I have always loved the theater.
Last week the theater became real life for me. The renowned Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis put on a legal training course, referred to as CLEs, for local lawyers called Merchants of Faith: Bias in the Litigation of Religous Belief. It is scheduled for tomorrow as well and then available by podcast. http://www.guthrietheater.org/learn/classes/calendar
In this class, the actors performed scenes from Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” in order to provide an example of religous bias inside and outside the courtroom. Then, while the lawyers in the audience/classroom breathed a sign of relief at how far we have come as a society, at least in terms of bias in our jurisprudence, the actors performed 3-4 additional scenes from immigration court decisions. I felt the collective horror from the audience as it realized that religious bias continued in our courts even today.
One of the scences acted out was a current case of mine, used with my client’s permission as long as her name was kept confidential from the audience/classroom. You see, the immigration judge has not made a decision on her case yet, although the hearing was over three years ago.
In this case, the judge does not believe my client truly is a Catholic because she had two abortions as a teenager. So, he is conflicted about granting her asylum claim — because in his view, a real Catholic would not have gotten an abortion. I am not so sure the Chinese government would care about this distinction, especially when the Chinese government forces women to abort their pregnancies in some areas of China, even in the last month of pregnancy.
The stories presented in immigration court are unbelievably dramatic and ripe for the stage. Violence, military coups, families and countries torn asunder, dire poverty and starvation, broken allegiances, broken hearts, romance under great stress and so on.
To witness talented actors perform an immigration court transcript is to bring this drama to a new level and to make these stories accessible to a wider audience.
Plus it is just good theater. If it weren’t so real.
Go, Guthrie.
Peace,
Elizabeth
