A new play adapted for the stage by Alvaro Saar Rios (Associate Professor and Area Head, Theater Practices) had its world premiere in Milwaukee this month. “Esperanza Rising,” based on the novel by Pam Munoz Ryan, premiered at First Stage. The production also features original music by UWM alum Dinorah Márquez (MM 2021, Music).
The coming-of-age drama follows Esperanza, a young girl in 1930s Mexico forced to flee to America due to political unrest. First Stage’s production was recently reviewed by Russ Bickerstaff for Shepherd Express and Jim Higgins for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bickerstaff called it “an impressively complicated adaptation of the children’s book that engages both adult and child actors,” while Higgins praised the clever use of narrators to tell the story.
Read the articles on Shepherd Express or Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.