Directors Guateque at 2026 Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval of New Latinx Musicals

Uh, so thank you all for being here this morning for our directors. We have all of our directors from this weekend from all of our readings here. >> Yeah, give them a big round of applause. >> Amazing. And we also have two of our LTC steering committee members who will be facilitating this discussion. We have Juliana Fry Mendes. >> Everyone and we have Amunos. And they are going to take it away. Thank you so much. Amazing. Thank you so much, Bridget. Thank you all so much for gathering in space with us. Thank you for joining us on the live stream, y'all. Um, this is called the director's gu. So, um, we're going to introduce ourselves, then we're going to introduce these amazing artists and then we're going to ask some questions and then y'all have some time to ask some questions. All of that in 50 minutes. Let's dive right in. Okay. Uh, so Rua Munos is a theater maker born and raised in Mexico City. She's got a BFA from Boston Conservatory and has an advanced directing diploma from the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neal Theater Center. She's an advocate for presenting the intersection of queerness and Latinad. Yes. and she directed Crystal Ortiz, whose show we saw last night Freaky Nation um for the Obie Award-winning Criminal Queerness Festival and is currently developing new plays and musicals, new queer plays and musicals. >> Thank you. Hi everyone. Um yes, hello. Uh well, no, it's my honor to introduce Juliana. Uh who is an Iowa born human who is thrilled to be back in San Diego. She's been giving me like insight here and there working in campus. So, it's amazing. I get like my private tour. Um and uh where she got her MFA in directing. Um and then um she's currently d currently an assistant professor at Oberlin College. >> Yes. And conservatory teaching, directing, acting and new work development. Come on. >> Yes. And she will be directing the first of a rolling workshop production of Alexis Shear Shear's irreverent adaptation of The Passion Christina. >> Right. Yeah. Give it up for Kulana. >> And so now you know a little bit about us, but we're not the main attraction friends. We are here to have a conversation with these incredible directors and we're going to give you a little insight to who you who they are. Um and then we have a little bit of a group activity planned. So get your spirits ready. >> Go for it, Rula. >> Yes. Um so um let me introduce now uh Lisa Portes um who directed Suenos on Friday night. Yes. Right. Um so Lisa is a leader, director and educator and advocate whose work seeks to expand our understanding of who we are as Americans of the Americas. Yes, she is the co-founder of the LTC. So, she's one of the OGs, if you will. >> Yes. Um, and the chair of the theater and dance department right here at UCSD. >> Yes. Most recently, she directed Kiote by Octavio Solis at Brownhouse, Denver Center, South Coast Rep, Seattle Rep, Carland Center Stage, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Come on. Upcoming is the Lemon Trilogy at Dallas Theater Center. >> Antonio award-winning musical The of Two Gentlemen at St. Louis Shakes. >> Yes. Give it up for Lisa. >> Amazing. I feel a little bit like we're at an awards show and that feels right. Like that's the vibe. Um it's my absolute pleasure and honor to um introduce to you all and you all know him and love him, Damaso Rodriguez. Um yes, we have to uplift Damaso who is amongst the first Latina artistic directors of a major regional theater when he became the artistic director of Seattle Rep. now in his fourth season um at the Tony Award-winning Theater. Um he previously had a 9-year tenure as the artistic director of Artists Rep in Portland, which y'all, this is huge, which became a member of the League of Resident Theaters under his leadership. Okay, so we are bringing up um institutions along with artists. He co-founded LA's Furious Theater, served as the associate artistic director at the Pasadena Playhouse. Yah, he's a director. He's a producer of new and classic plays. And the list of places that he has directed is long. Actors Theater of Louisville, ACT, Arizona Theater Company, Gable Stage, Inman Theater, A Noise Within, The Old Globe, OSF, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playright Center, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Rep, and many, many more. upcoming. Very exciting. He'll be directing Peter Pan Goes Wrong and Amadeus at Seattle Rep and the world premiere of I'll be your superhero by Jose Casas at Seattle Children's Theater. Give it up for Damaso. >> Okay. And now I will uh introduce Juliet Caro. Yes. Who directed Fruition that we saw last night. Now we've worked with the same playwright Juliet. So we have more more things in common now than we did before this carnival. Uh Juliet has directed critically acclaimed premiere and revival productions in theaters across the country and internationally including Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Reparatory, Yale Reperatory, Denver Theater Center, Arena Stage and Seattle Reparatory. As a huge supporter of new work, she has directed over 50 workshops of new plays and was the director of the Hispanic