When she first came to the United States, Uruguay-born Maribel Umpierrez Adams sank into a quiet depression for months. An educated, intelligent, well-spoken woman in her home country, she came to the states knowing no English, which she feared meant that her entire personality was lost in her new home. Struggling to grasp a foreign language, she was no longer quick with a quip, witty, or articulate. She feared she had lost her humor, and her intellect.

She hadn’t. It took time, but Maribel finally made the decision to shed the self-pity and get busy living. She enrolled in an English language class in which instructor Lynn Ditchfield used theatre to help students learn English and learn to express themselves. For Maribel, the class was like killing two birds, so to speak.

Last Friday night, Maribel joined Patricia Gallardo from Chile, Lorena Crespo from Ecuador, Eduardo Danegas from Argentina, and Christina Montoya from Aquinnah to stage a performance for a small audience at the regional high school called Immigrant Voices: Nightmares and Dreams. The performance has been done before, by different players; it first emerged from Mrs. Ditchfield’s theatre class in 2007. But each time, each story unfolds a unique and personal experience.

“Theatre was a great vehicle for learning English,” Mrs. Ditchfield told the audience to explain the play’s conception. “It was an experiment and I had this wonderful class.” They wondered how best to share their stories, and their struggles, and finally decided on a short revue of their nightmares and dreams, to engage their new neighbors in their personal transitions moving to a foreign country.

“This group exemplifies community education because they are brave and they took their lessons from the classroom and shared them with the community,” said Mrs. Ditchfield.

The performance opened with an a cappella song by Lynn and Fern Thomas, and closed with a chorus from John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads, performed by Patricia, Lorena and Maribel.

And somewhere in between, the three women went through an arc of discovery, acknowledging their fears for the future, and embracing the dreams that their journeys will help to realize.

The women came to the U.S. for various reasons, but most centered around a job opportunity for their families. Patricia was an accountant in Chile, when her husband, an engineer, was summoned by a friend and former colleague to join him in business on the Island. Lorena studied psychology in Ecuador, and her husband, too, moved for a job on the Vineyard. She now works teaching preschool here. Maribel taught elementary school in Uruguay, and came to the Island on the recommendation of a friend. She now works a number of different jobs as she prepares to return to school to get her bachelor’s degree, hoping to one day become a Spanish teacher.

During the performance, Maribel relayed a vivid recurring dream that followed her throughout her transition. She was being chased by a magnificent tiger, and though drawn to it, she also tried her best to stay one step ahead. But the beast was always at her heels.

Also among the fears were loneliness, unemployment, forgetting the past. But the dreams were, for the most part, very similar. All three women hoped that their new home would provide a better life for their children.

In a question-and-answer session following the performance, one audience member asked how the women feel about raising their children in a culture foreign to the one they experienced as children.

“I feel afraid,” said Lorena, explaining that she does not want to leave her heritage behind. “But at home, we always speak Spanish. We have our traditions. Inside my house, everything is Ecuadorian.” And in the end, she said, it’s better to embrace two cultures than one. “I think it’s a privilege for us to have both,” she said.

And their feelings about calling the Island home?

Friends make all the difference. “They take care of me, and we take care of each other,” said Maribel about the people she’s met on Martha’s Vineyard. She remembers the times when Mrs. Ditchfield, standing in for the family she left behind in Uruguay, would come to her home with chicken soup when she was sick. It’s people like her that ease the homesickness, and the sense of loss. An Island community that embraces people from all different backgrounds and experiences.

“Home, for me, is where my friends are,” said Patricia.

The next performance of Immigrant Voices: Nightmares and Dreams will be held during the Adult and Community Education (ACE MV) one-day university summer fundraiser on August 7 at the high school’s performing arts center.