When Lumpkin, Georgia, is in the headlines, more often than not, it’s because of Stewart Detention Center. The facility is one of the country’s most populated Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Centers, with one of the highest numbers of immigrant deaths.
But for playwright Lee Osorio, who’s from Lumpkin, there’s more to the town’s story.
“Our whole system is taking away from everyone involved in this horrible, horrible place, the prison,” he said.
Osorio is the writer and actor of “Prisontown,” a one-man play about a writer going home to Lumpkin and witnessing how ICE detention has transformed his hometown and the people there.
“I feel really grateful that I was welcomed into the community again as much as I was,” Osorio said.
He wrote the play in 2018 based on interviews he conducted with immigrants in detention, volunteers at the hospitality house El Refugio, and people who worked at the detention center.
“Prisontown” was first workshopped in 2019 at the Alliance Theater through the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab.
It had its world premiere in 2024 in Savannah, but Osorio said audiences didn’t start reacting to the play’s messages until Out of Hand Theater featured it in its 2026 run of its Shows in Homes program.
“I think we were really hopeful that we were past all of this,” he said.
“We were kind of tired, I think, of talking about race and talking about equity. Of course, I think when we stick our heads in the sand and think that these things are done, the sort of the foundational issues that our country has been dealing with since its founding, that’s when we get into trouble.”
In the play, Osorio explores the impact of detention on those detained, their families and how Stewart impacts the people who live in and work in Lumpkin.
“The framing around choice is really interesting to me because, how much choice do we have when you have been in this place for generations, and you want to continue the legacy of your family in this place,” he said.
Prisontown will be shown in Massachusetts and California this summer after it finishes a run of shows around Georgia this spring.