Playrates project at South Coast Reporatory for seven years. Come on. Um, a participant in Sundance Theater Institute's theater directors retreat in Arl France. She is a 2025 Macdow MDAW fellow. Also a playwright. Juliet has written four commission plays for Cornerstone Theater Company and was a 2026 writer in residence at Ohio Playrights Conference. Her upcoming projects include a production of Benjamin Benz at the very bottom of a body of water at Boston Court Theater, Amy Herszuk's adaptation of a Doll's House at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and her film Sannasio, a full-length feature to be shot in Baja California in 2027. She is a Yale School of Drama graduate on faculty at UC Irving and a proud originating member of Latinx theater commons. >> Let's give it up for Juliet. >> Amazing. And um finally on our panel today is Pedro James Vasquez who directed Daydreamer which we will all get to see at 1:30 this afternoon. Yes. Yes. Sit in the shade. Uh-huh. Um, he is a Mexican-American San Diego native and an award-winning national director of theater. His recent works include Signature Theat's record-breaking production of Lin Manuel Miranda In the Heights, which was included in Washington Post's top 10 DC and New York uh theater events. So lovely. Uh he is a resident artist of the Old Globe Theater where his production of Hair reopened in 2021 to critical acclaim. He also directed the premieres of American Mariachi and Under a Baseball Sky and directs the annual holiday hit Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Amazing San Diego tradition. Now this is where history starts happening, friends. This past holiday season, he premiered the Spanish translation of the show in a twoight sold out stage concert event. And this year he's going to direct the full production, which means if you are in San Diego, if you're in LA, if you're in San Francisco, if you're remotely close, come to San Diego to see how the Grinch stole Christmas in Spanish. Friends, give it up. Amazing. Yes. Let's give it up for all these amazing directors again. So, let's begin. Um, I'm going to post a question for you all. And um so you are just the tip of the iceberg of so many so many directors that are are doing amazing work just like the work that you already do in your in in the corners that you are in the pockets that you are in the country. Um so I want you to just kind of in a popcorn style like the kids say uh to to share with us who are the you know names of other colleagues who come to your mind who are doing inspired work similar to the work that you already do and we will be compiling a list of directors and choreographers who can be hired to do this work just so in any case that someone is looking for them they can be like oh I know there are so many of of us. So yes, >> and I want uh I I want particularly if this is okay with you to focus on directors that we know have done music theater. Yeah. >> Yeah. Since this is a since one of the things that we're trying to do with the carnival is answer the question or answer the response, I don't know any. Right. There's a lot of directors and choreographers out here that have uh worked on musical theater and put in the miles. And I'm going to hand it to Damaso because as an artistic director, he knows everybody. >> Yeah. >> Uh thank you. And we also sort of like teamed up in the corner before we started and started brainstorming together. So I'm going to go through a little a list. All right. And we'll add to it. Um okay. Uh so uh this is treacherous by the way. It's live streamed and recorded. Right. So I'm going to I we're going to emphasize people we know and then maybe later we'll hear names we ought to know. Okay. >> Start. Yeah. >> So start thinking of names we ought to know. Friends in the audience. >> So these are people I have met, we have worked with etc. Right. Moises Kaufman, Jose Luis Valenuela, Michael John Garces, I'm gonna Lisa Cortez, me I'm interested. Let's do a musical. Henry Godinez, Liliana Blaine Cruz, Juliet Caro, Marcela Lurca, KJ Sanchez, Lorie Woolery, Haime Haime Castineda, who just became the artistic director of Dallas Theater Center. >> Yeah. Um, uh, Michelle Houseman, who runs Miami New Drama. Amazing work there. >> Have to slow down. They're typing. >> Oh, okay. Well, okay, I can repeat. Michelle Houseman, >> James Vasquez. Hey, James. >> Um, Julia Rodriguez Elliot, who runs A Noise Within in LA, founded in 1991, been there the whole time running the theater. Johan Morales, artistic director of Seattle Children's Theater. Jerry Ruiz, Talak Rivas, Mark Valdez, Estfania Fadul. All right, so there's some other names in here. Anybody want to add it? William Carlos Angulo. >> Yeah. Elena Arouse. >> Next generation Eden Alan. Sarah Rodriguez and uh Angela Cruz. Rebecca Martinez. >> Jean Carlo Yunen, >> Rebecca Morilo, >> Maya Garcia, >> Ken Mass. >> Who else? Yes. at Syracuse. >> Yes. Shout out Melissa. Yes. Melissa Sanchez. >> Olga Sanchez. Right here. >> Yes. Um David. And then we'll come here and then back there. >> Rebecca. >> Rebecc Rebecca Panio. >> Aanio. Thank you. >> Tatiana Carlo. >> Tatiana Marie Carlo >> and Matthew B. Cullen. >> Great. Elena in the back. And then Oh, great. Go ahead. Stephania, >> she's there. >> She's there. She's there. We got it. Stefania. >> She's got the wrong instead of She's typing. >> Kai is typing. >> Go for it. >> Tatiana Pandani. >> Oops. >> Great. Yes. >> One more time. >> Susan. >> Melia Ben Susan. Darl >> oversight. >> Miranda Gonzalez. