I.C.E. Baby: Inside Colfax East Centers “Real Stories, Real People Happening in Real Time”

The stories that shape I.C.E. Baby: Inside Colfax East didn’t start in a rehearsal room. They were gathered over years through community work at the nonprofit Roshni, where teaching artists worked with refugee and immigrant youth in Aurora. In those spaces, conversations about identity, fear and belonging became the raw material for something larger.

“This is a play about the people of East Colfax,” Ryan Makepeace says. “This is real stories, real people happening in real time.”

Running May 13–15 at Void Studios, the new work from Rhizomatic Rivers Productions is rooted in years of grassroots engagement in Aurora’s immigrant communities. Written and directed by Makepeace and produced by Abraham Elahmadi, I.C.E. Baby: Inside Colfax East follows a Venezuelan immigrant named Chuy and a police officer named Roxy as they navigate violence, addiction and the threat of detention in the East Colfax corridor. When Chuy is arrested at a protest, the story expands outward, tracking how a network of neighbors and allies responds.

The script is based on people the artists met while working at Roshni. Chuy, the play’s central character, is inspired by one of the students who survived being shot at fourteen and decided to change his life.

“He was an ex-gangster, so he had been shot at the age of fourteen, and he survived, and he decided at that point that he was going to shift his ways,” Makepeace says. “And by the time that we knew him at the age of seventeen…” 

“He was a standup guy,” Elahmadi interjects.

“He’s eighteen now, but he’s the type of human that is a leader of his community, and that inspired us to blend his character with the overarching narrative of Venezuelans in Aurora,” Makepeace continues. “So he’s actually from Mexico, Chuy, and our actor who’s playing him is from Costa Rica, but Chuy in the play is from Venezuela and he’s a DACA recipient. Chuy’s character is a leader of his community who’s also trying to overcome and navigate the limitations placed upon his community and himself, including poverty, violence, drugs and some other elements of our current cultural circumstance that we find ourselves in.”

Makepeace adds that the story arose from a long personal journey that began far from Colorado. After studying and working across South America, Europe and Africa, he returned home with a new perspective.

“I went out seeking that community all around the world,” he says. “Only to discover that it exists here.”

That realization took shape in Aurora’s East Colfax corridor, one of the most diverse areas in the state. It’s a place where Congolese, Nepalese, Afghan and Latino communities intersect, often under challenging circumstances. The script draws directly from people the artists met through their work at Roshni, where both Makepeace and Elahmadi taught theater and mentored young people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. For Elahmadi, who is first-generation Moroccan, the experience of working in that environment reshaped his understanding of community.

“It was a healing experience for me,” he says. “Growing up, I didn’t meet another Moroccan naturally until I was sixteen years old. So, to grow up distant from my culture, trying to keep my culture while also trying to assimilate, it felt nice to have a platform to be able to bring these different cultures out and celebrate unity. And that’s what this play is about: celebrating our unity and the dramatic change that we can create through collective effort.”

Elahmadi describes the play as a deliberate counterpoint to the harsh rhetoric that can dominate public discussion about immigration.

“There are so many platforms that spread fear,” he says. “But really, what is so powerful about this play is we’re telling people, ‘Hey, no, the power is in our hands.'”

That ethos extends beyond the script into how the production is staged. At Void Studios, an industrial photography space on South Bannock Street, the audience is placed inside the action. Scenes unfold in multiple directions, with performers occupying different corners of the room while projections and filmed footage recreate the geography of Colfax.

“We’re using all the walls to recreate Colfax,” Elahmadi says. “You’re surrounded by the action.”

The design builds on the original 2025 run at the New American Arts Festival, which used a similar immersive layout. This remount expands the technical elements, incorporating drone footage, documentary video and a more detailed mapping of the neighborhood. The world of the play is mapped loosely onto real intersections and landmarks in Aurora, grounding the performance in a recognizable geography.

“I would put this world within the realm of the art district,” Makepeace says. “So, the Aurora Fox, Dayton and Colfax, up maybe a few blocks — that’s the world that we’re in now. The world transitions when there’s memory, and part of that memory is a PTSD memory that Father Joe has where he takes us back to a situation that happened in Afghanistan. So that becomes a memory. That’s shown through film and footage, documentary footage, as well as actors on stage recreating that memory.”

Despite its title, Makepeace resists framing the piece as overtly political.

“There’s a context within which this story takes place,” he says. “But this story is not about politics. This story is about the people of East Colfax.”

What happens after the performance is just as important to the team as what happens inside it. Conversations are already underway with immigration law firms and community partners, with the hope of connecting audiences to real resources and support. The idea, Elahmadi says, is to make sure the work doesn’t stop after the play concludes.

“There’s so much in our control and so much we can actually change,” he says. “It’s really important to me to break people out of that fear because when you have that fear, you don’t take action. Action is the most important part, so you can’t have fear.”

Looking ahead, the team hopes to extend the play’s life by submitting it to larger institutions like the DCPA, but the immediate priority is to ensure that people attend the upcoming run at Void Studios. Tickets are priced at various levels, with free seats available each night, in an effort to reflect rather than gatekeep the community represented by the play.

“No one will be turned away, regardless of whether you can pay for a ticket or not,” Makepeace says. “We want to create a community event. We believe that it’s critical; it’s on the pulse, and we just want to illuminate the voices of a community that we were blessed to work within, be a part of, and grow within as well.”

I.C.E. Baby: Inside Colfax East runs Wednesday, May 13, through Friday, May 15, at Void Studios, 1790 South Bannock Street. Tickets are free to $28.52. Learn more at eventbrite.com/e/ice-baby-inside-colfax-east-tickets.