Résumé
More About Me
Aesthetic & Theatrical/Directing Philosophy
Generally speaking, my philosophy of theatre-making centers around a singular idea: there is power in knowing that an audience is knowing that they're experiencing play. The energy and magic found in the audience <-> stage dynamic is what fuels my curiosity as a director. In my work, I hope that an audience clearly knows that I know that they know that I know that they know that they're watching a story being told to/for them. Harnessing that knowledge has unlocked and unleashed a theatrical drive within me and informs every piece of theatre I am involved in. This is why I am inherently drawn to works that might be labeled "epic" or "heightened," including musicals, opera, staged concerts, Shakespeare, Expressionism, Brechtian works, object theatre, dream plays, memory plays and magical realism. This also helps explain why I am strongly attracted to opportunities for radically reimagining established works.
Those that know me best view me as "a dedicated director of re-imagined music theater" and "an explorer and innovator in the reexamination of the art form."
Generally speaking, my philosophy of theatre-making centers around a singular idea: there is power in knowing that an audience is knowing that they're experiencing play. The energy and magic found in the audience <-> stage dynamic is what fuels my curiosity as a director. In my work, I hope that an audience clearly knows that I know that they know that I know that they know that they're watching a story being told to/for them. Harnessing that knowledge has unlocked and unleashed a theatrical drive within me and informs every piece of theatre I am involved in. This is why I am inherently drawn to works that might be labeled "epic" or "heightened," including musicals, opera, staged concerts, Shakespeare, Expressionism, Brechtian works, object theatre, dream plays, memory plays and magical realism. This also helps explain why I am strongly attracted to opportunities for radically reimagining established works.
Those that know me best view me as "a dedicated director of re-imagined music theater" and "an explorer and innovator in the reexamination of the art form."
...in the theatre the audience completes the steps of creation.
~Sir Peter Brook, The Empty Space
Anti-Racism, Inclusion & Diversity
Furthermore, as a Latinx American, I am proud to proclaim my commitment to the necessary and ever-growing efforts of anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion and access in the theatre and in higher education. In both my formal work and informal daily interactions I endeavor to be a beacon and voice to these values and this ethos. In my rehearsal rooms & in my classrooms, I champion equity, diversity and inclusion in an effort to personally grow, model, and help effect change. Change not only on stage, but backstage and throughout administrative departments and training programs & practices. In my primary work as an artist of music theater, I interrogate and directly address the history of racism and misogyny embedded in the musical and classical canon.
I hope to continually add Latinx works & collaborators among my body of projects (which includes an English-language premiere by famed Chilean playwright Juan Radrigán, an online festival reading of Matthew Paul Olmos' the broken hearts of a corrupted white house starring Steppenwolf's Karen Rodriguez, an original devised Mexican-American one-act youth opera inspired by lotería, a Mexican wrestling (lucha libre) TYA spectacle, a remount of the world's first "mariachi opera," developing an annual "Giving Voice" series promoting Latinx artists in opera, an OPERA America Next Stage Grant-supported original production of Xavier Robert Rodríguez' Frida, a rare revival of Luis Valdez' ground-breaking spectacle Zoot Suit, and more), although my life-long passion and dedication to the Texas-New Mexico-Mexico borderland's theatre scene has meant that I have cast, employed, taught and reached thousands of Latinxs with opportunities that do not necessarily necessitate cultural specificity. It wasn't until I began working outside of the world's largest international border community that my eyes fully opened to the lack of Latinx/Hispanic representation in the theatre. And with training from ED&I national-leader Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and a collaboration with Anti-Racist Theatre expert Nicole Brewer on a Carnegie Mellon School of Drama-wide A.R.T. course, I am devoted to bolstering these causes for the remainder of my career and life.
Furthermore, as a Latinx American, I am proud to proclaim my commitment to the necessary and ever-growing efforts of anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion and access in the theatre and in higher education. In both my formal work and informal daily interactions I endeavor to be a beacon and voice to these values and this ethos. In my rehearsal rooms & in my classrooms, I champion equity, diversity and inclusion in an effort to personally grow, model, and help effect change. Change not only on stage, but backstage and throughout administrative departments and training programs & practices. In my primary work as an artist of music theater, I interrogate and directly address the history of racism and misogyny embedded in the musical and classical canon.