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. O. And then >> Christian. Munoz. >> Yes. Rula Munoz. >> Eric Schwarz. >> Eric Schwarz. Thank you. >> Mark David Pinate. >> Yes. Christian. >> One more time. >> Anna. Sargas. >> Gorgeous. Thank you. And Dan, did I see your hand? >> Yeah. Lorca Perez. >> Lorca Perez. Um, great. We'll go one, two, three, four, five, six, and then we'll move on. Okay. One. >> Are you okay? >> Yes. L. >> Yes. >> Next. Sebastian Bravo Montenegro. >> Sebastian Bravo Montenegro. Okay. Who is three? Call it out. >> Yes. Uh, yes. >> Great. Great. Daryl. Thank you, >> Patrice. >> Alex Mendoza, last word. David >> New Jersey and Rick Sanchez and San Antonio. >> Amazing. We This is a rough draft of a list that obviously we cannot capture the completeness of it. It is in this uh rough draft. We will put into the liner notes. If you have the contact information for these folks, please populate it. Um, and um, then use feel free to use this as a resource to send to folks who are interested. The QR code to the liner notes is in your program. Um, and also you can always send a oneliner email to Bridget to be like, "Hey, what was the list of those folks?" Amazing. Great. Shall we move on, Rula? >> Yes. >> Great. Um, oh, uh, great. It's me. Um, lovely. Uh, okay. So, now that we have created this beautiful list and we've called all these people into the space, um, we'd love to hear a little bit more about your journey as a director. Um, thinking about your trajectory, but also your inspirations. We're curious about were there artists or ancestors whose work fueled fuels um your passion and anyone can start. >> I I'll start. Hi. >> Um James um uh I I grew up here in San Diego. Um my uh father um is a Mexican immigrant and um uh my mother was a dental assistant. So, while my mom was um working, I hung out with my dad as a kid. Um and he was a big old hippie. Um we we sat around, we listened to Bob Dylan. We uh painted a lot. We he wrote a lot of poetry. He still holds up in the bathroom in the middle of the night and writes poetry. And he was part of an organization here in San Diego um uh called the Community Arts Center. And it's in it was in warehouses where Horton Plaza >> now stands once stood. >> Um they got kicked out because Horton Plaza was being built. But what this warehouse was was um three or four floors where local artists or traveling artists came in. And so when I was four, five, six, seven, I spent my time there with my dad. He was one of the people who helped run it. um and on a daily basis was was watching dance troops, was watching uh artists come in and paint each other. Um musicians were so very similar to this. I grew up in a very similar like just sort of artists world. Um a and from a and when I was five in uh school, you know, you have spirit week >> and for future day, I took my grandfather's robe, felt from my mom's sewing kit, um a a cutout director, glued it to the back of the robe, put on a beret and a scarf, and went to school. >> And and my mom says, "And that was that." But but I feel blessed that I sort of I I was thrown into a world of just creatives and weirdos and wonderful people, authentic people. >> I'll go next because there's a little bit of a similar connection here. Um both my parents were painters. They met at UCLA at art school. Um my uh my father died quite young actually. He was 60. Um but I am still surrounded by his paintings. Um I actually had a dream when he passed away that uh he said to me, "I'm still here." And he hold held a frame around his face. Um and um he now 30 years later is um represented at the Smithsonian. The Whitney has his paintings. He's like famous. >> Um but um he he was kind of a master of capturing the world of in between. So he uh he he was interested in realism. He did he did a lot of realistic portraits but he was mostly interested in kind of finding heightened worlds um and also a master of color and so uh tremendous tremendous influence in my work. I'm also very interested in the worlds of in between um in the in not so much in materialism but in like what else is out there in the unknown. I'm very curious about that. Uh so um so he is he's uh still an influence on my work for sure. Um, I I thought about directors and I would say Joanne Echolytus and I want to show shout out her name because not a lot of people folks not a lot of people know that she was actually chosen by Jop to take over the public >> and she took she took that she came from the avantgard Mabu Mines um and uh went into this organization and shook things up and she got fired. But I had an opportunity to um to to assist her and it was it changed my life. I had assisted many many directors up that point. I went to Yale and I you know had a lot of opportunities to assist at Yale and then after. But when I assisted Joanne who came out of this avantgard tradition um I was completely blown away and was like I understand directing now. Um, and then the third one I wanted to shout out is was is Pina Bosch. Um, I'm