Monthly Archive for April, 2010

“De Novo” runs Off Broadway thru May 16th

On the streets of Guatemala City, gang members were Edgar’s only family…

But he dreamed of a different future. To leave the gang was a death sentence. Coming to the USA was his last hope.

In 2007 photographer Donna DeCesare began a collaboration with playwright Jeffrey Solomon and the Houses on the Moon Theatre company to help tell the gripping documentary tale of 14 year old Edgar Chocoy and his legal struggle to be allowed to stay in the United States.

The play’s narrative is crafted from documentary elements — immigration transcripts, interviews and letters. The stage design recreates Edgar Chocoy’s world with projections of DeCesare’s haunting photographic images of gang life in Guatemala and Los Angeles. De Novo, Part 1: Lil ‘Silent, reconstructs the poignant true story of Edgar Chocoy’s fate, and a case whose outcome prompted a national outcry and a fundamental reconsideration about the way in which the government handles the many thousands of “alien” minors in immigration custody.

Now from April 28th to May 17th, the play which has travelled to law schools and theatre festivals around the country will have its OFF BROADWAY debut, featuring a post-show Digital Image Exhibition from the web project Destiny’s Children: A Legacy of War and Gangs by award-winning Photojournalist Donna DeCesare.

WHEN: April 28th through May 16th, 2010
WHERE: 59E59 St. Theaters, 59 E. 59th St., NY, NY 10022 (between Madison and Park Ave.)
For more information, performance schedule and to buy tickets: www.59E59.org

UPDATE: Donna DeCesare will participate in a Talk Back after the May 2 performance, which is sponsored by the DART Center for Journalism and Trauma.