Created and performed by Migguel Anggelo, English with an Accent focuses on one of the world’s largest refugee crises that too few people are familiar with: Venezuela. Since 2015, more than 6 million Venezuelans have fled their country due to deteriorating economy and security. It’s partly due to a drop in oil prices—petroleum accounts for 97 percent of the country’s exports—along with crime, food shortages, and corruption and repression by Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian government. (“Maximum pressure” sanctions by the U.S. have not helped.) It’s a crisis most Americans don’t have to confront, because the vast majority of immigrants have fled to other Latin American countries. But also because the U.S. government actively and continuously tries to block their entry, sending them to Mexico and Colombia rather than allow them to seek asylum here. Anggelo is one Venezuelan who made it to the U.S. He designed and stars in this ensemble interpretive dance production around his, and others’, migration experience in New York City. The semi-abstract work, a coproduction between GALA Hispanic Theatre and Washington Performing Arts, revolves around the imagery of a monarch butterfly, a modern-day symbol of immigrants used widely in the 2006 marches for immigration reform legislation. Those efforts were not successful, and the status of millions of migrants and refugees remains in limbo, making pieces like Anggelo’s evergreen. April 1 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. $40.
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