an incredible I love the body, human body on stage and uh, what I love about her work is that she's so emotionally courageous. So, it's a combination of her whimsy and humor, emotional courage, and also her incredible visual delight that she creates in her work. So, I think all of those stirred around are pretty much what I'm interested in and create on stage. So, yeah, >> nice. >> We'll go down this way. I I'll I'll we'll stick I'm going to stick with this theme of f kind of family starting out. So, uh my parents are amazing and they are not artists. They weren't I didn't have points of reference uh if professional art or even just like um you know non-professional art making. Uh but we did my uh we we went to the movies a lot. Um uh like regularly went to the movies as a kid and my dad would show me movies uh and it was this is pre you know um you know uh recorded stuff right to and whatever. So you have to watch what's on. And I remember uh Westside Story came on at 11:00 p.m. and I was about 10 or 11 and I was allowed to stay up late. I had to was like you should watch this and I stayed up um till 1 in the morning or whatever it was watching that and uh and it's not only obviously you know we we've talked about uh its problematic nature viewed through our lens now but at the time just seeing um hearing Spanish my middle name is Benado right so even that was kind of resonant um uh and uh anyhow but I learned it was a play first and you could tell it was a play it was very heightened not realistic compared to like say the sound of music which I had seen or fiddler on the roof those classic film versions. So there was a kind of an awareness there of theater through that but we didn't go to the theater. Um, and then and I was kind of painfully shy as a kid. And then my dad uh and my mom made ma made me basically take a speech class in uh junior high in nth grade. And the kind of public speaking piece of it, the preparation to perform in a way and even like little improv games and exercises in that context, I lit up and I got positive reinforcement and I I did well. And then I took the drama class the next year and that kind of went down my that's the you know it's a longer story but I would say like that uh that speech class led me to theater and then uh when I went to college at Texas A&M University just a general studies major afraid to declare that I wanted to do theater I went to the um drama club meeting and there was an improv game at the end of the meeting and I did the improv there and uh I got a laugh and I got positive recognition and it was fun and so then I went uh to audition for a play and I got cast in the play and then two years later I declared myself a theater major and I told my parents I was going to be an actor. Um, but I became obsessed with improv and in college and started an improv group and my learning was based on those games we were playing and going and getting books and reading about the Second City and Truth in Comedy uh by Dell Close and Chara Halpurn and uh and then I was also doing you know plays and learning about theater history and all of that. So I went to Chicago and I and so the first seven years of my career I was I was like improvising five days a week. Um, and then later I decided that uh I moved to LA. It's a long story, but I I said, you know, I don't know that it's acting that I've been interested in all along. I think it's the problemolving that happens in community when you're trying to figure out how to tell this story. So maybe that's why I was seduced, you know, by by this. And so then I said, well, I guess I need to learn something about directing. Now, I had been directing, but it was more like leadership versus craft and things like that. So I went to a noise within which Julia Rodriguez Elliot was our co-art artistic director and I spent a year there studying classical theater uh in an apprenticeship there and then I started a theater company and um so in a way my influences aside those that very early origin story has been like watching what other people have done and trying to copy that trying to learn secondhand and then along the way you pick up mentors and practical experience. >> Yay. I'm gonna stick with the daddy issues theme. Um, my dad is a Cuban exile. My mom was an Air Force brat. I'll bring in my mom. My mom is a an Air Force brat from Nebraska. So, they were um neither of them had a sense of home. They were very parapotetic. So, I grew up between uh my dad was climbing the academic ladder between college towns in the Midwest, you know, Madison, Champagne, Austin, you know, these towns. Lincoln, Nebraska, you know what I mean? Um uh and big Latin American countries like Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, um uh uh Cali Colombia. Um so by the time I was 10, oh Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, um Brazilia, by the time I was 10, I'd gone to like eight different schools, right? Um so um uh I started I think I just started I just started making plays. At one point I just started I did a puppet show when I was five. if I put together a little puppet show with paper bags. You know paper bags? You remember those? I sold tickets throughout the neighborhood for a dime. I was so excited cuz everybody bought a ticket