ISLA, the latest full-length work from acclaimed theater company Hit The Lights!, is a uniquely original family history led by founding company member Samantha Blain. In her Caribbean coming-of-age story, Blain’s American lineage is born when three young women learn that sometimes the real world can be stronger than magic.
Based on the true saga of one family exodus to Miami via the 1960's Freedom Flights, ISLA is a visually sumptuous, musically driven play that evokes the rustic spirit of pre-Castro Cuba’s kitchens, fields, dance halls and public squares. Blain, in the role of her aunt, must ally with her sisters to chart a path to an uncertain and newly imagined future.
This hour-long, all-ages performance features a full original songbook and a driving Latin jazz-influenced score composed and performed live at each show. Cinematic projections, recorded interviews with Blain’s mother, and an extended cast of handmade shadow puppets revitalize this carousel slideshow of generational memory through the exquisite craft of HTL’s technical team.
Echoing the family's odyssey, ISLA’s immersive set is a kinetic picture book in a state of continuous transformation. Photos on the wall rise up and reach through time, a dreamlike menagerie of jungle creatures menace and protect the children, and the cast of actresses shift seamlessly from silhouette to vibrant life.
ISLA unforgettably explores the inherent possibilities of the immigrant’s journey and offers lived insight into how we come to terms with the things we keep and the things we leave behind.
