In 2023, Prof. Barnathan directed and choreographed the Arizona premiere of the musical Miss You Like Hell at Arizona State University. Miss You Like Hell tells the story of an undocumented Mexican-American woman seeking to gain her legal citizenship status. Pre-show and post-show surveys were circulated to audience members to track attitudes toward undocumented immigrants and immigrants in general.

About 30% of the 50 respondents who filled out both the pre-show and post-show surveys showed an increase in their empathy toward immigrants as a result of seeing the musical. In this Brown Bag session, Prof. Barnathan would like to get feedback from fellow faculty and staff about the possibility of conducting a similar research project at RU.