I hope to continually add Latinx works & collaborators among my body of projects (which includes an English-language premiere by famed Chilean playwright Juan Radrigán, an online festival reading of Matthew Paul Olmos' the broken hearts of a corrupted white house starring Steppenwolf's Karen Rodriguez, an original devised Mexican-American one-act youth opera inspired by lotería, a Mexican wrestling (lucha libre) TYA spectacle, a remount of the world's first "mariachi opera," developing an annual "Giving Voice" series promoting Latinx artists in opera, an OPERA America Next Stage Grant-supported original production of Xavier Robert Rodríguez' Frida, a rare revival of Luis Valdez' ground-breaking spectacle Zoot Suit, and more), although my life-long passion and dedication to the Texas-New Mexico-Mexico borderland's theatre scene has meant that I have cast, employed, taught and reached thousands of Latinxs with opportunities that do not necessarily necessitate cultural specificity. It wasn't until I began working outside of the world's largest international border community that my eyes fully opened to the lack of Latinx/Hispanic representation in the theatre. And with training from ED&I national-leader Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and a collaboration with Anti-Racist Theatre expert Nicole Brewer on a Carnegie Mellon School of Drama-wide A.R.T. course, I am devoted to bolstering these causes for the remainder of my career and life.
...acknowledge that racism impacts everything I do in the theatre and to counter that with harm reduction, harm prevention, and relationship repair.
~Nicole Brewer, Anti-Racist Theatre workshop
Multiculturalism compels educators to recognize the narrow boundaries that have shaped the way knowledge is shared in the classroom. It forces us all to recognize our complicity in accepting and perpetuating biases of any kind.
~bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
Education / Training / Background
Recipient, OPERA America Leadership Intensive
Recipient, Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Rising Leader of Color
Recipient, artEquity / David Geffen School of Drama at Yale national BIPOC Leadership Circle
Recipient, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Visiting Fellow in Directing and Theatre Studies at the University of Houston (inaugural)
Recipient, season-long FAIR Directing Assistantship with Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Recipient, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Directing Observership with South Coast Repertory
Recipient, season-long Directing Fellowship with Asolo Repertory Theatre (inaugural)
Continuous, Artist-in-Residence, University of Texas at El Paso; Guest Artist, Guest Director, Guest Lecturer
Recipient, season-long Directing Attachment with Open Air Theatre (London's West End)
Completed, MFA, Theatre Directing with Distinction from East 15 Acting School/University of Essex, London, England, UK
Completed, BBA, Int'l Marketing & E-business, German minor, with Departmental Honors from Texas Christian University
Affiliations / Committee Work
Current:
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (associate member)
Theatre Communications Group (member and grant recipient; member of board-level governance: Next Generation Taskforce)
OPERA America (institutional member)
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (full member and presenter)
State of the Arts Council, Texas (invited member)
Cultural Roundtable, El Paso, Texas (institutional member)
Former:
CMU Faculty Senate (elected; re-elected)
CMU College of Fine Arts Council School of Drama Representative (elected)
CMU College of Fine Arts Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee (appointed)
CMU School of Drama Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee (co-Chair & member)
CMU School of Drama Content Advisory Committee (member)
CMU School of Drama Season Steering Committee (core member)
Texas Educational Theatre Association (member and presenter)
National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (member)
Equity UK (student member)
Directors Guild of Great Britain (student member)
National Association for Bilingual Education (member and presenter)
Texas Foreign Language Association (member, presenter, award winner)
