By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — Some people can’t help but shout about it, others try to avoid talking about it but when a local playwright started thinking about illegal immigration she decided to write a musical comedy about it.
"Manuel versus the Statue of Liberty" is inspired by the true story of a Princeton undergrad who was an illegal alien and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study classical Greek and Latin literature at Oxford. He turned himself in to Homeland Security hoping that this gesture of good will would help normalize his status. It did not. He was almost deported until his professors stepped in and hired him on a special skills visa (his special skill: reading Ancient Greek and Latin).
This musical follows Manuel from his impoverished Washington Heights tenement where he lives with his mother (also undocumented) and sister (citizen), to the Ivy League, where he flourishes.
"The Statue of Liberty loves Manuel until she finds out he’s here illegally, at which point she devotes herself to removing him from the country," said Princeton Junction playwright Noemi de la Puente, who has won the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) Developmental Reading Series Award with the work. "Manuel has to fight her to stay. An ensemble of actors portray everyone from Manuel’s odd ball Dominican neighbors, to his professors, and fellow students at Princeton."
Latin music and contemporary pop, rock, and gospel music underscore the diverse environments through which Manuel moves. His dream is to become a classics professor, but can he convince the Statue of Liberty he is worthy?
"This story is so epic, so ridiculous, and so inspiring that it is actually really easy to find song moments in it," Ms. de la Puente said.
The musical was presented as a staged reading in New York last July as part of NYMF 2014. The award comes with a Next Link Production scheduled for NYMF July 2015.
"It feels like a gigantic shot of adrenaline," Ms. de la Puente said of winning the NYMF award. "It also feels very validating. I am responsible for producing it within NYMF, so it can also feel a little scary at times. But scary is good — it means I am stretching."
Ms. de la Puente, who has lived in the Princeton Junction section of West Windsor since 1983, is a Princeton University graduate, with an MFA in Theatre Arts from University of Iowa (Patricia Roberts Harris Scholarship). She is a founding member of the Dramatic Question Theater and a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Director Jose Zayas, who led the staged reading, will return to direct the production. Mr. Zayas has directed more than 80 productions in New York, regionally and internationally. He is currently the resident director at Repertorio Espanol in New York.
"It took a long time of refining the story and the concept," Ms. de la Puente said of ‘Manuel versus the Statue of Liberty.’ "It started in 2008 with a small 20-minute one act musical that got so much positive response. People begged me to turn it into a full-length piece. There are many sins you can commit in a 20-minute piece that you cannot in a full-length musical. I spent the next six to seven years atoning for those sins."
She started working in theater as an actress but writing kept calling her.
"And every time I responded it really took off, as opposed to my acting, which as hard as I tried, never created the same momentum," she said. "I wrote my master’s thesis role at University of Iowa, and I wrote a few little shows I appeared in, so really I’ve been writing off and on since 1997."
She mostly writes comedies such as "The Legend of Suicide Jack," which is about an unfortunate pair of cousins who resort to a life of crime to raise money to build a school; "Generic Hispanic," which is about a Latina advertising genius who learns the difference between selling and selling out; "Fountain of Youth" which is about Ponce de Leon really discovering the fountain of youth but it coming with a curse; and "Makers Mark" which is about a pair of crazy sisters landing a contract to write ‘Toy Story — The Musical’ and hire men to impersonate them at meetings so Pixar doesn’t find out they’re women.
Although she is not sure of the exact performance dates, "Manuel versus the Statue of Liberty" will be part of NYMF July 2015.
"The festival is always 21 days in July, starting, I think, the weekend after the Fourth of July," she said.
When asked why people should consider seeing the play, she said, "It is entertaining, the music is really fun, and we are able to bridge several cultural gaps that factor into the immigration debate. The show puts the audience in the mind of the undocumented kid — a fascinating place to be. You see the true cost of delaying immigration reform, and yet there is the triumph of the human spirit. And it’s got a great protagonist that destroys many male Latino stereotypes — so it is not predictable."
As for the real "Manuel," she said, people always want to know what happened to him.
"Well, last I heard he was getting a PhD in classical literature from Stanford University," Ms. de la Puente said. "He is an outspoken activist and motivational speaker, and is one of the best arguments for the DREAM Act. This musical is inspired by him, so I’ve taken a lot of liberties, pun intended, but it is true, we have many children in this country who don’t find out they are undocumented until they are in high school."
To learn more about "Manuel versus the Statue of Liberty, visit www.noemidlp.com.

