Read the full article by Odin Rasco at Sacramento News & Review and RAM’S New Times Magazine
“The desert is no place for the restless; there are no dreamers here, for you cannot drink dreams,” says the character Sophie in the play “Nosotros la Gente.”
“Nosotros La Gente” (We the People, for those of you who haven’t been keeping your Duolingo streaks alive) is a new original work by B Street Theatre Executive Producer and playwright Jerry Montoya that explores big themes like dreams, duty, love, sacrifice and resilience.
Inspired by Montoya’s family history and rooted in the Coachella Valley in the 1940s, the play watches love, dreams and lives bloom and wither in the desert sun and the shadow of World War II. When Santiago (Jaime José Hernández) becomes one of the first men from the valley to enlist in the military before American involvement in WWII, his partner Sophie (Andrea San Miguel) and his brother Salvador (Arusi Santi) continue their lives in the valley, waiting for his return.
The story that unfolds over “Nosotros La Gente” in its two-hour-or-so runtime is personal and sincere, with a warmth that avoids veering into saccharine sentimentality. The script successfully walks a tightrope tonally, where serious moments are softened by instances of levity without that lightness undermining or devaluing the weight of the situation at hand.