Something from Abroad
Company Mission
Something from Abroad produces material from a variety of cultural backgrounds to bring stories from abroad and give them a voice in today’s America.
We are a theater company started by a couple of “broads” from abroad. We are proud to promote original art created by women.
Our mission is to provide an opportunity for actors from all over the world to perform on a stage in New York. We tell the stories of our people and our struggles as immigrants. We embrace the differences that an international ensemble brings to the table, and we make this diversity our strength.
The name Something from Abroad is a wordplay. The company was started by a couple of “Broads” from “Abroad”.
That name came up in a meeting trying to figure out how to start a production company. We knew one thing; we had to create our own work… This is how we produced our first play: Martha, our Artistic Director wrote a “Pastorela” back in 2016. A “Pastorela” is a Mexican genre in theater that takes the Nativity story and turns it into a political satire. She called her friends and although none of them had any idea of how to stage a play in NYC… And they all said YES!
They immediately contacted their teachers and asked for their advice, they pointed them towards several small theaters in the city and ended up at the doorstep of the Under St. Marks Theater.
Erez Ziv met them at the theater, showed them around and asked about the play. They said, “We have no idea of what we are doing, we know nothing about lights or sound or anything”.
He said “Don’t worry, we have plenty of people here that know all that”
That was it.
We came from different backgrounds; in the cast we had people from Boston, Canada, Colombia, Connecticut, Croatia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Tennessee. Our diversity was our strength, and we had one thing in common, we all said LET’S DO IT!Shortly after that, we staged “Dog Sees God” and the next summer we were asked by Erez Ziv to join Frigid NY as a resident company.
And that is how Something from Abroad was born! Since then we have produced plays in English, Spanglish and Spanish with English subtitles. A Day of the Dead musical, a Cabaret, a Telenovela parody, the Pastorela, a festival of short plays and a couple of Shakespeare plays in Spanish.
