Jump-Start Performance Co. presents two actos about the on-going US-Mexico border crisis: 

PAYASA USA, written and directed by Marisela Barrera, and FRONTERA FRONTIER, written and performed by Barrera, August 16, 17 and 18 at Jump-Start Theater, 710 Fredericksburg Rd. in San Antonio, Texas, 78201. Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Sunday matinee at 5 p.m. Performance runs about one hour and ten minutes without an intermission.

Dreamers, Payasas, y la Frontera Frontier tickets are choose-what-you-pay: $20/$15/$10. No additional discounts apply. Audience decides how much to pay. Tickets can be purchased at the door, online via Facebook, or by calling 210-227-5867. Advance purchase is recommended as seating is limited. For more information, visit our Facebook page @jumpstartperformanceco or call 210-227-5867.

ACTO NUMERO UNO:

PAYASA USA finds Mom, a professional clown from Mexico City, in present-day San Antonio, Texas. Her teen Daughter is a Dreamer who hates performing alongside Mom, but is looking forward to their make-it-or-break-it performance at the Henry B. Together they decide what is worth sacrificing in today’s USA. PAYASA USA is not a clown show for kids. It is a performance for a city, a state, a country, that has gone beyond morality. The performance features actors Holly Nañez and 14 year-old Valentina Barrera-Ibarra (Barrera’s daughter), comedian Mark Riojas, and musician Jaime Ramirez, former Barnum & Bailey Circus Music Director.

ACTO NUMERO DOS:

FRONTERA FRONTIER is inspired by Barrera’s experience as a guest artist with Kitchen Dog Theater and Cry Havoc Theater from Dallas. Together—over six days—they interviewed dozens of people about immigration in the Rio Grande Valley: refugees and immigrants at camps, bridges, detention centers, and bus stations; ICE officials; public defenders and federal judges; artists and dragtivists; priests and nuns; water station replenishers, human rights watchers; and Angry Tias y Abuelas. Barrera presents a performative adaptation of her commentary from this experience called “Frontera Frontier: Chaos on the US-Mexico Border,” originally published in https://brooklynrail.org/2019/05/field-notes/FronteraFrontier and now available on most podcast platforms as the first episode of “Tejana Rasquacha: Living and Loving in Texas.”