Ella deCastro Baron

Ella deCastro Baron is a second generation Filipina American born and raised on Patwin and Muwekma lands (Vallejo, California). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing, is a VONA alum, and teaches English and Creative Writing at San Diego City College and U Mass. Ella’s first book of creative nonfiction is, Itchy, Brown Girl Seeks Employment, and she will be/is published in Nonwhite and Woman, (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences During the Coronavirus Epidemic, Anomaly, and The Rumpus. An embodied storyteller, Ella honors sensations, images, story, dance, and candid cultural insight to reflect the dynamic identities in all of us.

Ella explores what it means to have integrity—to be integrated—as a woman of color who lives with chronic illness. She co-teaches and produces workshops and kapwa (deep interconnection) gatherings that aim to reconcile folks—especially BIPOC—through decolonial, nourishing acts such as writing, art, movement, food (yes!) and community rituals. She lives and loves on Kumeyaay territory (San Diego, CA) with her husband and interracial family. Her favorite pronoun is We.

E. M. Lewis

E. M. Lewis is an award-winning playwright. Her work has been produced around the world, and published by Samuel French. Lewis received the Steinberg Award for How the Light Gets In and Song of Extinction and the Primus Prize for Heads from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a playwriting fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Commission, the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama, and an Edgerton Award for Magellanica.

Other plays include True Story (upcoming at Artists Rep), Apple Season (National New Play Network rolling world premiere), The Gun Show, Dorothy’s Dictionary (winner of the Portland Civic Theater Guild’s New Play Award, and upcoming world premiere at Theatre Lab), and You Can See All the Stars (Kennedy Center commission).  Lewis is mid-way through a Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency, based at Artists Repertory Theater (ART).  She is working on The Great Divide — co-commissioned by ART and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the American Revolutions program — and her first musical. Lewis is a member of LineStorm Playwrights and the Dramatists Guild. She lives on her family’s farm in Oregon.

Kate Caroll DeGutes

Kate Carroll DeGutes – Kate’s first book, Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, won the 2016 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction and a 2016 Lambda Literary Award in Memoir. A wry observer and writer who started her career as a journalist, Kate is a stickler for the serial comma, and also believes that there should always be two spaces between a period and the beginning of the next sentence. Her second book, The Authenticity Experiment: Lessons From the Best & Worst Year of My Life, based on her critically acclaimed blog, was released in September, 2017 and won an Independent Publishing Award medal in LGBTQ Nonfiction.Kate was recently recognized by the Tanne Foundation for outstanding artistic achievement with an unrestricted financial award. 

Kate has received fellowships from the Jack Straw Foundation, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Anderson Center, Artsmith, and Centrum. An authentic and humorous teacher, Kate has taught at Pacific Lutheran University, University of Idaho, University of Puget Sound, and Willamette University, as well as at the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference, Chuckanut Writers Conference, and the Willamette Writers Conference. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing from the University of Puget Sound and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.

Kate Moira Ryan

Kate Moira Ryan Selected work- The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, written with Linda S. Chapman and based on Ann Bannon’s Lesbian Pulp novels from the 1950s, produced off-Broadway by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. (Winner: GLAAD Award and published by DPS).  Cavedweller based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Dorothy Allison, produced by New York Theatre Workshop, directed by Michael Greif, and published by DPS. Other work (selected) includes 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, written with and for Judy Gold, which ran for a year and a half off-Broadway and had a three-year national tour. (Winner: GLAAD Award; a book based on the play was published by Hyperion and nominated for the Quill Award.) The Judy Show, also written with and for Judy Gold, was produced at Theater J, Williamstown, DR2 (Union Square), and the Geffen Playhouse. OTMA was produced by the Atlantic Theatre, Yakertinburg Young People’s Theatre, nationally and internationally. Playscripts published it.  She was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize for her play, Hadley’s Mistake.

Kate has received numerous fellowships, including the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship to EST, Sundance Institute, the Trust for Mutual Understanding (Russia), MacDowell, Yaddo, Edward Albee, the Center for International Theatre (Russia), New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooks Atkinson New Dramatists Exchange to the Royal National Theater, Sumner Locke Elliott Fellowship to the Australian National Playwrights Conference and the Van Lier to the Women’s Project and Productions.

An alumna of New Dramatists, she received her MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and started her career with the Young Playwright’s Festival. She is on faculty at the Einhorn School of the Arts/Primary Stages and is an instructor for the New York Theatre Workshop Master Class program.

