Playwright Nathan Yungerberg and PRIME Productions Co-Artistic Director Allison Edwards Talk ‘Abuelita’

In 1969, Nina Simone said, “An Artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the time.”

Decades later, those words feel less like a quote and more like a charge, one that resonates deeply as communities navigate questions of belonging, care and visibility.

It is within that spirit that “Abuelita,” the world-premiere play written by Nathan Yungerberg and produced by PRIME Productions, arrives in Minneapolis.

Although “Abuelita” was written six years ago and is set during a 10-day heatwave in New York City in 1993, its themes feel very present. The play opens on a stoop in Spanish Harlem, where three Nuyorican women over 50 gather to pass the time through talking, teasing, remembering and witnessing the rhythms of their block. All this changes when Davia Johnson, a white grandmother from the Midwest, arrives unexpectedly with her multi-ethnic grandson Jesús. Davia has come so that Jesús can experience the culture of the father he’s never known. “Abuelita” describes a layered portrait of how community forms under pressure.

In Minnesota right now, conversations around immigration are not hidden. They are lived openly, at kitchen tables, in school hallways, in neighborhoods where people are checking on one another with heightened care. For many immigrants and Latinx and queer people, the moment carries uncertainty. Yet amid the tension, people are gathering. Where there are hints of fear, there is tenderness. “Abuelita” does not attempt to respond to policy or headlines but rather aims to reflect something more enduring about how people survive the pressure together.

“I wrote this play years ago,” Yungerberg says, “but so many of the themes are really relevant now.”

One of those themes, he noted, has risen more clearly with time: caretaking. It lives in the bodies of the play’s elder women. The grandmothers are not softened or simplified, but rather allowed to be sensual, opinionated, funny and deeply human.

“We need the grandmothers,” Yungerberg says plainly. “The world needs that. Minneapolis and St. Paul need that right now.”

For PRIME Productions, this emphasis is foundational. Co-Artistic Director Allison Edwards described PRIME as a company founded specifically to center women over 50 as cultural anchors and leaders and roles often pushed to the margins of storytelling.

“When I read ‘Abuelita,’ I thought, oh my God! This is exactly why we started PRIME,” Edwards says. “These women are wise, different from one another, full of warmth. They’re sitting on a stoop having a good time, but they’re also offering empathy and perspective in a way that feels very real.”

Edwards shared that PRIME had been searching for stories that expanded beyond their own lived experiences.

“We’re a company of seasoned white women,” she says candidly. “We wanted to broaden our storytelling. These three Nuyorican women felt like a gift.”

Throughout the interview, it felt as though the stoop itself became the emotional anchor of the play: a place of gathering, humor and survival. For Yungerberg, who has lived in New York City for more than two decades, it is both literal and symbolic.

“In New York, space is such a commodity,” he explains. “That little plot of land becomes a place for gossip, music, food, watching the world go by. You can shut the gate and be held.”

That sense of being held feels resonant now. At a time when immigration narratives are often framed through urgency and division, “Abuelita” insists on intimacy. It asks, what happens when cultures meet not in conflict but in conversation? When does difference become curiosity rather than fear?

Fundamentally speaking, the world of “Abuelita” is a spectrum of queer presence that exists without explanation. A charismatic gay man, a bold queer woman and a young boy beginning to understand himself are woven into the fabric of the block not as lessons, but as neighbors. Relatable narratives intertwined.

Yungerberg spoke openly about how rare it still is to see layered queer lives reflected onstage.

“Very rarely do I see myself represented in a way that feels fully human,” he says. “This play offers a variety of queer experiences across generations. That alone is validating.”

For Minnesota’s LGBTQ+ community, where chosen family is often not a metaphor but a necessity, that validation is recognition. Queerness in “Abuelita” is not framed as conflict, but rather as presence.

That tenet of recognition and understanding extends beyond the stage through PRIME’s decision to implement a Pay As You Are (PAYA) ticketing model for the production, allowing audiences to choose what they can afford.

“I would much rather have 200 people paying $15 than 75 paying full price,” Edwards says. “A full room changes everything, even for the actors and for the audience.”

In moments of social tension, access becomes more than logistics; it becomes care. The PAYA model reflects how communities already support one another collectively, quietly and without judgment.

Yungerberg describes his work as a form of healing.

“Healing is about unblocking something,” he says. “Moving what’s stuck.”

That unblocking might look different for everyone: a queer young person seeing themselves in Jesús, a grandmother recognizing her own longing for expression or an audience member identifying with the labor of caretaking.

So, to go back to Nina Simone and how she spoke of reflecting the times, she was not asking artists to shout over the noise; she was asking them to tell the truth without hardening the heart. “Abuelita” does exactly that by offering a space where people can gather, sit together in the heat and remember that even in moments of uncertainty, community remains a source of strength. At the Capri Theater, “Abuelita” becomes more than a play. It becomes a stoop of its own — a place to pause, listen, and be reminded that care, humor and connection have always been how communities endure.

“Abuelita” will be playing from March 13-29. Be sure to get your tickets at the link below:

simpletix.com/e/abuelita-by-nathan-yungerberg-tickets-253724