Created by Latino Theater Co., "Offstage/Unmasked" are bravely curious conversations with Latinx theater artists across the country. Join us once a month as we talk about the State of Latinx Theater a year into the Covid-19 pandemic. We shut down, we masked up, went online, we connected and we're still here. How has covid impacted our programming? What kept us going? When are we coming back to the stage and what changes do we need to make to get there?
This week we interview José Luis Valenzuela, Artistic Director of the Latino Theater Co at The LATC in Los Angeles, CA., and Rosalba Rolón, Artistic Director of Pregone PRTT in Bronx, NYC.
JOSÉ LUIS VALENZUELA is the Artistic Director of the Latino Theater Company (LTC), and The Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) and is also a Distinguished Professor at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television. Valenzuela is an award-winning theater director, and has been a visionary and an advocate for Chicanx/Latinx Theater for over 30 years. He has directed critically acclaimed productions at major theaters both internationally and nationally including the LATC where he created the Latino Theatre Lab in 1985 and the Mark Taper Forum where he established the Latino Theater Initiative in 1991. He has directed, The Mother of Henry, Solitude, Premeditation, Dementia, and A Mexican Trilogy for the Latino Theatre Company. Most recently he also directed Macbeth at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Karen Zacarias’ Destiny of Desire at Arena Stage, South Coast Rep, The Goodman Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. His international directing credits include Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt at the Norland Theatre in Norway and Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman at the National Theatre of Norway. He produced the national Encuentro Festival in 2014 and national and international Encuentro de las Americas in 2017.
ROSALBA ROLÓN is the Artistic Director of Pregones + Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PregonesPRTT). She is an accomplished director and dramaturg specializing in the adaptation of literary and non-literary texts for stage performance with live music. Recent productions include ¡Guaracha!, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2019, We Have Iré (with playwright Paul S. Flores and composer Yosvani Terry), which premiered at YBCA/San Francisco, Dancing In My Cockroach Killers, Betsy! (with Roadside Theater/KY), Brides (with partners in Belgium and the Slovak Republic), and others. Recent distinctions include 2019 Creative Capital Award, and 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award. She is a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee and co-Chair of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals 2021 National Conference. With PregonesPRTT Ensemble she has traveled to 37 states/500+ cities in the U.S., and 18 countries.
