THE COMPANY
 | Carlo Albán*, (he/him) Rogelio Broadway: Sweat. Off-Broadway: Sweat, References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot (Public Theater); Tamburlaine (TFANA); A Small, Melodramatic Story, Intríngulis (LAByrinth); A Summer Day (Rattlestick); Pinkolandia (INTAR); Living Dead in Denmark (Vampire Cowboys). Regional: Sweat, The River Bride, Much Ado About Nothing, Timon of Athens (OSF); A Parallelogram, Lydia (CTG); Night of the Iguana (Guthrie); Dreamlandia (DTC). Film: Mile 22, Hurricane Streets, Hi Life, Strangers with Candy, Life Support, 21 Grams, Whip It, Margaret. TV: Sesame Street, Law & Order, Oz, Thicker Than Blood, Prison Break, Girls, The Night Of. Member of LAByrinth Theater Company. Recipient of a 2017 Theatre World Award for an outstanding Broadway debut for Sweat. |
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Jen Anaya*, (they/them) Mariposa is a queer Indigenous Mexican theatre/music/art/ritual space maker, doula, energy healer and baby whisperer born and raised in the desert of Yavapaiv Apache, Cocopah and O'odham land. A proud jack of all trades, they have performed in rock bands, web series, art installations, plays, operas, films, solo shows, healing rituals and musicals throughout NYC, Turtle Island and beyond. From La Mama to The Kitchen, Harvard Art Lab to Radio City Music Hall, the mountains of Greece to Harpa in Iceland, Jen has been weaving music, theatre, art, movement and healing together every chance they get. They are a founding member of Constellation Chor, an occasional contributor to You Are Here Creations, a 2021 FORGE Fellow and a certified Reiki and 13th Octave La Ho Chi practitioner. When not on a contract, Jen can be found making art with awesome young folks at the 52nd St. Project, finishing a script for a children's show and working on an immersive, interactive, mutli-disciplinary piece that focuses on the healing of intergenerational trauma. A proud child of immigrants, Jen is honored to be part of this important and beautiful piece. AEA, SAG-AFTRA. More at Jenanaya.com |
 | Danny Ray Caraballo, (he/him) Elvin is proud and excited to join this beautiful fandango to tell these stories! He is a Latinx Cleveland, OH-born performer now based out of Brooklyn, NY. He owes and thanks both of his parents for every one of his blessings in life. National/TV credits include: Figgy in Bettor Days (ESPN+), Ritchie Valens in Buddy! The Buddy Holly Musical (US Tour), Night Ninja in PJ Masks Save The Day! (US Tour). Regional credits include: In the Heights, Newsies, Huck and Holden, Chicago, Hello Dolly. Drop a follow on IG @DannyRCaraballo |
 | Juan Sebastián Cruz, (he/him) Understudy
is very grateful for this opportunity. It's his first time at La Jolla Playhouse and in California! Credits: Alley Theatre: A Christmas Carol (PropBoy/Tiny Tim); 72 Miles To Go… (Aaron), The Winter's Tale (Mamillius). 4th Wall Theatre: Between Riverside and Crazy (Oswaldo). Stages Repertory: My Mañana Comes (Pepe). TUTS: Guys and Dolls (Drunk/Bartender/Ensemble). Tapestry Players: The Music Man (Jaycee). Baker Shake: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Puck); Romeo and Juliet (Romeo). Rice University: Much Ado About Nothing (Don Pedro), Eurydice (Nasty Man/Lord of the Underworld). B.A.: Rice University. ¡Graciasma! And thank you Jos. |
 | Silvia Dionicio*, (she/her) Rafaela is excited to make her La Jolla Playhouse debut as Rafaela. In 2016 the Dominican government granted her a unique scholarship to study acting in New York City. Ever since, she’s performed all around the country, including the Off-Broadway shows The Last Jew of Boyle Heights (Actor’s Temple), Black Panther Women (NYTW), I & You (Bristol Riverside), among others. Dionicio is quickly making a name for herself on Film/TV: Legacy (Sundance), New Amsterdam (NBC), Wu-Tang (Hulu), Grave’s Mysteries (ID), and In Pursuit (TLC). Silvia wants to dedicate this run of the show to all immigrant artists going through the O-1 visa process, I see you! |
 | Celeste Lanuza*, (she/her) Understudy is thrilled to make her LJP debut! Recently in SD as Amelia in Solis’ play Mother Road, Lanuza is an actress/singer/dancer who has choreographed/performed for Debbie Allen at the new Shonda Rhimes Performing Arts Center. Her choreography is in the Amazon Prime film, Huella (Sundance/Tribeca). Favorite performance credits: Duende in Maria de Buenos Aires (Arizona/SD Opera), Anita in West Side Story, Tiger Lily in Peter Pan, Guthrie Theater, Radio City, The Old Globe, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, PBS Film Fuego, and international tours. Directing credits: Off-Off Broadway production of The Desert Rose (NYC/SD International Fringe Festival). Her music is on Spotify. MFA (UCI), BFA (UArts). @senoritaarranca |
