Washington Performing Arts and GALA Hispanic Theatre join forces to co-present the world premiere of English with an Accent by Venezuelan American performing artist Migguel Anggelo, a rising force in the national theater scene. The piece is a hybrid dance-theater work of original music that explores self-realization through the eyes of an anthropomorphized, immigrant caterpillar.

English with an Accent is narrated as a storytelling song-cycle and backed by a company of 10 dancers. The story is a semi-autobiographical fable that follows the journey of a newly arrived caterpillar in New York City. Fleeing the crime and noxious dictatorship of Venezuela, and unsure of which direction his insect life is taking, he wonders how to honor his potential as a caterpillar—when so many others assume he’s just a lowly worm. As the caterpillar explores the streets of New York City, he begins to question his own identity as well as the promise of the “American Dream.”