Vanessa Garcia's Play 1,000 Miles Is Open to Interpretation

Imagine a play that can tackle all sorts of unique yet distinct social issues and has the ability to resonate differently depending on the geographical location of where the production is set up. That is precisely what playwright Vanessa Garcia has done with her latest work, 1,000 Miles, which is having its world premiere with New City Players under the direction of associate artistic director Elizabeth Price at Island City Stage in Wilton Manors on Friday, March 8.

Speaking to New Times over the phone, Garcia struggles to get her headphones to connect before abandoning the technology altogether. It's a handful of days before the premiere, and she has yet to see a full rehearsal.

"This is one of those things that's a very long time coming, and then all of a sudden, it's here," Garcia says of the play she first wrote back in 2015. "This process for me has really been one to learn to let go," she adds with a chuckle.

Whereas she is traditionally more involved in producing her work, she knew that this collaboration with New City Players and her production company, Abre Camino Collective, was a union she could wholly trust. "I have felt the beauty of partnership through my own company and through this new company that we're now embracing as both friends and partners. It's very interesting because the play itself is about all of this," she says.

Although the playwright has known Price for years, this will be the first time the two team up on a production. She describes her experience working with the Fort Lauderdale-based theater company as refreshing. The two teams understood each other harmoniously from their first meeting. "They're such an authentic and genuine company," Garcia gushes.

The show will be an interactive experience for audiences. It's not quite immersive — yet. The playwright says the intent for 1,000 Miles is to one day develop it into a proper immersive play.

"We're playing with a couple of those touch points on what people feel when they do them," Garcia explains. "So there is an interactivity, but it's definitely still a stage play. I feel that the places that I've been able to explore by having the world premiere [of 1,000 Miles] this way have gone really deep and profound in what I want the play to say and do. It's been a total joy to experience."
The work was created with the intent that it would be a traveling tale that could easily fit anywhere there are borders. "When I first started writing [1,000 Miles], my dream was that this play plays on borders, like literally on geographical borders," Garcia says. "It was always meant to be this thing that could travel and that the places that are in this show are reflective and relevant to where you're standing."

Garcia recalls how, throughout the last nine years, as the play has been workshopped in different U.S. cities, audiences continue to have a unique reaction depending on their geography. When it was performed in California, for instance, audiences said it was about issues in China. And, naturally, Garcia knows Miami audiences will likely associate this production with Cuba.

The story centers around a woman who arrives in a city 1,000 miles across the sea. She arrives at this unknown place, having lost everything. "What she brings with her are these skills and these tools that are either going to make her or break her. It's essentially a refugee story," Garcia says.

Another interpretation the playwright offers is how the show is about the connection between borders. "How do we listen to each other? What is democracy right now? How do we learn to hear through the noise? How do we actually pay attention to each other?" she posits.

But upon entering into production of 1,000 Miles, Garcia knew she wanted to rewrite the ending, which felt too gloomy. After a personal health scare that left Garica in the hospital, she rewrote the ending from a hospital bed with a fresh perspective on life.

"I feel where I've come to is that this piece is a lot more hopeful," she says. "And it does provide hope and light, and it does give us a sense that you can create a better future. There's so much darkness in so many places right now that I really feel the need to say, 'I'm a creative, and therefore, I can create a better future.'"

1,000 Miles. Friday, March 8, through Sunday, March 24, at Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Hwy., Wilton Manors; newcityplayers.org. Tickets cost $25 to $40. Performances Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.