 | Frances Ines Rodriguez, (they/them) Pili is a proud Latinx/Filipinx Actor, Musician, Production Stage Manager, Lights and Sound Engineer, performing in their debut role after spending over 15 years behind the scenes. Frances Ines has Stage Managed at Williamstown Theatre Festival and Ars Nova, and frequently works at burlesque and drag venues all over New York City. A graduate of Florida State University, Frances Ines grew up in a three-language immigrant household and is proudly fluent in Spanglish-Bisayan, proficient in numerous instruments, and comfortable on stage thanks to years of calling the theatre home. Frances is a student of the Meisner technique. Also check out their debut album, Franky and the MoMos. |
 | Roberto Tolentino*, (he/him) Johan is an actor living in New York City. He continues to investigate how theatre can be an instrument of positive change in both individuals and society and is so happy to be a part of a production that attempts to do just that. Roberto is a proud graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he completed a B.S. in Biology and B.F.A in Acting. He recently graduated from Columbia University and is eager for what’s ahead. He would like to dedicate this and every performance to his mom. |
 | Sinuhé Padilla, Composer, Musician, Music Director, Spanish Song Lyrics, Zapateado Choreography is a Mexican musicologist, producer, composer and artistic director. As Founder of Jarana Records, he has released diverse productions for artists like Ilana Martin, Sonia de los Santos, Mireya Ramos, Shae Fiol (Mariachi Flor de Toloache), Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, Veronica Valerio, Alea, Flor Bromley, Bilingual Birdies, and many more. He's the director of Jarana Beat, winner for Best Folk Contemporary Band at the Mexican Music Awards 2015 and has also received recognition from NYC for his contribution to Latin culture. As a multi-instrumentalist, Sinuhé has collaborated with multi-Grammy Award winners like Lila Downs, Residente and Ana Tijoux. His music has been part of productions like National Geographic, Mundo (Firmes), Taco Chronicles by Netflix, Storyhunter TV, and The United Nations. Sinuhé continues to teach Son Jarocho courses, encouraging Fandango communities in New York City, across the country, and in different cities in the American hemisphere and Europe. |
| Tania Mesa, Musician is a crossover-style violinist and singer from the Canary Islands (Spain). She studied classical violin (ESMUC-Barcelona) and contemporary music at Berklee. She has toured worldwide with The World Orchestra (UNESCO), the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra, with well known artists such as Manolo García and J. Manuel Serrat, and performed with Dream Theater and Alejandro Sanz. She recorded Spanish vocals for the Walt Disney Company film Fucsia, the Mini Witch. In the theatre world she has performed as a singer, violinist and actor at the National Theatre of Catalonia and Caixaforum auditoriums (Barcelona-Madrid) as well as other productions in the USA including the premiere of Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes). She has performed and recorded with celebrated flamenco artists Josemi Carmona, Antonio Serrano and José Mercé on his album Doy la Cara (w/Javier Limón), which was nominated for a Latin Grammy. She performed with Grammy winners Terence Blanchard, Pablo Ziegler and Jacob Collier. She is the newest member of the NYC band Jarana Beat and leads her own original music band Tania Mesa & The Mediterranean Soul. taniamesa.com |
 | Gabriella Grimaldi, Musician - Fandango Community Week is a multi-instrumentalist and singer based in New York who has had the privilege to collaborate with a variety of traditional music groups on the East Coast. Raised with a variety of folk traditions and a classically trained violinist, her work is in developing and refining fusion styles that connect artists of different cultures and backgrounds, as well as in art education for all ages. |
 | Victor Murillo, Musician - Fandango Community Week is a touring artist, multi-instrumentalist, producer, film score composer, and educator. He is known for his work as a bass player within both traditional worlds of jazz and Mexican folk. Victor takes both musics internationally, performing with artists like Lila Downs, La Marisoul, and The Hot Sardines.He studied composition for film at Berklee School of Music and then moved to New York City to get his masters degree in jazz. Today, you can catch Victor producing music for numerous successful artists and films from all around the globe. |
