Y No Había Luz

During my theater residency with Y No Había Luz in Puerto Rico, we traveled to various villages still recovering from Hurricane María, devising performances that invited locals to participate and share their own stories of resilience. Together, each day, we built a play. We created an immersive experience rooted in the community’s lived realities: the effects of climate change, disaster relief, and the complexities of colonized identities.

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These interactive performances challenged my conception of what a play could be by demonstrating that storytelling can happen anywhere, in any form, and with any group of people willing to engage. We used visual art, movement, and music to bridge language barriers, encouraging the audience to contribute their own perspectives. In doing so, we blurred the line between performer and spectator, transforming the play into a collective act of defiant joy and solidarity. This experience expanded my understanding of theater as an inclusive, ever-evolving process that thrives when it meets people where they are and responds directly to their urgent, real-world concerns.