Film Screening
THE COURTROOM
with Kristin Villanueva and Linda Powell
Directed by Lee Sunday Evans
Screenplay by Arian Moayed
Monday, April 24, 2023 – 7:00pm
Macauley Honors College, 35 West 67th Street
2nd Floor Screening Room
The screening will be followed by a discussion of the film with Kristin Villanueva and Linda Powell. Wine and beverages will be provided. This event is open to all.
The Actors Center hosts a film screening and discussion of The Courtroom with company members Kristin Villanueva and Linda Powell on Monday, April 24th at 7:00pm at Macaulay Honors College.
The 2022 film from director Lee Sunday Evans and screenwriter Arian Moayed debuted last year at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film tells the story of Elizabeth Keathley (Kristin Villanueva), who came to the United States to begin a hopeful chapter of her life, and start a family with her new husband. Having navigated the labyrinth of U.S. immigration law and started the process of applying for citizenship, Elizabeth set out to do everything right, following all the rules—but one mistake on one piece of paper landed her in a nightmare: deportation proceedings.
An emotionally wrenching story of one woman and her lawyer (Linda Powell) fighting to make sure that the country she put all her trust and faith in does not fail her, The Courtroom uses only the verbatim text of the real court transcripts of her case as the dialogue for the film. Originally created by Waterwell as a critically-acclaimed play that premiered Off-Broadway in 2019, The Courtroom offers audiences a rare front-row seat to see the inner workings of our country’s immigration court system.
The complete cast of the film includes Marsha Stephanie Blake, Michael Braun, Kathleen Chalfant, Hanna Cheek, Michael Chernus, Michael Bryan French, Mick Hilgers, and BD Wong.
“The sneaky thing about this re-enactment is that in watching it, we citizens are on trial, too. What kind of a nation are we?”
— The New York Times
Kristin Villanueva most recently performed in Waterwell’s The Courtroom directed by Lee Sunday Evans. Her film credits include The Courtroom, Viper Club, Someone Will Assist You Shortly. TV credits include Bonding, Search Party, That Damn Michael Che, Younger, Elementary, Forever, and Gossip Girl. She frequently collaborates with directors Mike Donahue and Mary Zimmerman. Theater credits include productions with Clubbed Thumb, Goodman Theater, The Old Globe, McCarter Theatre Center, Denver Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playmakers Rep, Shakespeare & Co, Weston Playhouse, Resident Ensemble Players, Marin Theatre Co, Theatreworks Colorado, Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, and Singapore Arts Festival. She trained at SUNY Purchase.
Linda Powell is currently appearing on Broadway in A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond Musical. Her previous Broadway credits include On Golden Pond; Wilder, Wilder, Wilder; and The Trip to Bountiful (all Tony-nominated Best Revivals). She has appeared Off-Broadway in Passage (Soho Rep), The Moors (Playwright’s Realm), The Christians (Playwright’s Horizons), The Overwhelming (Roundabout), Jar the Floor (Second Stage), Jitney, Angela’s Mixtape: Pericles, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Odyssey, Lucrece, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and A Doll’s House as well as regionally with Long Wharf Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theater of Louisville, Arena Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, ART, and as Portia in Compagnia de’ Colombari’s Merchant of Venice. Her television credits include Dopesick, Modern Love, House of Cards, Madam Secretary, and Chicago Fire, among others, and her film credits include The Report, I Think I Love My Wife, The Best Man, Morning Glory, American Gangster, and Draw Up and Stare.
Waterwell is a group of artists, educators and producers dedicated to telling engrossing stories in unexpected ways that deliberately wrestle with complex civic questions. (www.waterwell.org)