Through 'In To America', the Griffin Theatre Company explores the hope and hardship of diversity.

After almost a decade, the Griffin Theatre Company of Chicago returns to Carmel with a timely play about the immigrant experience. With In To America, playwright and director William Massolia decided to reach as far back in time as the early 17th century, when the Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was established and the history of immigration to North America began.

In only 90 minutes, a cast of 13 veteran actors delivers a human portrait of hope, hardship and what it really means to be an American.

“Jamestown was the place where, at least from the European perspective, immigrants first wrote things that happened to them down,” Massolia says. “I just took actual narratives of individuals. It’s all direct quotes.”

A history buff, Massolia is interested in more than John Smith marrying Pocahontas. “The reality was harsh and cruel. People starved to death or died of disease. We weren’t very friendly to the native population.” All that is reflected in the early part of the play.

In To America consists of multiple narratives structured chronologically and is as much about the colonization of America as it is about immigration. Immigrants came here and then moved West and colonized the rest of the United States. Chicago, for example, became one of the largest migration stopping points for Blacks.

“I didn’t create the play to be political,” Massolia says. “I created the play to show that the power of this country is in its diversity. That said, there was always a group that was sort of pointed out as not being worthy of coming to this country, there was always somebody that didn’t want you here, for one reason or another.”

It’s not the first time Massolia is reaching out to primary sources. When the Griffin Theatre was in Carmel in 2017, they performed Letters Home, a play that used correspondence from men and women who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These days, Massolia is preparing to stage a show titled Revolution 1776, which is told through the point of view not of the Founding Fathers, but “women and enslaved people, young people and kids,” he explains. “I think it’s worth telling the story from the point of view of ordinary people. It’s important to tell it all and remind people why we are the country we are.” 


GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY: In To America. 7:30pm Friday, Oct. 24. Sunset Center, San Carlos at 9th, Carmel. $35-$55. (831) 620-2048, sunsetcenter.org.