by Chrissy Alspaugh
This November, Off Night Productions invites audiences to step into the extraordinary true stories of resilience, displacement, and belonging in Off Night Stories: Immigrants, Refugees, & Asylum Seekers. Through live storytelling, individuals who have journeyed to make Bloomington their home will share their stories shaped by hardship, courage, and the pursuit of safety and opportunity.
A women-led nonprofit, Off Night Productions is known for staging contemporary works on non-traditional performance nights, and is particularly committed to the storytelling format and showcasing underrepresented voices, says Aubrey Seader, show director and Off Night Productions’ artistic director.
Performances will be at the Constellation Playhouse, 107 W. 9th St. English-language shows will begin at 2 p.m. November 9 and at 7 p.m. November 10 and 11. A free Spanish-language performance will be held at 7 p.m. November 9. Tickets cost $15 and are available at offnightproductions.org.
Each performance will feature five storytellers speaking for 10 to 15 minutes. While the English-language shows will present the same speakers across all three dates, the Spanish-language performance will feature different voices. Some storytellers will perform their own stories; others will entrust actors to tell them, with identifying details altered to protect their safety. In today’s climate of sudden deportations—even of visa holders and green card residents—telling these stories carries risk, Seader says.
The show was programmed prior to the 2024 election to reflect on immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers in the context of the violence in Ukraine, Gaza, and Afghanistan, Seader says.
She believes it’s now more important than ever to publicly acknowledge and celebrate that “America is a land of immigrants and that the immigrant experience is fundamental to the American dream and ideal.” Seader hopes the show’s current political context allows it to provide a respite from fear and a reminder that on a local level, “we can continue to embrace diversity, embrace immigrants and refugees, and that doing so only makes us better.”
