“An Educated Guess” Reviewed by Julia W. Rath

***** The world premiere production of “An Educated Guess” is thought-provoking, timely, and relevant. Juan José Alfonso’s fresh and insightful script personalizes the immigration experience by bringing together a number of interesting narratives concerning legal immigration to the United States between 1993 and 2009. In addition to learning about the way that culture, policies, and personalities play into the naturalization process, the audience also learns how migrants adjust to living in their newly adopted country.

After 9/11, the process for naturalization tightened, and priorities shifted so that individuals entering the United States needed to demonstrate some kind of special skill, unique work experience, or distinctive set of personal characteristics, such as high educational attainment. Another requirement was that no one should deprive an existing citizen of a job or a future opportunity for employment and income; the only exception being those individuals who win the immigration lottery, where admission is guaranteed, unless a candidate demonstrate some type of moral failing during the course of an oral interview.

Given this background, the play mostly follows the story of Alba Guerrero (Claudia Quesada), an immigration supervisor at the U.S. Department of Justice, who works at the federal office in Manhattan. Her job requires her to conduct interviews with prospective applicants in order to weed out the “bad apples” and those who do not meet the strict guidelines. Basically, she is responsible for making snap judgments about who is allowed to enter America legally and who will be turned away and deported.

Despite the fact that Guerrero wants to do her job wisely and well, it seems that many years earlier she accidentally let the wrong person in. She recognizes the name Bogdan Markovic (Mehmet Can Aksoy) from a news report over the radio and learns that he has committed the heinous crime of mass murder. Guerrero convinces herself that she must have failed to observe something amiss during her interview with him and his wife. And now she questions her judgment not only about him but about all of the others whom she has previously screened. Not only is she afraid for her reputation at work, but she becomes haunted by the thought that someone might think she would intentionally let a criminal into this country.

From being a decisive and confident individual, she turns inward and blows everything up in her mind. Soon despair begins to ruin her life, and she starts to blame herself for Markovic’s sins. By making his crimes her own, she even starts to wonder whether he might have seen something evil and ugly inside of her! The more she dwells on being touched by his evil, the deeper she believes her guilt to be. As Guerrero’s self-esteem diminishes and her ego becomes more fragile, worries about her mental competence and her spiritual worth take on a life of their own. In short, Alfonso has nailed Guerrero’s internal battle of obsessing over details, replaying the same scenario in her mind over again, and essentially spiraling into depression. For those who know Spanish, the word “guerrero” means fighter or warrior. What a perfect name for a character who struggles against herself!

Although Guerrero believes that she might have slipped up doing her job, the audience witnesses just the opposite: how thorough and competent she is in the conduct of her interviews. We can’t help but notice how professionally she evaluates the job performance of her employee Nilda Jackson (Maya Vinice Prentiss). And later we observe her naturalization interview with Father Romelio Ospina, a Catholic priest from Columbia (Miguel Cohen). When he initially tells her that he needs to enter the United States to take over a troubled parish in New Jersey, she gives him the third degree. But he understands that this is her job, and he cannot help but notice that both of them are Hispanic and Catholic—and that Guerrero is an immigrant herself from the Dominican Republic. In fact, one of the most telling lines in the show is spoken by a minor character (Carina Lastimosa), a young immigrant woman, who says that the “ugly American” is no longer the person who is loud and pushy wants everybody to cater to them when they travel abroad but rather befits those Americans who are recent immigrants who restrict the opportunity of subsequent newcomers to better themselves.

The play features several other immigrant stories that are not central to the plot but are necessary to understand. For example, Guerrero has a mother named Teresa (Ana Ortiz-Monasterio Draa), who is so very proud of her daughter and the government position she currently has. But the mother is elderly and ill, and a Mexican migrant (Dylan Rogers) must care for her during the day while the daughter works outside the home. So while Guerrero needs her well-paying job to support herself and her mother, the immigrant caregiver needs to hold down four jobs in order to make ends meet, including being a dishwasher at a restaurant where he largely feels invisible.

The production is beautifully directed by artistic director Tyrone Phillips, who uses every bit of storefront theatre space. Scenic design by Sydney Lynne Thomas is simple but works well in combination with Lonnae Hickman’s props design. Costume design by Janelle Smith is perfect for this time period. Brenden Marble’s lighting and projection design fills out the minimal set, and we can see images of the American flag, animation of a radio dial, and historical footage of George W. Bush, et al., which gives everyone a sense of time, place, and locale. Willow James’s sound design could not be any better. The only “fault” in the production is that I would have liked to have seen the projections of the names of the minor characters and their ages remain for the entire time when they are telling their personal stories. I would also add in the country of origin for each of these individuals.

What I like best about this play is that it can be understood on many levels, especially with respect to religion. Guerrero sees herself in the position of God, deciding the future of the numerous individuals whom she meets in the course of conducting interviews. She also has a Christ-complex when she willingly takes on the mantle of responsibility for another person’s sins when they are not her own. The story also straddles the line between predestination and free will. No person has a crystal ball or can read the future, but Guerrero believes that the process of doing a task perfectly should lead to the perfect outcome. However, that’s not how life works. By confusing process and outcome, she believes that should something go wrong at a later date, then the problem must be with the process—and in this case, she feels guilt for some undiscoverable fault or unknown lapse in judgment. But if all of Guerrero’s “being in her head” sounds somewhat unrealistic, just remember that in order to spot darkness in others, there has to be a portion of oneself that contains this darkness as well. As a (nominal) believer in Catholicism, Guerrero deeply understands the polarity of light and dark, heaven and hell, and the religion’s basic eschatology.

While “An Educated Guess” focuses on those individuals seeking permanent entry to the United States and those making the decisions regarding their naturalization, the story is much deeper than this. It is a convincing exploration of humility, conscientiousness, and friendship that is intimately tied to secular pursuits and ultimately to religious thinking about good and evil. This is a show that everyone must see!

“An Educated Guess” is playing through May 26, 2024, at Definition @ 55th, 1160 E 55th Street, in Chicago.

Tickets start at $30.

If interested in coordinating tickets for groups of 10 or more, please contact jackie@definitiontheatre.org.

Performance schedule:

Thursdays and Fridays – 7:30 p.m.
Saturdays – 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sundays – 3:00 p.m.
Post-Show Discussions take place after every Sunday matinee.

Industry Night
Monday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m.

UChicago Alumni Night
Friday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m.

For further information about this show, visit: https://www.definitiontheatre.org/shows/guess.

To purchase tickets, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/definition-theatre-an-educated-guess-by-juan-jose-alfonso-tickets-779733833887?aff=website.

For general information and to learn about their other offerings, see: https://www.definitiontheatre.org/.

Note that Definition Theatre was previously an itinerant company that moved into its temporary location in Hyde Park in January of 2024. The company expects to reside at this storefront for three years, while money is being raised to build a brand new facility at 64th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “An Educated Guess”.