and I was like, "They're all going to come. I'm going to have a huge house like this." Um and um the March of Dimes boy was collecting dimes that day and my mom made me give all my dimes to that boy >> and also only two kids showed up and I realized that all the parents had just bought tickets to be nice to me. >> So that was my first experience of not for-p profofit theater. But but I continued making shows and one thing that I found out was that my father was very busy climbing the academic ladder. is a very famous sociologist and um and my parents were divorced. Um and I think one of the the ways that I was um trying to make sense of the world that I lived in because I kept moving was to just start to make worlds. I would just start to make worlds of my own and I would I would recruit anybody, you know what I mean? Whoever was living in our house, my brother, my sister, my cousins when they were around and I would make plays and I found out and they were often musicals. I remember one called it was about um you'll recognize this dominoes. He's the mano. The terrible mano. No, nobody got it. Okay. The mano is the first person in a game of dominoes. It's very Cuban. Anyway, um uh uh I could get my father to sit down and pay attention when I did a play. >> All right. So, I did a lot of them. And then my sister was very good. and um she was very good in the plays and we learned pretty quickly that we could get him to pay attention to us if we put on plays, positive reinforcement. Uh and then she became an actor and I became a director and I'll go into the directing story in a second. And my dad said, "Bro, why aren't two of my three children artists?" And I was like, "Well, because you paid, you know, if you because you paid attention to us when we were making theater." Um he's like, "Well, I would have then paid attention to you if you were, you know, having a debate like becoming a lawyer." Anyway, um uh so directing I acted a lot. I acted from elementary school like many of us. I acted in high school. I acted in college. Um but I became very interested in Forness >> and Jane. >> Um and I was reading Forness and Jane and I was like, I want to see it. I want to see it. So I began directing in college at Oberlin College. We got a lot of Oberlin. Um because I wanted to see the world of Fortress and the world of Jane on stage. Uh, and then I applied to graduate school as an actor and I got in nowhere and I cried and I cried and I called my dad, "Dad, I didn't get into grad school." And he's like, "Well, why why did you apply as an actor? >> You're a director." >> And then I applied for a fullbrite and I applied to UC San Diego >> and it was a fullbrite to go to Colombia to study under Enrique Wavventura. Um, and I got them both >> and so then I was like, I guess I'm a director. And then I said, "Dad, how did you know?" He said, "You always did it." >> So, there's that. I will also say my I want to shout out my mom for her emotional heart. Um, and for helping me. I have three emotions. Sappy, sad, mad. I don't understand anything in between those things. My mom helps me. Um, and my stepfather ran the Civic Auditorium in Lincoln, Nebraska, where I went to high school. So I saw a lot of rock and roll really early on, >> you know, and I think that scale and sense of spectacle mixed with a kind of love for alternative dramaturies like Forness, um, really created who I am as a director. And then I'll shout out my mentors, Dez Machino, Robert Woodruff, Andre Serbon, um, Emily Man, uh, uh, Carrie Pirof. Um, yeah, those are my main kind of directorial influences. >> Thank you. Yes, let's give it up. So many amazing stories. Thank you all for sharing um that with us. Okay, so moving on. Uh would love to know how um how do you foster a collaborative environment that uh honors the unique aspects of musical theater because it has so many entry points and we learned we were talking about that in the scholars mixtape, right? how it has it just so many so many moving parts. It takes a a village uh to to do it and just the intricacies of musical theater. So, how do you foster that collaborative aspect when you get to work on music theater specifically as directors? >> Anyone can start. >> I'll go. Um because my team just walked in. >> Um it's okay. Uh so I I believe that this is true for plays and also musicals that work has a life of its own. >> Independent of any of us. >> So Crystal has a vision, Satcha has a vision, but the work itself has its own vision >> and that our job is to listen to the work. So, it's it's really about getting out of the way, you know, and uh allowing it to fru fruition, right? To come to fruition. Um, yeah. So, so it's like I I think as a director, it's about deep deep listening and standing aside >> and when you need to come in and, you know, maybe nudge it one way or another because it's asking to be nudged, you do so. But really, it's about holding space um and allowing the the uh collaborators to breathe into it. That's my philosophy. >> My favorite thing about uh music theater is uh I I mean I think out loud. I I I could never be a writer. I could never sit alone in my house and write a play. I think I would lose my mind. Um, and the great thing about music theater is you have so many collaborators. You