August 4, 2026

Notice to Appear

Irina Kruzhilina
| Under the Radar Festival

January 21-24, 2027

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[Program tbd]

Runtime: 75 minutes

As Part of
Under the radar Festival

a live theatrical performance and staged public tribunal conceived, written, and directed by Irina Kruzhilina.

It exposes the dysfunctional dynamics of the U.S. immigration court system and the often-opaque forces that determine asylum seekers’ fates. This theater work interrogates the roles of those working inside today’s immigration courts and asks what responsibility the public bears for a system operating largely out of sight. Notice to Appear draws on extensive research—including dozens of immigration court observations, public records and interviews with asylum seekers, immigration judges, former ICE attorneys, immigration lawyers and court interpreters. The project has been developed in close dialogue with people whose lives and professions are embedded in the system it examines, including several immigration judges dismissed by the current administration.

Notice to Appear is not a verbatim play. It exists between documentary and fiction, using composite characters, condensed testimony and reconstructed scenes to protect the identities of those whose experiences inform the work while preserving the factual integrity and dramatic force of their accounts. By transforming the immigration courtroom into a theatrical and civic space, Notice to Appear brings a normally hidden world into public view.

Credits

Cast – Kathleen Chalfant, Suli Holum
Ensemble – The NTA ensemble consists of six first- or second-generation immigrant professional actors who perform multiple roles throughout the production. They portray asylum seekers from their own countries of origin, as well as immigration judges, ICE attorneys, lawyers, court interpreters and witnesses appearing before the Tribunal.

Creators – Irina Kruzhilina and Thijs Beuming
Writer and Director – Irina Kruzhilina
Research Dramaturg – Thijs Beuming
Script Dramaturg – John Eisner
Music Direction – Marlon Saunders
Movement Direction – Suli Holum
Visual Echo Producers – Irina Kruzhilina and Sara Stackhouse
Immigration Law Consultants – Lenni Benson (Chair in Immigration and Human Rights Law at New York Law School and Founder of Safe Passage Project), Carmen Maria Rey Caldas (Former Immigration Judge), Olivia Cassin (Former Immigration Judge), Kyle Dandelet (Former Immigration Judge), Karen Musalo (Founder of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies at UC Law San Francisco)

Notice to Appear is produced by Visual Echo in association with Dream Stack Productions. The project is supported by DCLA, NYSCA, LMCC, Peacedale Global Arts, the Venturous Theatre Fund, Joyee Deb and Piyush Jain, and has been developed through residencies at Mercury Store, Baryshnikov Arts Center, MacDowell, North American Cultural Laboratory’s Deep Space Residency and En Garde Arts’ Uncommon Voices program.

The artist

Irina Kruzhilina

bio

Irina Kruzhilina is an award-winning director, playwright, scenographer, experience designer, professor and artistic director working across visual art, live performance and civic engagement. Since 2000, Irina has created performances spanning interdisciplinary theatre, large-scale parades, opera and site-responsive installations. Her work has appeared at Times Square, Tokyo Disney, BAM, Prague National Theatre, the NY Philharmonic, the Barbican Center and ArtsEmerson. In 2024, Irina launched SpaceBridge, a workshop and performance program uniting 20 refugee and American children, most of them new to the stage. Irina is the founder of Visual Echo, a NYC–based organization creating performance and educational programs that foster dialogue across communities. Irina is associate professor at The New School of Drama, where she co-developed and leads the MFA in Contemporary Theatre and Performance. She is a La MaMa resident artist, a MacDowell fellow, and recipient of the 2024 Joan D. Firestone Fund and 2024 Elliot Norton awards.