Border Crossing, by Off Leash Productions

Off-Leash Area brings us yet another inventive physical-theater production — this time told through the voices of the Sonoran Desert. Two-time Ivey Award honorees Jennifer Ilse and Paul Herwig team up to direct Border Crossing, written by Jerome Fellow and Anishinaabe playwright Marcie Rendon, with an original score by Ben Siems. Rendon’s story follows a young girl as she traces her immigrant parents’ footsteps across the Arizona/Mexico border, crossing the Sonoran Desert along the way. True to Off-Leash Area’s visual style, the production fuses dance, ritual, and puppetry to illustrate the much-traveled journey to a better life. With a cast of 17, portraying the desert air, creatures, and migrants, Border Crossing brings to light the complexity of the current political debate.