News
Justin has been named to the 2021-2022 BIPOC Leadership Circle by artEquity, in partnership with the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale!
The Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Leadership Circle brings together dynamic art and culture leaders from across the US and Canada. The program offers eight virtual convenings that span a six-month cycle.
"One year ago, at the height of the global-pandemic and an unprecedented revealing of institutional failings, an urgent call was made to support Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color who were fatigued and undersupported in the arts and culture field. artEquity responded to that call, producing its inaugural BIPOC Leadership Circle. ...These leaders work within a number of art sectors including the performing and visual arts, arts councils, arts service organizations, and foundations."
The Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Leadership Circle brings together dynamic art and culture leaders from across the US and Canada. The program offers eight virtual convenings that span a six-month cycle.
"One year ago, at the height of the global-pandemic and an unprecedented revealing of institutional failings, an urgent call was made to support Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color who were fatigued and undersupported in the arts and culture field. artEquity responded to that call, producing its inaugural BIPOC Leadership Circle. ...These leaders work within a number of art sectors including the performing and visual arts, arts councils, arts service organizations, and foundations."
\From the press release:
“We can no longer continue to strive to merely change harmful systems, we must work to imagine and create new models that demand a paradigm shift, causing oppressive models to fall away. We have envisioned a pathway forward through a co-designed curriculum informed by our collective histories and contributions from our alumni network”, shared Program Co-Leads Cloteal L. Horne and Nijeul X. “We are excited to expand our engagement of BIPOC artistic leaders dedicated to liberatory leadership practices and models that disrupt and dismantle current oppressive organizational structures.”
Each session will focus on a central question designed through a lens of disrupting oppressive leadership practices that are individual, organizational, societal, and interpersonal. This unique structure guides the collective from a point of individual reflection, towards a collective reimagining of systemic and organizational structures that are committed to uplifting and supporting communities and leaders of the global majority.
The cohort will experience three circles:
Contributing to and designing this year’s cohort experience of BIPOC Leaders is artEquity Executive Director and Founder Carmen Morgan, Program Co-Leads Nijeul X and Cloteal L. Horne, Administrative assistant Kayla Votapek, and an experienced team of co-facilitators, including Mica Cole (National Consultant); Ty Defoe (Independent Artist); Patricia Garza (Director of Programs and Engagement, Network of Ensemble Theatres); Leslie Ishii (Artistic Director, Perseverance Theatre); Dat Ngo (Director of Innovation and Engagement, Sitar Arts Center); and Lauren Turner (Producing Artistic Director, No Dream Deferred NOLA).
“We can no longer continue to strive to merely change harmful systems, we must work to imagine and create new models that demand a paradigm shift, causing oppressive models to fall away. We have envisioned a pathway forward through a co-designed curriculum informed by our collective histories and contributions from our alumni network”, shared Program Co-Leads Cloteal L. Horne and Nijeul X. “We are excited to expand our engagement of BIPOC artistic leaders dedicated to liberatory leadership practices and models that disrupt and dismantle current oppressive organizational structures.”
Each session will focus on a central question designed through a lens of disrupting oppressive leadership practices that are individual, organizational, societal, and interpersonal. This unique structure guides the collective from a point of individual reflection, towards a collective reimagining of systemic and organizational structures that are committed to uplifting and supporting communities and leaders of the global majority.
The cohort will experience three circles:
- The first circle, Mitákuye Oyás'iŋ (All are related, All my relations), is a cultural principle practiced by The Lakota Nation that pays respect to the interconnectedness of all living organisms, this circle provides space for meaningful connection amongst cohort members.
- The second circle, Ujima (Collective work and responsibility), gifts the cohort with a moment of collective learning and the necessary tools to individually reflect on and begin to reimagine their personal leadership styles.
- Each session concludes with the third circle, Buena Onda (Good vibes centering wellness), which integrates practices of wellness rooted in self and communal care.
