aria Hinojosa talks about TRUST: SECOND ACTS IN YOUNG LIVES, where a young Latina immigrant works with an Illinois based theater company to create a play from her harrowing true-life story. Listen here.
Directed, produced and written by Nancy Kelly, TRUST: SECOND ACTS IN YOUNG LIVES begins in a small neighborhood theater where a group of teenage actors receives a standing ovation. They are glowing. A long journey has brought them to this moment. With the applause, there are tears, smiles, and feelings of pride and accomplishment. The journey they celebrate began eight months earlier when one member of the ensemble, 18-year-old Marlín, told her story to a circle of her peers. It is a traumatic account. Marlín endured rape as young girl, survived a harsh and difficult journey from Honduras to the United States, suffered further abuse at the hands of her own brother, fell into substance addiction, and finally began a process of recovery. The theater company, Albany Park Theater Project (APTP), then used her story to create a play, Remember Me Like This, which ran for seven straight weeks to a full house. The process of creating the play is the subject of the film TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives. The teens in TRUST talk about how important the story is to them and how dedicated they are to it, even while many do not tell their friends or family about their roles in the play.
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