda, costumes by Kellie Grengs, lighting design by Lydia Beseth and Carlos R. Nine, and technical direction by Nicholes Hernandez.

 

SANCTUARY CITY had its World Premiere at New York Theatre Workshop, Jim Nicola, Artistic Director, Jeremy Blocker, Managing Director, 2020. SANCTUARY CITY was developed, in part, at the 2018 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab.

 

SANCTUARY CITY is presented through special arrangement with TRW PLAYS 1180 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 640, New York, NY 10036. www.theatricalrights.com