By James Sims

Is the American Dream a reality or fallacy?

And if it still exists, who does it belong to? For Alma—the title character of Los Angeles playwright Benjamin Benne’s newest work—

dreams for her first-generation daughter Angel’s future are built upon a universal hope of a better life as well as more immediate concerns of deportation and security. For Angel, the journey toward understanding why her mother is pushing for a perfect SAT score and admission to a good college is revealed through a bit of typical teenage angst, but ultimately through an

emotional breakthrough for this mother-daughter duo. While bonds are tested, and trust is broken, Alma’s vision for her daughter’s future never wavers. For the sake of the family, Angel simply must achieve the American Dream. After all, that’s what Alma’s visions have shown and

what she believes society demands of this immigrant family.

While the bond between mother and daughter reaches heightened levels of fantastical realism in Benne’s poetic new play, it echoes a grounded familiarity for some of the women bringing Alma to life onstage and their own mothers. Three Latina artists who are creating the production, director Juliette Carrillo and designers Carolyn Mazuca and Tanya Orellana, recently joined

with their mothers in conversation to reflect on the dynamic between Alma and Angel and how it resonates with their own family dynamics growing up under the shadow of the amorphous American Dream.