American Marketing Association (student member, award winner)
Artist Teachers & Colleagues
The following are among the theatre-makers from whom I've taken classes, masterclasses, workshops and other trainings:
Playwright Tom Stoppard · Director William Gaskill · Director John Adams · Director/Playwright Anthony Clark · Director Max Stafford-Clark · Playwright Terry Johnson · Actor/Director Maria Friedman · Opera Director David McVicar · Director Roxana Silbert · Director Paulette Randall · Shakespearean Scholar John Russell Brown · Actor Amelda Brown · Playwright Stephen Jeffreys · Director Bill Banks-Jones · Actor/Opera Director William Relton · Conductor Jane Glover · Theatre Maker Marcello Magni · Artist Michael Atavar · Playwright Tamsin Oglesby · Artistic Director Natalie Abrahami · Artistic Director Amit Lahav · Artistic Director Sean Holmes · Director Leon Rubin · Actor Greg de Polnay · Actor Harriet Walter · Director Mike Alfreds · Playwright Tanika Gupta · Theatre Professor Graham Saunders · Artistic Director Kristine Landon-Smith · Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole · Choreographer/Director Liam Steel · Artistic Director Timothy Sheader · Theatrical Intimacy Education Chelsea Pace & Laura Rikard · Director Sammi Cannold · Film & TV Director/Writer Andy Wolk · Playwright Georgina Escobar · Anti-Racist Theatre Expert Nicole Brewer
The following are among the world-class theatre-makers with whom I've worked on various projects in various capacities:
Lyricist Sir Tim Rice · Director/Playwright Frank Galati · Playwright/Director Mark Medoff · Director/Choreographer Peter Amster · Director/Choreographer Art Manke · Director/Playwright Lisa Peterson · Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards · Director Greg Leaming · Artistic Director Bill Rauch · Director Richard Digby Day · Choreographer/Director Liam Steel · Artistic Director Timothy Sheader · Playwright Octavio Solis · Designer Kevin Rigdon · Designer Afsaneh Aayani · Designer Adam J. Thompson · Conductor Brian DeMaris · Composer/Pianist/Conductor Kathleen Kelly · Conductor Jorge Parodi
The following are some of the theatre-makers with whom I've collaborated as a UH SoTD colleague, or who has been a UH SoTD visiting guest artist I interfaced with during my time on faculty:
Playwright Susan-Lori Parks · Director James Bohnen · Director Gus Kaikkonen · Playwright Theresa Rebeck · Playwright Robert Askins · Playwright Rajiv Joseph · Playwright Chana Porter · Playwright Will Eno · Playwright/Director/Critic Terry Teachout · Designer/Professor Kevin Rigdon · Voice & Text Director/Professor Sara Becker · Actor/Director/Professor Jack Young · Fight Director/Intimacy Director/Actor/Director/Professor Adam Noble
The following are some of the theatre-makers with whom I've collaborated as a CMU SoD colleague, or who has been a CMU SoD visiting guest artist I interfaced with during my time on faculty:
Opera Director Crystal Manich · Director Carlos Armesto · Actor Ted Danson · Actor Judith Light · Composer/Writer David Yazbeck · Actor Telly Leung · Director Matthew Gardiner · Performer/Playwright Mojisola Adebayo · Designer/Professor Narelle Sissons · Lighting Designer/Professor Cindy Limauro · Actor/Director/Professor Kyle Haden · Music Director/Professor Rick Edinger · Librettist/Playwright Rob Handel · Film & TV Director/Writer Andy Wolk · Artistic Director Michael John Garcés · Director/Educator Jonathan Vandenberg · Director/Professor Will Davis · Director/Professor Kim Weild · Anti-Racist Theatre Expert Nicole Brewer
References
Contact information for the following artists available immediately upon request:
* Frank Galati, Tony® Award-winning Director and Playwright, now deceased
* Peter Amster, Director and Choreographer
* Art Manke, Director and Choreographer
* Lisa Peterson, Director and Playwright
* Matthieu Chapman, Literary Director of NY Classical Theater and Educator, SUNY New Paltz
* Jack Young, Actor/Director and Educator, University of Houston, and Artistic Director, Houston Shakespeare Festival
* Sara Becker, Voice & Text Director and Educator, University of North Carolina School of the Arts
* Rick Edinger, Chair, Acting & Music Theater, Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama
* Will Davis, Board Member, TCG & Artistic Director, Rattlestick Theater (Off Broadway)