Andrea Thome, Playwright, English Song Lyrics and Translation of Spanish Interviews is a Chilean/Costa Rican-American playwright whose work navigates multiple languages and landscapes, often experimenting with the nature of theatrical collaboration. Recent works include the theatrical installation A Dozen Dreams (also commissioned by En Garde Arts), Pinkolandia (INTAR, Two River Theater, Salvage Vanguard, 16th Street Theater; translated into Russian), a modern 'translation' of Cymbeline (Play On!/Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Troy (created with the Public Theater’s ACTivate Ensemble) and others. Plays in development include Purgatorio Wonderland and an untitled EST/Sloan commission about an astronomer from Muslim Spain. Andrea's translations of Latin American plays include Guillermo Calderón’s Neva (Public Theater, CTG, La Jolla Playhouse) and Rodrigo García's You Should Have Stayed Home, Morons (CTG/Radar LA). Thome co-directs the Latina satire collective fulana (www.fulana.org), co-conceived and directed the Lark’s Mexico-U.S. Playwright Exchange Program from 2006-2019, and teaches theatre at SUNY Purchase. Awards and residencies include: Helen Merrill Award (2021), Art Equity Persephone Grant (2020), MacDowell (Thornton Wilder Fellow), Blue Mountain Center, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and New Dramatists. |
José Zayas, Director has directed over 100 productions in NYC, as well as regionally and internationally. Credits include: 72 Miles to Go (Alley Theatre), The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir (BAM, Mass MoCa, US and European Tour), Ms Holmes and Ms Watson, Apt 2B (Kansas City Rep), In the Time of the Butterflies, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The House of the Spirits (Gala Theatre). He has premiered work by Kate Hamill, Hilary Bettis, Caridad Svich, Thomas Bradshaw, Duncan Sheik, Taylor Mac, Andrea Thome, Jordi Galceran, Saviana Stanescu, Rob Urbinati and Catherine Filloux, among others. Drama League Fellow, Lincoln Center’s Director’s Lab, SoHo Rep Writers/Director’s Lab, NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors, lifetime member of EST, Resident Director: Repertorio Español. Born in Puerto Rico, Zayas graduated from Harvard and Carnegie Mellon. josezayasdirector.com |
Alexandra Beller, Movement Director has been choreographer for Sense and Sensibility (Bedlam at sites nationwide; Helen Hayes Award, Lortel Nomination, IRNE nomination). She choreographed the Off Broadway musical, The Mad Ones (59E59), Bedlam’s Peter Pan (Duke Theatre), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), As You Like It (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Folger Shakespeare Library), How to Transcend a Happy Marriage by Sarah Ruhl (Lincoln Center Theatre), The Young Ladies of… (Taylor Mac), Chang(e) (HERE), and others. Current projects include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Folger, DC), Antonio’s Song by Dael Orlandersmith/Antonio Suarez (CATF, Milwaukee Rep) opening in February at The Goodman Theater, and making her directorial debut with Make Thick My Blood, a two-person adaptation of Macbeth, opening Off-Broadway at Theatre Row July 2022. B.F.A./Dance, M.F.A./Dance and CMA (Certified Movement Analyst) in Laban Movement Analysis/Bartenieff Fundamentals. She is on faculty at Princeton, Laban Insitute for Movement Studies, and adjuncts throughout the U.S. She has run the arts organization, Alexandra Beller/Dances, since 2002. |
Johnny Moreno, Scenic & Projection Design is a Production Designer and Filmmaker working in Theatre, Live Music and Film. For over a decade he has worked internationally as a concert Video Director and Designer with multi-Grammy Award winning singer Lila Downs. As a filmmaker and cinematographer, he directs and creates visual material across a variety of mediums. Projects include the indie feature film I Am a Seagull by The Chekhov Project (iamaseagull.com), the award-winning short film Early Light, Production Design on José Rivera’s short film The Fall of a Sparrow. He provided camera work for designer Peter Nigrini on Broadway’s MJ the Musical, Dear Evan Hansen, Space Dogs of the Cosmodrome, and most recently worked on Hans Zimmer’s European Concert Tour. Select Theatre Design: Whitney White’s Definition (Bushwick Starr); For All the Women Who Thought They Were Mad (Soho Rep); Addressless (Rattlestick Theater); A Grave is Given Supper (New Ohio Theater/Teatro Dallas); Art/Public Installations include: Sweet Crude Video Sculpture (Anna Kustera Gallery), Tiffany & Co. (Guggenheim Museum), As Above So Below (Dumbo Arts Festival). Upcoming: Weightless (WP Theater); Public Obscenities (Soho Rep); johnnymoreno.com IG/Twitter: @johnnymoreno |
