THE LAST DREAM

&

THE NEXT DREAM

In need to continue our fight to keep our families together and educate more people across the U.S., we are making a new documentary, The Next Dream, to be released in early Spring 2025! Please stay tuned as we will need your help to donate, spread the word, and show your support to many families and individuals nationwide! We must keep fighting. 

The Last Dream documentary was nominated for The 43rd Boston/New England Emmy Award and won The National Award for Best Community Media Production for Activism (2020). 

The Last Dream is part of The Massachusetts TPS Committee campaign for permanent residency for more than 1 Million Temporary Protected Status (TPS) families nationwide. Produced by the Boston Experimental Theatre in collaboration with MA TPS, the play toured along the East Coast, performed before Congress, Boston City Hall, Boston University, and Harvard University, and was part of the National TPS Alliance in DC. Inspired by this play and in collaboration with Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN), a twenty-minute documentary entitled The Last Dream was produced so that many more people across the country can hear these stories and join their fight. Our Families Are Not Temporary!

Click HERE to Watch The Last Dream Trailer

Click HERE To Watch The Last Dream documentary (20m)

Read WBUR review on Last Dream at Harvard University

Watch VOA story about The Last Dream performance in Washington, DC

“Theater of Activism; Boston Experimental Theater” Mizan

A child’s worst nightmare is being separated from their family. The children of Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries (TPS) fear that this nightmare may become reality. 

When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he threatened to cancel the TPS nationwide, and separating more than 1 million families across the country, including the parents and their US-born children. 

We heard a nine-year-old girl wish to ask the president how he would feel if he was a 9-year old and someone threatened to take his parents away!

We heard mothers cry that if they are deported they will have to leave their children here in the U.S., not knowing when, or if, they will see them again.

After hearing about the impossible circumstances that TPS holders were thrust into, Boston Experimental Theatre Company (BETC) began working with some of the children of TPS recipients and their families to help share their stories, create more awareness about the Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and help fundraising for National TPS Alliance. Together, we devised the show, The Last Dream (2018) from the real stories of 13 children of TPS recipients, ranging in age from 9 to 17.

We toured the play along the East Coast, and performed before Congress, Boston City Hall, Boston University, Harvard University, Imagination Stage in Maryland, and at the National TPS Alliance Convention in DC (2018-2019). Inspired by this play, members of Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN) produced a twenty-minute documentary entitled The Last Dream (2019), so that many more people across the country can hear these children and join our fight. Both the play and the documentary received national attention from the lawmakers, journalists, activists, and allies of the TPS, including recognition from the Boston City Councilors, won The National Award for Best Community Media Production for Activism, as well as a Boston Emmy Nomination for Best Documentary (2020). 

Since 2017, our families and children across the country joined the fight to keep TPS and stop Donald Trump and his racist administration from canceling the TPS. None of this could have been possible without the support of U.S. citizens who believe in American values and dreams. But, the problem stays the same. Our families are living in the constant shadow of separation. Every one of us goes to bed not knowing what will happen to us after January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump becomes the President of the United States of America. Many immigrant families, including the TPS holders across the U.S., NEED YOUR HELP!!!

In need to continue our fight to keep our families together and educate more people across the U.S., we are making a new documentary, The Next Dream, to be released in early Spring 2025!

Please stay tuned as we will need your help to donate, spread the word, and show your support to many families and individuals nationwide! We must keep fighting. 

The Next Dream Documentary is a collaboration between the Massachusetts TPS Committee and the Boston Experimental Theatre

Produced by Steve Marx and Vahdat Yeganeh

Directed and edited by Laura Kervian

Supported by Jose Palma (National TPS coordinator) and Doris Landaverde (MA TPS Coordinator) 

The documentary is in the process of being made. The full credit will be updated soon. 

The Last Dream Play was a Collaboration between the Boston Experimental Theatre and the Massachusetts TPS Committee : 

Written and directed by Donya Pooli Yeganeh & Jared Wright

Production manager and art director: Emily Wright

Produced by Vahdat Yeganeh & Jose Palma (2018-2019)

The Last Dream documentary was produced by Boston Neighborhood Networks in Collaboration with Boston Experimental Theatre and MA TPS:

Producer: Steve Marx

Director of Photography: Edward Slattery 

Editor: Laura Bean