DREAM ACTS Staged Reading and Discussion Set for NYU's Skirball Center Today

NYU Office of Global Services and the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts present DREAM ACTS, a staged reading and panel discussion today, March 10 at 4 p.m. at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 LaGuardia Place, NYC). Tickets are free; to reserve, click HERE.

The reading stars Carlo Alban*, Heidi Armbruster*, Jackie Chung*, Rachael Holmes*, and Ryan Shams*. Created by The Dream Acts Union and written by Chiori Miyagawa, Mia Chung, Jessica Litwak, Saviana Stanescu, and Andrea Thome, Dream Acts will be directed by Kristin Horton.

In Dream Acts, five undocumented students from Nigeria, Mexico, Ukraine, Korea, and Jordan relate stories of their extraordinary challenges in living ordinary lives under the Homeland Security radar. Each story is moving and urgent; some are funny, others are tragic, and through their experiences, we learn about the DREAM Act and the secret lives led by undocumented students.

The staged reading will be followed by a panel discussion featuring:

Alejandra Rincon, author, Undocumented Immigrants and Higher Education; Dan H. Berger, Esq., Curran & Berger LLP; the playwrights and performers; and undocumented students eligible for proposed DREAM Act benefits.

The panel will be moderated by playwright Saviana Stanescu, founder of Immigrant Artists and Scholars in New York (IASNY), with an introduction by David B. Austell, Ph.D, Assistant Vice President and Director, Office of Global Services, and Associate Professor of International Education, the Steinhardt School.

First introduced in the Senate in 2001, the controversial proposed federal legislation known as the "DREAM Act" (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, S.1291) was conceived as a way for undocumented immigrants to receive specialized assistance related to attending colleges and universities in the United States.

Dream Act was conceived by Chiori Miyagawa.

*Actors appearing courtesy of The Actors' Equity Union.