Fabian Fidel Aguilar, Costume Design Fabian attended the Yale School of Drama for his M.F.A. and Boston University (B.F.A.) to pursue theatrical costume design. Credits include Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, Max Makes a Million, Winnie the Pooh (Alliance Theater); Slow Food (Dorset Theater Festival); Afterglow, Safeword (Midnight Theatricals); Recent Alien Abductions (Play Co.); Mlima’s Tale, In the Heights, Man of La Mancha, Romeo and Juliet (Westport Country Playhouse); ¡Bienvenidos Blancos! or Welcome White People! (Team Sunshine, Philadelphia); A View from the Bridge, Seven Spots on the Sun; Set and Costume for The War Boys (NYC); Sotto Voce (Portland Stage); Midsummer, The Moors (Yale Repertory Theater, world premiere); He Left Quietly (SummerWorks Performance Festival, Toronto). In his spare time he likes to paint watercolors. |
Lucrecia Briceno, Lighting Design is a Peruvian artist currently based in Brooklyn. Much of her work has been in association with artists developing innovative and original pieces. Her work includes theatre, opera, puppetry and dance, as well as collaborations in several non-performance projects. Internationally her work has been seen in Caracas, Peru, Turkey, Scotland, Seoul, Bogota, Norway and England. She is an associate artist with The Civilians, a Core Member of Anonymous Ensemble, a resident designer with Pregones Theatre/PRTT and La Micro. |
Stacey Boggs, Lighting Design is a New York based lighting designer whose works include Experiments in Opera’s Everything for Dawn; Public, APAC’s Marguerite,Theatre Three’s The Miracle Worker; and The Diary of Anne Frank. She has designed with choreographers Bill T. Jones, Dianne McIntyre, Doug Varone, Robert Moses, Christopher Wheeldon, Maria Kocketkova, and Babs Case. She has worked at San Francisco Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Michigan Opera Theater. Stacey has designed the lighting for many window displays in the New York City area. She graduated from NYU’s Graduate Design program in 2005. Proud member of USA 829. staceyboggs.com |
Marcelo Añez, Sound Design New York City-based Sound Designer Marcelo Añez has over three decades of experience and has won four Grammy Awards for his work in the music industry. He has collaborated as Sound Designer in installations at The Met Museum and MoMA PS-1. Recently he spent two months in Taiwan Sound Designing the new dance piece Send In a Cloud for CloudGate Dance Company. Last summer he designed the sound system for Kamala Sankaram’s outdoors sound installation The Last Stand in Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY, a CreativeTime public art project. Proud to be at La Jolla helping bring this beautiful project to the West Coast. |
Carolina Arboleda*, Production Stage Manager Broadway: A Strange Loop, Slave Play. Off-Broadway: Man Cave (Page 73), What To Send Up When It Goes Down (The Movement Theatre Company, BAM, Playwrights Horizons), Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) (En Garde Arts), Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater). Virtual: American Dreams (The Working Theater). International: Festival de Teatro Alternativo, Festival de Mujeres En Escena Por la Paz. She is delighted to be collaborating with La Jolla Playhouse! |
Alejandra Maldonado-Morales*, Assistant Stage Manager is a well-rounded theatre person with experience in stage and production management, acting, designing and direction. Recent works include El Velorio de la Comay (BAAD-NY), The Story of the Woman of the Sea (Casa Cruz de la Luna, Clemente Soto Vélez-NY), Teach, Teacher, Teachest (One-Eight, INTAR, NY), Hageografías (CCL, Pregones-NY), Salomé (UPRR-PR), Verano, Verano (Iati, NY), Venus y el Albañil (Loisaida Center-NY), The Maids (One-Eight, INTAR Theatre-NY), The Marquis De Sade is Afraid of the Sea (CCL, INTAR Theater-NY), Lying Lydia (Caborca, Cuba), Native Nation (Cornerstone Theater, ASU-AZ), La Mujer Maravilla (Hudson Church-NY). |
David D’Agostino, Production Manager is thrilled to continue his work on this production! National tours: Finding Neverland, Pippin, Million Dollar Quartet, Memphis: The Musical, Wizard of Oz. David has had the pleasure of working across the country and Canada and formerly ran “The PiTCH!,” a workshop for new musicals presented by the Fingerlakes Musical Theatre Festival. He is proud to be able to work on new productions that are so current and relevant to today’s culture, including American Underground with Barrington Stage Company. Thanks to Mom, Dad, and Alex. Bienvenidos al Fandango! |
En Garde Arts creates, produces and presents bold theatre experiences that reach across artistic, physical and social boundaries. They aim to increase empathy and open-mindedness by illuminating nuanced perspectives and unspoken truths behind the salient issues of our time. By bringing together artistic teams with non-arts partners from the outset, and merging seasoned theatre-goers with new audiences, En Garde Arts sparks dialogue among people not normally in conversation, both in New York and beyond. |