Diane Rodriguez

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Ecuadorian activist and politician, see
Diane Marie Rodríguez Zambrano
.

Diane Rodriguez (June 22, 1951 – April 10, 2020) was an American theatre artist who directed, wrote and performed.

OBIE Award winning actress, she was known for using comedy to confront various forms of oppression, often with special attention to issues of gender and sexuality.[2]

History

Schooled in activist art,

University of California at Santa Barbara. She was a producer and director at Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles and an Artistic Associate of Cornerstone Theater Company. An enduring influence in Chicano theatre,[4] she was born in the 1950s to American parents from farm working families.[5] She co-founded two theatre companies, El Teatro de la Esperanza (Theatre of Hope) and Latins Anonymous, and was a leading actress for the seminal Chicano theatre group, El Teatro Campesino (Theater of the Farmworkers).[6]

She joined El Teatro Campesino during the mid-1970s. In political sketches for

César Chávez and full-length works, she honed her comedic skills performing on a variety of stages from flat bed trucks to ancient European Greco Roman amphi-theatres.[7] In 1988 she co-founded the comedy troupe Latins Anonymous as a response to the Hollywood stereotyping of Latino actors.[8]

Rodriguez then served as director of the Latino Theatre Initiative at the Mark Taper Forum from 1995–2000.[9]

She began directing in 1991 and was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Directing Award in 1998. She has directed and developed the work of Nilo Cruz, Lynn Nottage, John Leguizamo, Jose Cruz Gonzalez, John Belluso, Octavio Solis, Culture Clash, Oliver Mayer, Migdalia Cruz and Cherríe Moraga. She received Best Direction nominations for her work on Leguizamo's Spic-O-Rama and Culture Clash's Border Town.

She won an OBIE Award (OFF-BROADWAY) Award in 2007 for playing multiple roles in Heather Woodbury's Tale of Two Cities (Best Ensemble).[10]

In January 2015, it was announced that President Obama nominated Rodriguez to the National Council on the Arts, whose purpose is to advise the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts on matters of policies and programs.

On April 10, 2020, her employer, Center Theatre Group, announced on Facebook that she had died of lung cancer.

Published writings

Plays

  • Latins Anonymous co-written with Luisa Leschin, Armando Molina, Rick Najera
  • The La La Awards co-written with Cris Franco, Armando Molina, Luisa Leschin
  • The Path to Divadom
  • Girl With Hair in Her Face
  • The Ballad of Ginger Esparza co written with Luis Alfaro
  • Los Vecinos/A play for Neighbors co-written with Luis Alfaro
  • Water

Critical studies

Articles

  • "Rebel's Advocate" by Laura Weinert. Back Stage West June 1, 2000 p. 11
  • Alarcon, Alicia, "Diane Rodriguez Has Taken the Chicano Struggle to New Places in Hollywood", La Opinion, 11 December 1989

Notes

  1. ^ Braxton, Greg (2020-04-12). "'Seismic' loss: Diane Rodriguez, longtime champion of theater artists of color, dies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
  2. ^ Krasner, David Twentieth-Century American Drama. Writing Beyond Borders: US Latina/o Drama. by Tiffany Ann Lopez Rodriguez
  3. ^ "Rebel's Advocate" by Laura Weinert. Back Stage West June 1, 2000
  4. ^ LatinoLA/People: A Significant and Enduring Influence Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine. Diane Rodriguez was a Latino theatre professional. By Kat Avila
  5. ^ "Cruising Through Town in a Red Convertible", in anthology Puro Teatro, A Latina Anthology, 2000 Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
  6. ^ Broyles-Gonzalez, Yolanda "The Living Legacy of Chicana Performances: Preserving History through Oral Testimony" Frontiers Vol. XI, NO. 1 1990
  7. ^ Broyles-Gonzalez, Yolanda. El Teatro Campesino Theater in the Chicano Movement. Austin. University of Texas Press 1994
  8. ^ Latins Anonymous. Houston: Arte Publico Press University of Houston
  9. ^ "CSRC Archival Projects". UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. June 19, 2012.
  10. ^ - 35k - Archived 2013-12-02 at the Wayback Machine

External links

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