Bilingual play in Lawrence to put Latino stories on the stage in Spanish language with English subtitles – The Lawrence Times

“Quisiera invitar a todos los hispanohablantes para que vengan a ver una obra que valoriza su experiencia de inmigrante en su propio idioma,” said Sofiana Olivera, inviting Spanish-speakers to enjoy a play in their language about the immigrant experience.

Olivera is the auteur behind “El Árbol de Aguacate,” or “The Avocado Tree,” which will be performed in Spanish with English subtitles at the Lawrence Arts Center next week. 

“El Árbol de Aguacate” follows three adults in an unnamed country experiencing social and political upheaval. As they face the decision to immigrate, one tries to apply for a visa, one migrates without documentation and one stays in their home country.

The play follows the course their lives take from these pivotal decisions, and the experience of the generation that comes after them, illustrating the sacrifice and resilience of people confronted with the formidable decision to leave home.

Olivera is an avid reader who always dreamed of putting pen to paper for an audience. “El Árbol de Aguacate” sprouted from the small seed of a 15-minute satire planted well more than a decade ago. She kept hearing rhetoric on the news that undocumented immigrants should get to the back of the line.

“And I thought, do they really understand what the back of the line is?” Olivera said. “There’s no line.”

Her own experience applying for an American visa informed the original satire, which developed into an intergenerational saga over time.

“The play shows that it’s not evil people that come, it’s average people that come because they have a desire to survive, which is a human desire,” she said. “They have a desire to improve their lot in life, which is a human desire.”

“El Árbol de Aguacate” was initially written in English, but Olivera chose to translate the script into Spanish so that her community could see themselves and their loved ones on the stage.

“Language carries your emotions and your deepest feelings are carried in your original language,” Olivera said. “… So if I present it in Spanish for a Spanish audience, they will feel and understand that play so much better, and I wanted to give them that gift, that they could understand and enjoy the play in their own language.”

She suspects that this is the first fully-Spanish production in Kansas.

Director Jerry Mañan, who has long been a part of the regional acting scene, has never been involved in a show performed entirely in Spanish.

Whether it’s 5% or 99% of their vocabulary, Mañan said Latinos in America often incorporate Spanish into their daily dialect. Though Olivera’s play is still only one refraction of a broad Latino experience, he felt that the translation brought a more genuine tale to the stage.

“It’s just so representative of our everyday, today, experiences, that I think neglecting that part of our lives feels like we are masking our story and our experiences,” he said.

Mañan has pulled together a fully Latino-identified cast for the upcoming production. He hopes the play helps move the needle toward more Latino representation in theatre, from actors to technicians to stage managers and more.

“Especially for the Latino community, we need those stories,” Mañan said. “… Our population is growing and we are consumers just like everybody else. We need to relate to our stories and learn about our ourselves and our experiences through these stories.”

Even as “El Árbol de Aguacate” provides Latino representation, Olivera emphasized its nearly universal themes. Except for Native American communities and ancestors of those brought to the United States through the transatlantic slave trade, Americans are the result of generations of migration.

“Migration is a universal event,” Olivera said. “It’s happened throughout history. It’s happened since Moses in Egypt, and it will continue to happen. People move around the world because of social problems, because of climate problems, because of wars … people from around the world have come to this country, and with them, they bring their history, they bring the food that they like, the language that they speak.”

Olivera said she doesn’t want to tell her audience what to believe or feel. She hopes to shed light on the numerous implications of leaving one’s home and family, with the uncertainty of ever being reunited.

“If you are against immigration, you should come to this play,” she said. “You will learn a lot. If you’re in favor of immigration, you should come to this play. You will learn a lot of things that, if you are not personally an immigrant, or have a family member that is an immigrant, you don’t understand the sacrifices people make to come to a different land.”

Attend the show

“El Árbol de Aguacate” will run from Thursday, Sept. 18 through Sunday, Sept. 21 at the Lawrence Art Center, 940 New Hampshire St. Mañan, Olivera and their team strove to provide multiple, accessible viewing avenues.

Tickets to the final dress rehearsal on Thursday, Sept. 18, are pay-what-you-can. Prices range from free to $20, depending on the individual’s discretion. Get tickets at this link.

The official show run is from Friday through Sunday, Sept. 19 to 21. Tickets are $18 for general admission; $10 for military, veterans and first responders; and $12 for students and seniors. The Saturday, Sept. 20 performance will also be livestreamed, with tickets costing $10. See all times and purchase tickets at this link. 

Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), community reporter, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

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