Lauren turns her storytelling on herself as she wrestles with how you make peace with a beloved relative who seems unlike you in every way. This beautiful, funny mediation on her South Carolinian grandfather’s life draws on everything from Shakespeare’s King Lear to Bluegrass banjo in a soul-stirring story of legacy, family, Alzheimer’s, World War 2, redemption, love, madness, and the science of memory.

Inspired by Reina Quijada’s real life journey from El Salvador to the US and by L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Somewhere Over the Border embraces the factual and the fantastical in its depiction of one young girl’s pursuit of the American dream. As Reina travels north to the Mexican border, she gathers friends, faces down dangers and holds tight to the memory of the little boy she left behind. Set in the 1970s and propelled by Cumbia, Mexican Mariachi Boleros, American Rock and Hip Hop, this new musical is both fable and family history – and a testament to the determination born of love.

Until Mainstage Productions can be on stage and audiences can safely return to theatres, ATC is pulling back the curtain on the play development process by sharing digital play readings of innovative new works by up-and-coming playwrights. A part of the process to bring a play to the stage, play readings and workshops allow the playwright, director, cast and production staff to hear how a play reads, rework sections and try things out before they’re on stage.