The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is financially supporting a musical about a love affair between a lesbian illegal immigrant and an ICE agent.
The Washington Free Beacon reports that the NEA has found $20,000 of your tax dollars to play theatrical angel for the San Francisco Mime Troupe to produce “WALLS!” The self-proclaimed socialist actors got their money not as a last gesture to left-wing theatre from former president Barack Obama but in the first set of grants provided by the Trump administration.
The chairman of the NEA, Jane Chu, is a left-over from the Obama era, having been appointed to the job in 2014.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe, a self-described socialist theater group, received the funding in the first round of grants awarded under the Trump administration. Jane Chu is the current chairman of the NEA, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama in 2014.
“WALLS!” is not just about immigration and sexuality but a myriad of liberal causes.
“Using the Mime Troupe’s signature style of broad, physical theater, the work will explore immigration, gun violence, the opioid epidemic, depression, the public education system, and racial tensions, and how they relate to societal health,” according to information included with the project’s grant. “Portions of the work will be developed through playmaking workshops in California’s Central Valley with low-income youth, inmates, and migrant workers.”
According to the theatrical troupe’s website: “WALLS asks the question: How can a nation of immigrants declare war on immigration? The answer: FEAR!”
The “heroine” of the play is a character named Zaniyah, who is a lesbian criminal illegal with mental problems.
According to the promotional material: “Zaniyah is a criminal, an illegal, a ‘bad hombre.’ What part of herself will this American give up to pass as ‘American?’ Will she? Can she? Should she? Can someone leave part of themselves behind without losing their mind? And is it better or worse that she crossed the border to find Agent L. Mary Jones – the woman she loves?”
In an online ad for the play, actors can be seen shouting “Fox News” and talking about hot “issues” in “political climate.”
One of the songs in the musical is entitled “On My Watch.” It provides a musical moment for ICE agent Mary Jones to bemoan the guilt she endures while doing her hateful work of “keeping these migrant workers on the run.”
The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a frequent guest at the NEA grant trough and was amply endowed during the Obama era for a series of left-wing political plays. Another off-beat musical called “Freedomland” told the story of the grandson of a former Black Panther who comes back to America after fighting in Afghanistan only to discover “another war zone at home” putting “young Black men…in the crosshairs.”
Politically avant-garde theatre is noting new for this theatrical troupe, doing Black Panther puppet shows in the 1960s and plays abut “corporate bloodsuckers.” Their logo is the communist red star that they borrowed from the Soviet Union and China.
The theater group uses the logo of a red star, to show solidarity with socialists and communists. The group insists it does not support totalitarian governments, even though it identifies with symbols used by China and the Soviet Union.
Despite promises from President Donald Trump to cut the fat from the NEA and the National Endownment for the Humanities, there was $2 million more for both agencies in the last budget passed by a Republican-controlled Congress.