* Mark Medoff, Tony® Award-winning Playwright and Director, now deceased
Recipient, OPERA America Leadership Intensive
Recipient, Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Rising Leader of Color
Recipient, artEquity / David Geffen School of Drama at Yale national BIPOC Leadership Circle
Recipient, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Visiting Fellow in Directing and Theatre Studies at the University of Houston (inaugural)
Recipient, season-long FAIR Directing Assistantship with Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Recipient, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Directing Observership with South Coast Repertory
Recipient, season-long Directing Fellowship with Asolo Repertory Theatre (inaugural)
Continuous, Artist-in-Residence, University of Texas at El Paso; Guest Artist, Guest Director, Guest Lecturer
Recipient, season-long Directing Attachment with Open Air Theatre (London's West End)
Completed, MFA, Theatre Directing with Distinction from East 15 Acting School/University of Essex, London, England, UK
Completed, BBA, Int'l Marketing & E-business, German minor, with Departmental Honors from Texas Christian University
Affiliations / Committee Work
Current:
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (associate member)
Theatre Communications Group (member and grant recipient; member of board-level governance: Next Generation Taskforce)
OPERA America (institutional member)
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (full member and presenter)
State of the Arts Council, Texas (invited member)
Cultural Roundtable, El Paso, Texas (institutional member)
Former:
CMU Faculty Senate (elected; re-elected)
CMU College of Fine Arts Council School of Drama Representative (elected)
CMU College of Fine Arts Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee (appointed)
CMU School of Drama Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee (co-Chair & member)
CMU School of Drama Content Advisory Committee (member)
CMU School of Drama Season Steering Committee (core member)
Texas Educational Theatre Association (member and presenter)
National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (member)
Equity UK (student member)
Directors Guild of Great Britain (student member)
National Association for Bilingual Education (member and presenter)
Texas Foreign Language Association (member, presenter, award winner)
American Marketing Association (student member, award winner)
Artist Teachers & Colleagues
The following are among the theatre-makers from whom I've taken classes, masterclasses, workshops and other trainings:
Playwright Tom Stoppard · Director William Gaskill · Director John Adams · Director/Playwright Anthony Clark · Director Max Stafford-Clark · Playwright Terry Johnson · Actor/Director Maria Friedman · Opera Director David McVicar · Director Roxana Silbert · Director Paulette Randall · Shakespearean Scholar John Russell Brown · Actor Amelda Brown · Playwright Stephen Jeffreys · Director Bill Banks-Jones · Actor/Opera Director William Relton · Conductor Jane Glover · Theatre Maker Marcello Magni · Artist Michael Atavar · Playwright Tamsin Oglesby · Artistic Director Natalie Abrahami · Artistic Director Amit Lahav · Artistic Director Sean Holmes · Director Leon Rubin · Actor Greg de Polnay · Actor Harriet Walter · Director Mike Alfreds · Playwright Tanika Gupta · Theatre Professor Graham Saunders · Artistic Director Kristine Landon-Smith · Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole · Choreographer/Director Liam Steel · Artistic Director Timothy Sheader · Theatrical Intimacy Education Chelsea Pace & Laura Rikard · Director Sammi Cannold · Film & TV Director/Writer Andy Wolk · Playwright Georgina Escobar · Anti-Racist Theatre Expert Nicole Brewer
The following are among the world-class theatre-makers with whom I've worked on various projects in various capacities:
Lyricist Sir Tim Rice · Director/Playwright Frank Galati · Playwright/Director Mark Medoff · Director/Choreographer Peter Amster · Director/Choreographer Art Manke · Director/Playwright Lisa Peterson · Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards · Director Greg Leaming · Artistic Director Bill Rauch · Director Richard Digby Day · Choreographer/Director Liam Steel · Artistic Director Timothy Sheader · Playwright Octavio Solis · Designer Kevin Rigdon · Designer Afsaneh Aayani · Designer Adam J. Thompson · Conductor Brian DeMaris · Composer/Pianist/Conductor Kathleen Kelly · Conductor Jorge Parodi