have the composer, you have a bookw writer, sometimes you have a lyricist, sometimes it's one or one of those folks or three of those folks. You have a music director, you have a choreographer, um, and the designers and that you so the team is large. And as to Juliet's point, the team is all working towards making something um that has not I you know, especially on a new work, something that hasn't been seen before, >> you know, and so, you know, to to to kind of steward that ship is a profound honor. It's also, I think, super fun late into the night or sometimes super torturous late into the night as you're wrestling with like what the hell is it? But I think that kind of largecale collaboration with artists at the top of their game um is thrilling is thrilling for me as a director. Um yeah, I'll just leave it there. That that collaboration is I think the the highest um the highest art of our collaborative form. you know, um it's it's interesting because I I I am asked often um how I view musicals differently than directing um a straight play. And quite honestly, I I don't see any difference because um I I love musical theater so much and I love music and movement so much that I think even in my straight plays there's a a dance to it and there's a musicality to it. So, um I work with movement directors and I work with uh uh musicians even on um uh non-musical plays. Um, and and I I what I love about it is like right now I'm going a little crazy because we're all just sitting in these chairs and and and there's so much about being authentic and and being human and full, which is about like up and breathing and just moving and um, >> you know, so I I love that and I love when when we all get so inspired that we're up out of our seats. and we're just find ourselves dancing around the the room. >> Let's start dancing, you know, and I I I um uh I I love They can tell you, Marley and Eliza can tell you. I There have been a couple moments where I've gone, "Big idea," and they'll go, "Maybe not." And I'm like, "Cool." But but I love that. I love the freedom of a room to go boom and everybody then look at you and laugh and we go okay let's try something else >> you know but um yeah up up and like let's get up and move and let's let's be free >> I don't know if that was an answer but >> what everyone's saying definitely resonates with me I uh I'll so I spent way too much time telling myself I I'm not a director of musicals >> that that's because that requires some sort of specialized expertise and skill set insight into music in a way that um I don't have because that wasn't my path. So at some point uh I was one of my mentors. I was associate artistic director to Sheldon Eps at Pasadena Playhouse and we were doing a lot of musicals there and I kind of carried that energy into a conversation. He's like, "Oh, well it's all storytelling." And he at the time was doing plays, classics, new work, musicals. uh and television. And so that core idea that you actually have what you need because the core skills are the same. Um I love this notion of uh this there's basically the the thing we're working on together is an organism. I think of it as that and it has it's it sort of like starts to take on energy and it has things it wants, right? And so your job is sort of like to sort of to respond to it, right? Bring your own instincts and impulses and listen to them. you might as well, but essentially listening to everybody else. And so as soon as you gather a group of people to work on something initiated by the creative team, right, their their impulses, people start to respond to it. And so like this is maybe a little bit of the improv, you know, identity where you just you you kind of make humility part of your artistic practice, meaning you don't know, right? So your job is simply to respond um and then to be courageous in that response, right? And then ma like magic it might all work out. So the other thing that's happening in any play uh any story right is in this I'm not inventing any of this right every breath is active right somebody is trying to make somebody else do something or feel something right the actors are doing that the moment is doing that um and so just like paying the director's job I feel like is to pay the most attention to that >> right because other people are doing things like writing music and dealing with the technical things that have to be done in the you know choreography and the director is is actually like studying it and then you are this extraordinary um project manager kind of prioritizer >> and it's not because you're hierarchically superior in that way but that's your job because if somebody's not doing that the thing will will fall apart because the pressure is so high right >> I just also want to say you know when I got to UCSD oh wait applause applause applause no >> applause applause applause >> when I got to UCSD I thought I was going to be doing like you know Fornes and like Croitz and Fospinder you know I was going to through these Europeans. Um, and then I was apprentice I was um through the the relationship with La Hoya Playhouse. My residency was with Dez Machino and so I did a new musical with him, a new play. And then I was became the associate on the Who's Tommy. And um uh and