Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías
A Surround Project Play Date — One Night Only
San Antonio Premiere
Featuring Kayla Hernandez Friend, Phillip Lopez, Terri Peńa Ross, and Allan Ross
Directed by Eva Laporte
In collaboration with artists Karen Arrendondo, Robert Cardoza, and John Coker
PLAY DATE PRODUCERS | Becky & Greg Haslett, Mary & Steven Bull, Dacota & Jay Haselwood
Join Surround Project for our next Play Date: a one-night-only staged reading that feels social. Enjoy beverages, snacks, surrounding activities, and conversation while experiencing a notable contemporary play that has never been seen in San Antonio.
Claim your seat before your neighbor does.
A hilarious hot-button comedy.
Good fences make good neighbors … right?
You can’t choose your neighbors. In this brilliant new comedy, cultures and gardens clash, turning well-intentioned neighbors into feuding enemies. Pablo, a rising attorney, and doctoral candidate Tania, his very pregnant wife, have just purchased a home next to Frank and Virginia, a well-established D.C. couple with a prize-worthy English garden. But an impending BBQ for Pablo’s colleagues and a delicate disagreement over a long-standing fence line soon spirals into an all-out border dispute, exposing both couples’ notions of race, taste, class, and privilege.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Karen Zacarías is an award-winning playwright whose acclaimed works include The Book Club Play, Just Like Us (adapted from Helen Thorpe’s book), Legacy of Light (Steinberg Citation), Mariela in the Desert (Francesca Primus Prize), and The Sins of Sor Juana (Helen Hayes Award). She also adapted Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents for the stage. Her Theatre for Young Audiences musicals with composer Debbie Wicks La Puma include Einstein Is a Dummy, Looking for Roberto Clemente, and Frida Libre. Chasing George Washington premiered at The Kennedy Center and toured nationally before being adapted into a Scholastic book with a foreword by Michelle Obama. Zacarías has received the National Latino Play Award and been a Susan Blackburn finalist. A graduate of Stanford University and Boston University’s Creative Writing program, she is the first playwright-in-residence at Arena Stage and founder of Young Playwrights’ Theater in Washington, D.C.
For Adults 18+
Content note for those who need it: Surround Project selects contemporary American plays that center on modern life, both its troubles and triumphs.
Please note: all ticket sales are final, and we’re unable to seat late arrivals.
NATIVE GARDENS is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. http://www.concordtheatricals.com
REVIEWS
“A biting, perceptive and ultimately hopeful send-up to our fraught relationships with those around us – even right next door.” – DC Theatre Scene
“A comedy planted in difficult, painful issues.” – Chicago Tribune
“Skillful comedy… bright and witty and clever.” – Cincinnati.com
“A true breath of comic fresh air. It’s a biting, perceptive, and ultimately hopeful send-up to our fraught relationships with those around us – even right next door. Beyond snappy one-liners and garden hose fights, the play challenges audiences to look beyond petty differences and rediscover our shared decency.” – DC Theatre Scene
“A lighthearted comedy with some heavier threads woven through for just the right amount of heft.” – Broadway World
“Sharp, witty writing, lots of laughs, a strong cast, a beautiful set, a sense of currency and immediacy, and an ideal summer length: 90 minutes, no intermission. Everything about it clicks and hums.” – Minnesota Post
“Native Gardens is the best stage comedy of the summer.” – Star Tribune
VENUE
20318 Huebner Rd Suite 125, San Antonio, TX 78258
ACCESSIBILITY
- Digital program available
- Accessible parking + wheelchair accessible parking lot
- Wheelchair accessible entrance
- Wheelchair accessible restroom
- Wheelchair accessible seating
TICKET OPTIONS
- $25 – General Admission Seating
- $40 – Contributor – General Admission (with a lil’ bit extra to support Surround)
- Donations are welcome
- Refreshments available at no additional charge
- Adults 18+