The following are some of the theatre-makers with whom I've collaborated as a UH SoTD colleague, or who has been a UH SoTD visiting guest artist I interfaced with during my time on faculty:
Playwright Susan-Lori Parks · Director James Bohnen · Director Gus Kaikkonen · Playwright Theresa Rebeck · Playwright Robert Askins · Playwright Rajiv Joseph · Playwright Chana Porter · Playwright Will Eno · Playwright/Director/Critic Terry Teachout · Designer/Professor Kevin Rigdon · Voice & Text Director/Professor Sara Becker · Actor/Director/Professor Jack Young · Fight Director/Intimacy Director/Actor/Director/Professor Adam Noble
The following are some of the theatre-makers with whom I've collaborated as a CMU SoD colleague, or who has been a CMU SoD visiting guest artist I interfaced with during my time on faculty:
Opera Director Crystal Manich · Director Carlos Armesto · Actor Ted Danson · Actor Judith Light · Composer/Writer David Yazbeck · Actor Telly Leung · Director Matthew Gardiner · Performer/Playwright Mojisola Adebayo · Designer/Professor Narelle Sissons · Lighting Designer/Professor Cindy Limauro · Actor/Director/Professor Kyle Haden · Music Director/Professor Rick Edinger · Librettist/Playwright Rob Handel · Film & TV Director/Writer Andy Wolk · Artistic Director Michael John Garcés · Director/Educator Jonathan Vandenberg · Director/Professor Will Davis · Director/Professor Kim Weild · Anti-Racist Theatre Expert Nicole Brewer
References
Contact information for the following artists available immediately upon request:
* Frank Galati, Tony® Award-winning Director and Playwright, now deceased
* Peter Amster, Director and Choreographer
* Art Manke, Director and Choreographer
* Lisa Peterson, Director and Playwright
* Matthieu Chapman, Literary Director of NY Classical Theater and Educator, SUNY New Paltz
* Jack Young, Actor/Director and Educator, University of Houston, and Artistic Director, Houston Shakespeare Festival
* Sara Becker, Voice & Text Director and Educator, University of North Carolina School of the Arts
* Rick Edinger, Chair, Acting & Music Theater, Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama
* Will Davis, Board Member, TCG & Artistic Director, Rattlestick Theater (Off Broadway)
* Mark Medoff, Tony® Award-winning Playwright and Director, now deceased
...a terrific director... the best I've seen in a long time.
~Tony® winner Mark Medoff
...big fan... ...lifelong fan..."
~Tony® winner Frank Galati
Dream Projects
The following are works/playwrights that I am inspired to tackle as a next chapter in my career. I strive to update this list regularly and to limit it to around a dozen works in either category at any given time. This is meant to act as an indicator of where I'd like my art to next take me, as well as a kind of "vision wall" that will help steer me:
The following are works/playwrights that I am inspired to tackle as a next chapter in my career. I strive to update this list regularly and to limit it to around a dozen works in either category at any given time. This is meant to act as an indicator of where I'd like my art to next take me, as well as a kind of "vision wall" that will help steer me:
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MUSIC THEATER
Sunday in the Park with George and Merrily We Roll Along and A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein Carousel by Rodgers & Hammerstein A Streetcar Named Desire (opera) by André Previn Stuck Elevator (chamber opera/musical) by Byron Au Yong & Aaron Jafferis Luciérnaga (Firefly) (opera for solo soprano) by Gabriela Ortiz an original piece/opera based on the story of the Bath Riots / Carmelita Torres |
HEIGHTENED PLAYS
Dreamlandia and Nuevo Quixote by Octavio Solis Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca Angels in America by Tony Kushner The Legend of Georgia McBride and The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez Brief Encounter by Emma Rice Cloud Tectonics by José Rivera Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo Mother Courage by Bertolt Brecht a series of Mexico-inspired Shakespeare adaptations especially A Midsummer Night's Dream Titus Andronicus Romeo & Juliet |