it was at that moment that I really realized what popular music I think somebody was talking about this yesterday. Yeah. Really meant in music theater. And so the other thing I want to say about I was always driven to um I'm always driven by or drawn to languagriven playwrights. Um and in music I mean music is the language right and so you have to be you have to be driven by the music itself and I think though I don't make a distinction in my approach between the words of the page or the words of the writer and then the words of the lyricist but the music um really makes so much so many of the decisions actually. It tells you what world you're in. >> Yeah. Well, I I would just um I I agree and I would I would just my my the reason I would I would go, "Oh, I can do this, right?" Is that that is happening in every play. It might be the lights, right? It might be that each play has its own rules, right? It's its own storytelling mechanism. And yeah, when you're doing a musical, you have this particular um element that is core. >> Yeah. I just love the music >> and and this is such a beautiful conversation and it makes me think of um great great thank you. Um it makes me think of um if folks have watched the documentary about Mar Danny Fornes done by Michelle Mean. It's called The Rest I Make Up. It's available for streaming. Um please watch for and canopy for free. and she has a note card that says, "Love is paying deep attention." And I think that the I'm just hearing that um how much loving attention we are paying to the whole um which is so beautiful. And um speaking of loving attention, we would love to attend to you all. Um we have a little time under five minutes. So, if we don't get to you, feel free to um speak with these folks later. Um but do we have any questions? Yes, I see one over here. Go ahead, Elina. Great. And I'm just going to repeat it for the live stream, which is how do you navigate a moment where you're unable to lock in with the playwright composer around um around vision? >> I might consider that I'm not the right director for the project, >> you know, not in any kind of combative way, but I think I think it's important to remove yourself if you're not the right artist for the artists as a director, you know. I mean, you don't need to direct everything. Um, and I think that that collaborate that collaboration is so important. Um, and that collaborative flow and communication is so important that if it's not there, you know, soon into the project, you're not maybe not the right person. You know what I mean? >> I I would agree. >> May three >> also. >> Okay. It's definitive. It is definitive. Great. Right up here. Go ahead. Well, I'm a proud proud sister of Lula and I want to say she uh brought us today because our love for theater was was uh nourished and flourished from her. Uh but I have a question because I'm a mother to three teenagers and we also have two little siblings in this era where technology, AI, TV, all these fast uh rewarding um accessible devices are available to all our kids. How can we still like you know nourish and flourish and like you from your perspective what would you say to parents to teachers hey this is how you should be like also nourishing and flourishing this love to the arts to your kids I don't know if my question makes sense thank you >> it does yeah go ahead >> um you you know I I I actually um uh I work with a lot of kids and I I work with a lot of kids from seven to uh 14 um and a lot of them it's their first time on stage or or or in a project like this and um they will come in on their phones and on their iPads >> um and they are stuck to this sort of way of going and what I find really exciting is >> I watch a lot of the Disney Channel and I watch a lot of other things like that. So I have an awareness of of what's going on in their worlds and what they're watching. So I'll spend about two minutes with them and then I'll say, "Oh, that's really fun. What if we did that?" And so I try to then engage them in that same activity in storytelling, but up on their feet and off. And I find that nine times out of 10, two minutes later, those devices are gone. >> And we're acting out the world. >> Um, and it and and suddenly they're just we're playing. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Any I think we have time for one more question which will be right over two more. Exciting. Go ahead. >> What would you say to young directors right now who are building their careers on this page of musicals and new? >> That's going too much. >> Just do it. >> Keep doing it. Just keep doing it. Do it on the street. Do it in your basement. Do it in storefronts. Do it, you know, for free. Do it for five cents. Do it for 10 cents. But just keep doing it. >> Yeah. >> Agreed. And you know, I know I kind of know when someone is a director when they can tell me what they're directing next. And it doesn't really matter whether you've been offered or hired. You have your project. You're nurturing the script. You've got the reading coming up. You're starting a theater company. You're doing the thing. So, you have to control your destiny in that way. And it's really hard and unfortunate. That's how it is. But that is how it is. But you also have to acquire these this experience