Latino Theater Company’s Gorgeous Production ‘Just Like Us’ By Karen Zacarías

An incredibly relevant true story…

Latino Theater Company opens its 40th Anniversary Season with award-winning Latina playwright Karen Zacarías’ play Just Like Us. The play is inspired from Helen Thorpe’s best selling non-fiction book of the same name published in 2011 about issues which unfortunately remain relevant today.

It is a luscious production, masterfully directed by Fidel Gomez (Tacos La Brooklyn). François-Pierre Couture’s scenic design is beautifully accentuated by Xinyuan Li’s lighting design and Hsuan–Kuang Hsieh’s projection design. All of the elements of this production come together to create stunning textures and colorful visuals that salute Mexican culture.

Robert J. Revell’s sound design perfectly partners with choreographer Marissa Herrera’s joyful dance numbers to cumbia, ranchera, and banda music. Costume designs are by Maria Catarina Copelli and casting is by Espi Revell.

Elyse Mirto portrays Helen Thorpe, a Denver Reporter who follows the lives of four Latina girls who were young children when their parents entered this country from Mexico. All four of the girls have grown up in the United States, and all four want to live the American dream, but only two have documents.

Mirto is wonderful as Helen’s character-narrator often walking a thin line between internal and external focalization with a pure authenticity. As both shadow and player, Thorpe learns that she will never face the same obstacles as her subjects whose immigration limbo impacts their opportunities and futures for generations.

Standout Performances From a Stellar Cast.

Actresses Blanca Isabella (Marisela), Newt Arlandiz  (Yadira), Noelle Franco (Clara) and Valerie Rose Vega (Elissa) are fantastic. They’re supported by a terrific ensemble cast that includes Brenda Banda, Oscar Emmanuel Fabela, Saul Rodriguez and Sari Sanchez, all impressively playing multiple roles.

Sari Sanchez delivers a standout performance as Lucy, an upper middle-class white student who visits the girls dorm room after a bible study class. Lucy stands by her assumptions about poverty, the working poor and immigrants with cringe worthy passion. She’s unaware her bias is based on misinformation and it turns into an opportunity for them to have an honest conversation that is eye opening for Lucy and the girls.

In a harrowing scene Marisela, flawlessly played by Blanca Isabella, is pulled over by a police officer for a “broken taillight”. The panic, fear, then relief… seemed nostalgic, of another time, perhaps too tidy. If it were today it might have gone a different way.

What is American?

Just Like Us takes on the myth that if an immigrant group “assimilates” to American Culture, White Americans will accept them. But what is American culture? There are many answers to that question. Helen Thorpe is an immigrant from Great Britain and because of the color of her skin, her experience (and opportunities) are profoundly different from her protagonists.

There is a palpable feeling of unease watching this story as 2025 unfolds with state kidnappings, family separations, mass deportations, unlawful detentions and threats to steal American’s birthright citizenship while denying the constitutional right of due process.

This is an important story with necessary and vital information for anyone unfamiliar with the realities faced by immigrants in the United States, because when you know, you know and empathy moves in. Awareness and connection can help dispel the misinformation.

Now playing through May 18, 2025

Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. through May 18 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center, located at 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013. Parking is available for $8 with box office validation at Los Angeles Garage Associate Parking structure, 545 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90013 (between 5th and 6th Streets, just behind the theater). For more information and to purchase tickets, call (213) 489-0994 or go to latinotheaterco.org.

Production photos courtesy Lucy Pollak Public Relations.