English River Church of the Brethren is hosting a performance of “Vang” on March 26, at 2 p.m. The church is located in South English, Iowa. The drama about recent immigrant farmers is a collaboration between Poet Laureate of Iowa Mary Swander, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Dennis Chamberlin, and Kennedy Center award-winner Matt Foss, with a musical score by Michael Ching, past executive director of the Memphis opera, said an announcement from Northern Plains District.  The announcement noted that stories told in the play include those of a Hmong family who fled Communist Laos to a refugee camp in Thailand, a Sudanese man who was thrown into prison in Ethiopia for helping the Lost Boys, and a Mexican woman “who taught herself English by looking up the meaning of the profane words hurled at her at her first job in a meat packing plant,” among others. The production stars Rip Russell and Erin Mills, two well-known actors who reside in Iowa City.

“Vang has been on tour since 2013 and has had performances throughout the U.S.  from farmers’ barns and church basements to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Cambio de Colores Conference, Penn State University, and New York University.”