Jerry Ruíz

Jerry Ruiz’ s directing credits include: world premieres at Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Second Stage Theatre and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, as well as Off-Broadway and regional productions at the Old Globe, Primary Stages, Hartford TheaterWorks, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Mint Theater Company, Stages Repertory Theater, Clubbed Thumb, NYC Summerstage, Chalk Rep and Repertorio Español. He has developed work at Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Playwrights Realm.

From 2011 to 2015, he served as curator for the Crossing Borders festival of new plays at Two River Theater in New Jersey. He was a recipient of the 2009–2011 NEA/TCG Career Development for Theatre Directors Grant.  He received his M.F.A. from UC San Diego and his B.A. from Harvard University. SDC Member. Currently, he serves as the head of the MFA Directing program at Texas State University.           

Lava Alapai

Lava is originally from Okinawa, Japan and grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii where she learned the art of Bunraku puppetry. She graduated with an MFA in acting from California Institute of the Arts and has been creating theatre in Portland for more than a decade. Credits include design and acting work for Portland Playhouse, defunkt theatre, Tears of Joy Theatre and Many Hats Collaboration, among others. Directing credits include Columbinus, Charlotte’s Web and Locomotion for Oregon Children’s Theatre, and staged readings for Profile Theatre and Playwrights West.  She is an associate member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society (SDC). She would like to thank her amazing team and beautiful cast for giving her the opportunity to create this show with them, and her wife, Alex, for agreeing to go on this crazy ride with her. Visit www.lavaalapai.com to see Lava’s work as a photographer.

Damaso Rodriguez

Born in Miami, Florida, Dámaso Rodríguez has worked as a producer, director, educator, and arts administrator at theaters and universities across the country. Along with more than 100 production credits, he brings over 20 years of experience as an arts leader, from start-up organization to venerable institution. He is a vice president of Arts Consulting Group, where he works with arts and culture organizations around the country. Clients include: Berkeley Rep, the Central Oregon Center for the Arts, the Guthrie Theatre, KEXP, Long Wharf Theatre, Lynn University, Missoula Children’s Theatre, Pegasus Theatre, and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.

Rodríguez spent nine seasons as Artistic Director of Artists Rep, Portland, Oregon’s longest-running professional theatre, where he established new artistic programs and guided the 40-year old organization through many periods of transition, including the property sale and facilities planning process for a $32mil redevelopment of the theatre’s downtown home. During his tenure, Artists Rep joined the League of Resident Theaters (LORT) and produced more than 60 productions. Artistic programming highlights include: the establishment of a new works development program; the organizational residency and resource-sharing program known as ArtsHub; the creation of a resident artists program involving nearly 40 artists across theatrical disciplines; the pandemic pivot to digital productions such as audio dramas and short films; and the establishment of the DNA: Oxygen program, which works to transform the company into a theatre rooted in anti-racist, anti-bias practices. Rodríguez is a Co-Founder of Los Angeles’ Furious Theatre (called “one of the fastest-rising ensembles in L.A. stage history” by LA Stage Magazine), where he spent 11 years as Co-Artistic Director. He has also served as Associate Artistic Director of the Pasadena Playhouse. Rodríguez has produced and directed a broad range of new and classic plays at some the country’s most prominent regional theaters.

Along with 22 Artists Rep productions, directing credits include work at South Coast Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater, Seattle Rep, Intiman Theatre, A Noise Within, The Playwrights’ Center, New Dramatists, The New Harmony Project, and The Theatre @ Boston Court. He is a recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, Back Stage Garland Award, NAACP Theatre Award, and Pasadena Arts Council Gold Crown Award. Rodríguez is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and has served on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, as a Theatre Communications Group Delegate to the Havana International Theatre Festival, and as a guest of Spain’s Ministry of Culture for the Ibero-American Theatre Forum