I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter @ Seattle Rep

Opens January 13th • Closes February 5th

When is a West Coast premiere also sort of a world premiere? Let me explain. Though the Seattle Rep run of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter comes out of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, fewer than ten performances of that 2020 production occurred before the pandemic stopped it. Meanwhile, playwright Isaac Gómez (Wally World) reworked the adaptation of Erika L. Sánchez’s debut novel of the same name in the couple years that followed, so a fair amount of what Seattle audiences will see will be brand new. 

Directed by Juliette Carrillo, Mexican Daughter tells the story of Júlia Reyes, a 15-year-old Chicago teen mourning the recent death of her older sister, Olga, the so-called “perfect Mexican daughter.” As Júlia learns how to grieve, grow up, and pursue her own desire to become a writer, she discovers that her late sister may have had some secrets of her own, inspiring Júlia to investigate Olga’s death and what she kept from her family.

Sánchez’s novel is a New York Times bestseller, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and even got the attention of actor/producer/advocate America Ferrera, who is collaborating with Netflix on directing a potential movie adaptation. So I’d suggest getting on the ground floor (or, in the case of this production’s history, the mezzanine) before the story gets cinematized. And for those who want to make it a multigenerational family outing in the spirit of the text, student tickets are heavily discounted, especially through the TeenTix program.