Dry Swallow

Took me twenty years, from fetus to fuck-up,
to know what weight looked like, what
weight feels like, what weight makes a body
do in place of freedom.

Sitting within the confines of a shipping container, people are rendered commodity and turf is marked for value. Chula and Pal create competition on a Boyle Heights street corner. Nasir and Porter offer medicinal intake as artistic practice. Sik and Dori turn to drastic measures in order to save their family.

Dry Swallow explores surrogacy, consumption, and substance abuse, while provoking the question: who's allowed a healthy life?

Lucas Baisch's play was the recipient of The Kennedy Center's KCACTF 2020 Latinx Playwriting Award, the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting (2021) and the Chesley/Bumbalo Award in Playwriting (2021).