What happens to a person who’s arrested by ICE and taken to immigration court? It’s one thing to have some idea of the answer from reading about it and quite another to watch a stranger — maybe one who’s sitting right next to you — be taken into custody.
“The Detention Lottery,” on stage Saturday, Oct. 3, at First United Church of Olympia, begins with ICE agents “arresting” people right out of the audience and follows the detainees into the courtroom. The immersive play reveals “exactly what happens — up to the minute, with the latest cruel twists in the law,” said playwright Margaret O’Donnell of Seattle, a retired immigration attorney.
“The play opens up the covert, capricious and byzantine immigration enforcement system to public scrutiny,” O’Donnell wrote on her website (https://odonnellplaywright.com/the-detention-lottery/).
“It takes people beyond the scary headlines and the news clips,” said director Amy Youngblood of Seattle. “We really spend time with these detainees as they have their moments in court. They have just a few minutes and one last chance to have some hand in shaping their own futures. The system was designed to push back against them all the way.”
The Olympia production, organized by the Faith Network for Immigrant Support and other activists, is a fundraiser for Mi Chiantla and Vecinos Unidos, local nonprofits that work with immigrant families.
More than simply raising money, though, the play is intended to get audiences more actively involved in working for justice for immigrants.
“We have this crazy idea that people who have participated in ‘The Detention Lottery’ will transform their attitudes,” said Youngblood, who began directing performances for community groups in 2025, just after the deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García.
“That same week, I read the script, and I was like, ‘Sign me up. I have to do what I can to address this miserable abomination,’ ” she said.
She and O’Donnell agreed that the play has a powerful effect on those who attend. “I have seen people deeply affected,” O’Donnell said. “People are just stunned that this is really how it goes.
“Every time I see it, my heart is beating fast,” she added.
“Every time we do a production, somebody will find me afterward and say, ‘We have to bring this to my organization,’ ” Youngblood said. “Or they’ll write in an email, ‘I watched it last night, and I can’t get it out of my mind.’ ”
Olympia organizers hope to make the same impact on audiences here. “We wanted to give people in the larger community — people who are sympathetic but not necessarily actively engaged supporters of immigrant rights — an opportunity to see, hear and feel the actual experience of an immigration court hearing,” said Sherry Sullivan, one of the organizers.
The play, which premiered in 2018 and was performed in 2019 at Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia, was updated in 2025 to reflect changes in immigration law and how it’s being enforced. “We have to keep it accurate,” said O’Donnell, who retired in 2019 but continues to keep up with the latest developments.
She originally conceived of “The Detention Lottery” as a board game and then turned it into an outline for an improvised theater piece. “It was so frightening for people, and it was pretty confusing and chaotic to do it without a script, so I decided to write it as a play,” she said.
It wasn’t her first play nor her last. She began writing plays in 2014, taking inspiration from the experiences of her clients.
Practicing immigration attorneys have always been part of the cast. The Olympia production features three: Steffani Powell as a judge, Lisa Seifert as an attorney with the Department of Homeland Security and Jane O’Sullivan, who’ll speak some of the closing words. Also in the cast are Nettie Banks, Randy Clark, Lynn Glore, Mo Lally, Meghan Lazelle, Nicole Lockett, Sam Magill, Janelle Martinez, Donna Pallo-Perez and Alecia Williams.
After the performance, there’ll be a question-and-answer session with practicing immigration attorneys, and representatives from several immigrant-rights groups will be on hand with resources and other information.
O’Donnell and Youngblood welcome community groups to get in touch if they’re interested in producing a performance. O’Donnell also offers the script free of charge for non-commercial use (https://odonnellplaywright.com/the-detention-lottery/#yours) under a Creative Commons license, so anyone anywhere can mount their own production.
WHAT:
“The Detention Lottery”
WHEN:
7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, with doors open at 6:30
WHERE:
First United Church of Olympia, 1224 Legion Way SE, Olympia
COST:
$20 or more donation suggested online (https://interfaithworks1-bloom.kindful.com/embeds/5aa09229-fe30-48fc-b734-92e0c2cabce8) or at the door, with no one turned away for lack of funds
LEARN MORE:
https://odonnellplaywright.com/the-detention-lottery/
https://fumcoly.org/blog/2026/02/05/faith-network-for-immigrant-support