The El Paso Community Foundation Jewel Box Series at the Philanthropy Theatre opens its seventh season with NO MÁS, an original drama based on a true but little-known story from El Paso’s past.

Lustre Theatre gives a staged reading of Meagan O’Toole-Pitts’ original play at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, November 13 in the Philanthropy Theatre, on the second floor of the Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Centre complex.

General admission tickets are $15, on sale at the Plaza Theatre Box Office and ticketmaster.com.

O’Toole-Pitts’ play tells the true story of teenager Carmelita Torres, a young Mexican housekeeper who led a protest against El Paso’s delousing bathhouses on January 28, 1917. Torres objected to American officials’ stripping, bathing, and delousing Mexican men, women, and children crossing the Santa Fe International Bridge. U.S. public health officials bathed them with dangerous chemicals, including gasoline and kerosene. The practice continued into the 1960s.

Writer-director O’Toole-Pitts founded Lustre Theatre in 2019 to showcase regional talent. NO MÁS, which has been performed in English and Spanish, started as a radio play that was released on Spotify, iTunes, and Google Podcasts, and aired on Las Cruces community radio station KTAL (101.5 FM). The 200-seat Philanthropy Theatre will be the largest venue yet for the nonprofit theater group. Go to nomasep.com for more information.

The Jewel Box Series was created in partnership with El Paso Live in 2014 to host local performing artists and groups in that jewel box of a venue, the Philanthropy Theatre. Its sixth season was cut short in March 2020 by the pandemic lockdown.