Play delves into zero tolerance

President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy did not exist when Robert Schenkkan’s cautionary play “Building the Wall” opened in September 2017 at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, but the similarities are unmistakable.

Set in 2019, the play takes place after the Trump administration rounds up and detains millions of immigrants after a terrorist attack in Times Square. Now, less than a year after “Building the Wall” opened, Trump’s crackdown on illegal U.S.-Mexico border crossings in May has led to some 2,300 children being separated from their families, prompting a humanitarian outcry.

Miami-based City Theatre today will revive the play with a free staged reading in the Carnival Studio Theater at the Arsht Center.

Actors Gregg Weiner and Karen Stephens, from City Theatre’s production last year, will reprise their roles, Ledford says. The future-history drama unfolds with Trump declaring martial law as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials round up Muslims and Mexicans in containment camps run by private prison companies. After conditions worsen at the camps, detention center supervisor Rick (played by Weiner) agrees to share his side of the story with historian Gloria (Stephens).

Today’s play reading should last about 60 minutes, and will be followed by a talk on immigration by the Miami-based Americans for