Elizabeth Keathley, a Filipina immigrant, entered the United States on a K-3 visa to live with her husband, a U.S. citizen. When applying for her driver’s license at an Illinois DMV, Keathley inadvertently said “yes” to the form question of registering to vote, and subsequently received a voter registration card in the mail. With this card, Keathley voted in a midterm congressional election, violating U.S. election law. When the mistake was discovered at her citizenship hearings, the Department of Homeland Security ordered her deportation. Elizabeth Keathley’s case went from Chicago Immigration Court all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Created from verbatim transcripts, THE COURTROOM is an uncanny examination of the U.S. immigration system and one woman at its mercy.

 

“…this is theater as civic meditation…[THE COURTROOM] enlist[s] the spectators as witnesses, exhorting the Americans in the room to consider what our nation is doing in our name and how, if we oppose that, we intend to stop it…As the piece follows her from one courtroom…to another…what is most palpable is the suspense—how deeply invested the audience becomes in the future of this gentle woman.” —The New York Times

 

CAST

ELIZABETH KEATHLEY - Joy Lanceta Coronel

JOHN KEATHLEY - John Code

RICHARD HANUS - Jeff Sherr

GREGORY GUCKENBERGER- Sarah Vazquez

JUDGE CRAIG ZERBE - Jess Mullins Fullen

CHIEF JUDGE FRANK EASTERBROOK - Jessie Jones

JUDGE MICHAEL STEPHEN KANNE - Malcolm Johnson

JUDGE KENNETH RIPPLE - Beks Roen

MARGARET O'DONNELL - Lainey Vazquez

BAILIFF - Ayrial Thompson

 

CREATIVE TEAM

DIRECTOR - Christian Cole Matson

PRODUCTION MANAGER - John Code

STAGE MANAGER - Kaydince Williamson

CULTURAL CONSULTANT - Joy Lanceta Coronel

 

Join Earendel Theatricals for a staged reading of Arian Moayed's THE COURTROOM, presented as a fundraiser for immigrant legal aid in the Catholic Diocese of Lexington. The performance will be followed by a brief Q&A with the cast, creative team, and representatives of diocesan migrant services and immigrant legal aid.