Scenic Design by Leigh Henderson

Teatro Visión (San José, CA), October 2007

By Evangeline Ordaz

Directed by Elisa Marina Alvarado

Visitor’s Guide to Arivaca (Map Not to Scale) unfolds through a series of vignettes on both sides of the border between Arizona, United States and Sonora, México, exploring conflicting perspectives on immigration.

The scenery highlights the desert itself, which shapes the life experience of all the characters in the play. Above the stage, panels with lights create a night sky that shows the different faces of the desert at different times of day.

“Fuchsia and orange rays dance high in the sky above the desert in “Visitor’s Guide to Arivaca (Map Not to Scale).” Leigh Henderson’s set design for the borderlands between Mexico and Arizona, a desolate expanse sculpted in sand and rock, lit by a sun of gold silk, would be a thing of sublime beauty. If only the epic that plays out upon it were not so heart-wrenching.” - Karen D’Souza, San José Mercury News