to work at scale. So one of the things on that list of names and forgive me but I'm just going to pitch to producers out there you know so we have very few latin directors directing major largecale projects right very very few unacceptably few and part of the reason is that part of the job of the director uh is that the producer uh uh is entrusting you with this massive uh project right so at a regional theater like Aloho Playhouse or Seattle rep we're talking about a musical is going to be two to million. So, you're the $2 to3 million project manager. What are you going to do to get somebody to trust you with that? They could think you're a genius, right? They could they could think you've won all these awards and they want to hire you. Yes, that could be. Or they could look at your experience and say they've been there before. They've handled some things. I'm going to trust them with this project. So, that's very practical and and dull, but that is what's happening out there, right? So, um, we need to you need to go get the experience, uh, over it took me 27 years to get my job at Seattle Rep. >> Um, uh, you have to, um, uh, so anyways, go out in the and get the experience. I I I pitch to anyone who has the opportunity to hire a director when the project centers Latinx identity in any way is please, please, please hire a Latinx director. for now at least for like what if we all did it for 5 years, right? What if if you if you wrote the book, if you're the producer, etc. Like do that for a little while because the system kind of talks itself out of hiring the director really fast. >> Thank you. >> Great. Last question back here. Go ahead, Darl. Oh. Oh, great. Sorry. Go ahead. My name is Matthew. Uh, and one of the things I love about theater is that he's constantly asking, be learning. And so I'm an early career artist and I love asking, okay, you guys are so much further ahead of me, right? What is something that you've learned recently as a director that you're starting to apply to your practice? >> It's a great question. >> I'm trying to um learn how to I'm trying to learn how to uh slow down. My work is a a little bit antic. You know, people are My dad is always like, "Why is everyone always running around in your productions?" >> So, I'm trying to figure out how to direct something elegantly and maybe at a different pace. >> I Okay. I've been thinking about um early in your career you may speak for myself like everything I was directing I had been carrying in my pocket for a long time right because I was self-producing so I like really this piece had to had to exist I was you know I had a vision for it all that so those early projects may be like that right or it's you're working with your closest peer collaborators and then the more you work you might just be assigned something that that is sounds amazing but you have no history with it right? Or you have no history with the collaborator. So, I guess the craft itself of how to flow in the room and manage process and just like the the art the art of the process has been something I've just been really um I don't know, I realize I've been learning it even even more recently. >> Yeah. You know, um uh the learning never stops. And and I think it's really wonderful that um I I I'm surprised that I will get emails um and uh from a theater or my agent and they'll say, "Hey, this person's interested in being your associate and wants to shadow you." And I'm like, >> "What?" >> Because to this day, I still actively seek out directors that I admire >> and see if I can sit next to them in a process. >> That's right. >> Yeah. So, the learning never stops. I think this is connected to what I was saying earlier and this is this is the practice the practice for me is um how do I it's this is going to sound very zen but how do I push a project forward um and let go of it at the same time >> because I do like I said it is it doesn't belong to me it belongs to the room so how do I how do I allow that how do I encourage that in myself and also it has to do at the same time you have to emotionally invest 1,000%. You have to be the characters. You have to be >> you have to go through the experiences that the characters are going through 1,000% in order for it to fully fly and at the same time let go of it. So yeah, it's that's that is a lifetime practice. Yeah. >> Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Yes. Round of applause. >> Thank you so much to our wonderful wonderful directors. Um, thank you, Rula. We We've had a blast. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Um, we are going to um transition. We're going to hand it off to the wonderful Bridget who's going to come up here and let us know what's next. Um and just to say that um one of the things that is wonderful about the LTC is that we gather in community on the same plane literally the plane of existence and um some folks have more credits and some folks has less but we are all in the journey together. So, keep coming back. Join the steering committee to help us make decisions, especially programming that's coming up. And um don't be afraid to talk to people because we are all artists and we are all people. Um thank you so much. Thank you. >> Thank you all for coming out so early. Yes. Yes.