Brava for Women in the Arts Theater Center

With You Productions

Be Like Water, a new work-in-progress by Kat Evasco examines the mental health impacts of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies on undocumented families through the story of Lorna, the matriarch of a Filipino American family of four women. Tensions build as they come to terms with their differing immigration statuses and the lies that Lorna tells to keep her adult daughters in the dark about their “illegal” status. The family is thrown into further turmoil when Lorna’s daughter decides to leave for the Philippines to see her estranged dying father, knowing she can never return to the US.  

With immigration and the border being among the most divisive political issues during this election year, the media is already saturated with anti-immigrant rhetoric and new legislative measures to criminalize migrants, refugees, and undocumented immigrants. With Asians having the fastest growing number of undocumented immigrants in the United States, Be Like Water is a story intended for immigrant communities and connects deeply with the Asian and Filipino diaspora. “My play aims to humanize immigrant communities and reflect back our dignity and agency to transcend barriers, physical and mental walls created to disempower and disenfranchise our communities, “ states Evasco. There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, and while we are not able to vote in the elections, we have the power to move voters culturally, economically, and politically.