When I was a teenager, I attended an Easter Mass at Santa Rosa De Lima Catholic Church in Las Cruces, New Mexico, my hometown (and home parish). During that Mass, I heard “Resucitó” by Kiko Argüello for the first time, performed by a 15-year-old guitar soloist. She played and sang with a passion and fire that held the entire room. By the second chorus, the entire parish was singing in perfect unison. It was a powerful moment in my religious life, and what has stayed with me for so long is not only the beauty of the song itself but the way it brought a community into a collective spirit. I felt tapped into a shared sensation that humans have felt when gathering and celebrating life together since our genesis. It’s only fitting that I return to this song, nearly 15 years later, as I began working on this play about a community experiencing a shift in its collective spirit.

When I think about my time as a devout Catholic at a predominantly Mexican American parish, I return to a community deeply invested in both the religious and secular lives of its members and its internal politics and how they reflected larger divisions beyond it. Those dynamics filtered down into youth groups, altar servers, and other liturgical ministries, where devotion became a source of competition and power. The community was, at once, what drew me closer to the faith and what ultimately pushed me away.

And yet, through the good and the bad, I’ve held onto a fondness for that community. I remember the cultural experiences we shared and the mystical moments we encountered as we tried to make sense of life and religious doctrine together. It reminds me that before humans had the language to define religion and its practices, we have always had community.

This play asks us to take a hard look at the communities we build and inhabit. To confront them, question them, hold them accountable, and to remain unafraid of that harrowing process. A true community is not defined by its members being in total agreement, but by its willingness to move through uncertainty together. They learn how to live and work alongside one another, even when all hell breaks loose.

In today’s economic and sociopolitical landscape, communities are increasingly fractured by divisive rhetoric, moral disagreements, financial strain, and the shift from in-person connection to isolated online spaces. We need each other now more than ever. We must return to our communities, fight the good fight together, and uplift one another however we can. Resucitó is a testament to the tenacity and humanity of a community that chooses, again and again, not to give up on itself.

-Robby Sciortino, Playwright/Director