Kate Duffly is a scholar-director and community-based theatre artist with a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Her teaching and research interests include socially engaged and community-based theatre, 20th and 21st century American theatre, race theory and performance, acting, and directing. Kate has published articles in TDR, Theatre Topics, Theatre Survey, and Theatre Annual. In addition to her own directorial and devised performance work, Kate has worked with Cornerstone Theater, Lunatique Fantastique, Touchable Stories, and Wise Fool Community Arts. In 2016, Kate received a grant from Oregon’s Regional Arts and Culture Council to create a community-based theatre project with community organization Western States Center and collaborator Roberta Hunte (Portland State University) about reproductive justice, titled We Are BRAVE. Kate is the president of the board for Theatre Diaspora, Oregon’s only professional Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) theatre company. She is also on the board of MediaRites, a “production organization based in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to telling the stories of diverse cultures and giving voice to the unheard through the arts, education and media projects.” Prior to her position as Assistant Professor of Theatre at Reed, Kate taught as lecturer at UC Berkeley and California College of Arts.

Dr. Roberta Hunte is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University’s School of Social Work. She received her M.S. in Conflict Resolution from PSU, and her doctorate from the University of Manitoba in Peace and Conflict Studies. She is affiliate faculty in Women,  Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Black Studies. Hunte is a community engaged Black feminist scholar, whose academic interests include sexual and reproductive justice, cultural work for social change, and how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color navigate institutions: particularly construction, maternal healthcare, and higher education. Her creative critical scholarship includes the theatre piece “My Walk Has Never Been Average,” and short film “Sista in the Brotherhood,” both informed by her research with Black tradeswomen and devised theater piece entitled “We are BRAVE,” based on reproductive stories from people of color and transgender people.

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

Miriam Schwartz

Miriam Schwartz (she/her):  Originally from Seattle, WA, Miriam Schwartz has spent the majority of her career in Minneapolis where past credits include roles at the Guthrie Theater, Mixed Blood Theatre, Six Points Theatre, Artistry MN, 7th House Theatre Company, Arrow Theatre Company, and The Playwrights’ Center.

She is the recipient of a 2018 MN Theatre Award for Exceptional Individual Performance for her work in the Guthrie’s production of INDECENT– a role she was thrilled to play again at Profile Theatre in collaboration with Artists Rep in 2020. In her most recent work with Profile, she sported *many* wigs as both Myra and Myrna in THE MINEOLA TWINS. Miriam is a graduate of the Guthrie Theater’s BFA Actor Training Program.

Julana Torres

Julana Torres is a multifaceted artist with an extensive career in music, theatre, and dance. In 2016 she returned to the stage after a career of teaching with Portland Public Schools where she created the full-time dance program for Franklin High School.

Since returning to the stage, she has appeared in numerous productions including Crowns (PPH), Cop Out (Red Door Project), Between Riverside and Crazy (Artist Repertory) Water by the Spoonful (Profile Theatre), and starred in the first-ever revival of one-woman show Mala (Coho) by Melinda Lopez.

Additionally, she has co-starred in Netflix’s Trinkets and feature film Losing Addison, as well as been nominated twice for Best Actress by the Portland Drammy Awards. Julana can also be seen performing around town with her own 10-piece Salsa band, La Colorá. 

Jamie Rea

JAMIE M. REA

A renaissance woman of the theatre and a proud member of Actor’s Equity, Jamie has had the pleasure of exploring this powerful tool for connection and change for over 20 years. She has studied the work of Sanford Meisner & Robert Bray with Barry Hunt & Sowelu Theatre Ensemble; Suzuki Technique & Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints with the SITI Company (NYC); Rhythm Tap with Savion Glover’s teacher Lady Diane Walker & Lane Alexander, founder of the National Tap Dance Festival in Chicago; and Devising Theatre with the late Scott Kelman of Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theatre (NYC).

Seen previously as Halina in Indecent (Profile and ART), Amy in In the Wake, and as Dawn in The Secretaries (Profile Theatre). Additional local favorites include Olympe DeGouges in The Revolutionists  and Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest (Artist Repertory Theatre), Macbeth in Macbeth & Kristine (Drammy award, Best Supporting Actress) in A Doll’s House (Shaking the Tree Theatre), Anna (Drammy Finalist, Best Actress) in The Snowstorm (CoHo & Many Hats Productions), Mary Shelley in Bloody Poetry (NW Classical Theatre Co), and Gabriella in References to Salvador Dali make me hot (Milagro).