Contributing to and designing this year’s cohort experience of BIPOC Leaders is artEquity Executive Director and Founder Carmen Morgan, Program Co-Leads Nijeul X and Cloteal L. Horne, Administrative assistant Kayla Votapek, and an experienced team of co-facilitators, including Mica Cole (National Consultant); Ty Defoe (Independent Artist); Patricia Garza (Director of Programs and Engagement, Network of Ensemble Theatres); Leslie Ishii (Artistic Director, Perseverance Theatre); Dat Ngo (Director of Innovation and Engagement, Sitar Arts Center); and Lauren Turner (Producing Artistic Director, No Dream Deferred NOLA).
Recent & Upcoming
As Artistic Director of El Paso Opera, Justin created #CurbsideOpera in response to the pandemic shutdown, although now a central mainstay to the companies community engagement: it's a bring-the-music-to-the-people initiative that has reached thousands, having made over 100 stops in one quarter from a Texas-sized pickup truck mobile stage, inspiring companies nationwide to follow suit.
After shutting down due to the pandemic, 'Bon Appétit!' went virtual from The Woman's Club of El Paso, starring mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke (Fort Worth Opera, Los Angeles Opera) as the iconic chef Julia Child.
February 2021
Justin stage directs Robert Xavier Rodriguez' 'Frida' for the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia (México). June 2021 (postponed due to COVID-19; new date TBD)
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El Paso Opera brings back live performance with audiences to the "sombrero opera house" Abraham Chavez Theatre under the baton of Jorge Parodi (Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard, Opera Hispánica) and starring soprano Catalina Cuervo (New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, The Atlanta Opera) and bass-baritone Ricardo Herrera (San Francisco Opera, Gotham Opera, The Atlanta Opera), with sets and puppetry by artist and award-winning designer Afsaneh Aayani. This production of Robert Xavier Rodriguez' 'Frida' is supported by a competitive OPERA America Next Stage Grant. March 2022
Pittsburgh Festival Opera "Opera in the Neighborhood" digital "opera film" production of Pauline Viardot's 'Cendrillon' in a new adaptation by Seamus Ricci. Spring & Summer 2021
A live digital remote presentation of John Logan's 'Never the Sinner' for the University of Houston's School of Theatre & Dance. April 2021
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Guest director for Pittsburgh Playhouse's Conservatory Theatre Company musical theatre production of the Broadway musical 'Curtains', the first full-run of a musical in the brand-new state-of-the-art PNC Theatre. October 2021.
For the second season in a row, invited to direct for Live & In Color's (New York) online 24-hour Play & Song Festival; 'Dad in the Dark' by Joey Merlo (New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellow; Playwright-in-Residence at Off-Broadway's Abingdon Theatre Company), featuring Marc Sinoway ('Hunting Season'; 59E59 Theaters' and Edinburgh Festival Fringe's 'The Waiting Game') & Joanna Parson ('The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'). May 2021
'The Broken Hearts of a Corrupted White House' by Matthew Paul Olmos (Princess Grace Award, National Latino Playwriting Award) as a part of Kane Repertory Theatre's (outside Chicago) New Play Lab, and featuring Steppenwolf ensemble members Karen Rodriguez (Goodman, Victory Gardens), & James Vincent Meredith (New Victory Off-Broadway, Goodman), as well as Steven Rishard (TV's 'The Americans', Lincoln Center).
September 2020
Justin stage directs Daniel Catán's opera 'Florencia en el Amazonas' for Arizona State University. Spring 2021 (postponed due to COVID-19; new date TBD)
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Biography
Justin (he/him/his) is a Latinx professional freelance theatre director · an Assistant Professor for The John Wells Directing BFA & MFA Programs at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama, one of the world’s top-ranking theatre conservatories · the Artistic Director of El Paso Opera, a professional regional company · London-trained in theatre directing at the top-ranked East 15 Acting School. His work is at the intersections of the performing arts, education, community building, and the championing of underrepresented voices.
Professional and Artistic Values
Justin's art and teaching aim to normalize the voices of the underrepresented and historically marginalized, including the championing of diversity, equity, inclusion, intersectionality and interculturalism. As a theatre-maker, he explores the performer-spectator dynamic and exploits an audience’s necessary role in theatrical creation.