BA in Drama, University of Puerto Rico. In 1999, Casiano premiered her first one-woman show, Qué me trajiste: Cabaret Boricua, about the political relationship between United States and Puerto Rico, which traveled to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Ecuador, Perú, Chile, Argentina and New York.
In 2000, she obtained grants from
the National Endowment for the Arts grant (through the Institute of Puerto
Rican Culture) and the State Legislature to present her second solo show, Colonia
2007 o el cabaret de los días terribles, a futuristic play with music and
video set in Puerto Rico, also seen in Ecuador and New York.
In 2006, as the leader of La
Criatura Theater (and thanks to the sponsorship of The Field and to grants
awarded by The Esther B. Kahn Foundation and the Puffin Foundation) she
premiered her first full-cast, site-specific play, Silence Is
Health/Silencio es Salud, about the issue of public indifference
towards the issue of torture. In 2008, Casiano produced her third solo work,
the theatrical concert about migration, Rootless: La No-Nostalgia,
presented at chashama on 42nd Street, the Gerald W. Lynch Theater of
CUNY’s John Jay College and, in August 2009, in the X Encuentro de Performance
y Política for NYU in Bogotá, Colombia.
Casiano has collaborated with The
Flying Machine, International WOW, Spanish Repertory Theater and the Puerto
Rican Traveling Theater, among other New York theater companies.
In film, she has appeared in the TV
series Law and Order, and, in Ecuador, in Pasado y Confeso, as
well as in multiple independent short films in the United States, including The
Love Bite, winner of the 2004 Galway Film Fleadth in Dublin, Ireland.
In Spain, she has trained with Juan
Carlos Corazza and José Olmo. In South America, Casiano has trained with
Yuyachkani (Perú) and Malayerba (Ecuador.) In New York, with Austin Pendleton
(acting,) Paul Gemignani (musical theater,) Norman Taylor (physical theater,)
Penny Templeton, (camera acting,) Carolann Page (singing,) David Mamet’s
Atlantic Theater Company (acting,) The Second City (improvisation) and the
Michael Chekhov Acting Studio (acting,) among many others.
More information, photos and videos
of Casiano’s work at www.karinacasiano.com.
Photo by Marius Chira. www.zbabam.com
Daniel IrizarryActor, director, and movement and
acting instructor. Irizarry is currently part of the faculty in Eugene Lang College at The New School in New York City, where he teaches Physical Theater. His work has been praised in the United
States and internationally, including Japan, the Canary Islands, Eastern and
Western Europe and the Caribbean. He holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia
University (the first Puerto Rican student to be accepted into the program) and
a BA in Drama from the University of Puerto Rico (Presidential Scholarship.)
Irizarry was a Resident Artist with Mabou Mines in 2008 ("Woyzeck.")
In Puerto Rico, he received the Best New Actor award by the Theater Critics’
Circle in 1999.
His collaborations as an actor and
director include Eduardo Machado ("Crocodile Eyes;") Mabou Mines’
Terry O’Reilly and Jane Catherine Shaw ("Peter and the Wolf;");
Andrei Serban, Niky Wolcz and James Levine for the Metropolitan Opera House
("Benvenuto Cellini," "Faust;") Rachel Dickstein
("Betrothed;") Javier Gutiérrez ("Rashomon,"
"Mosca;") and P.S. 122’s Undergroundzero Festival ("The
Proposal") in New York. In Japan, the Ichikawa Citizens Cultural Network
("Momotaro," "Safari.") In Puerto Rico, Gilda Navarra, Rosa
Luisa Márquez ("Historias para ser contadas") and Teatro del Sesenta.
In film, Irizarry has worked with Rania Ajami ("Asylum Seekers," CineVegas Film Festival, 2009; "Internet Sensation 2;" "A Dangerous Idea," finalist, “One Nation, Many Voices” Link TV Short Film Contest;) Antonio Méndez ("Yanira," Televisión Española, 2007;) Niky Wolcz ("Los Auf Melos Grenzelos," Sfiftung Weimarer Klassik Exhibition, Germany;) and Elvira Carrizal ("Ignacio’s Keys" and "Mariposa," HBO Presents Latino Film Festival shorts series.)
Irizarry has offered acting and
movement workshops internationally (New York, Germany, Romania, Japan.)
Photo by Marius Chira. www.zbabam.com
Staff
Miguel Ángel Reyes Santos
With almost two decades of experience as a stage and production manager, Reyes Santos’ wide-ranging education combines the sciences and the arts. He has studied and trained in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, France, Italy and the United States.
As a Stage and Production Manager, he has collaborated with groups such as the National Theater Company in Puerto Rico (1993-2005) and La Criatura Theater (2006-2008) and The Blackfriar’s Repertory Theater (2006) in New York. He is Stage Manager and Production Assistant in actress Karina Casiano’s projects. Reyes Santos is a Staff performer for the Metropolitan Opera House, and has appeared in several of their productions since 2007.
In 1994, he co-founded Colectivo Diversión theater
company. The same year, he started the C.O.R.O.N.A. Project to bring theater
education to underserved communities throughout Puerto Rico, which ran for 10 years. Recently, he also offered
workshops for youths for the New York City Housing Authority Theater Training Program and for Communities in
School (Resident Artist) and Cooperative of After-School Enrichment (CASE)
Southwest Schools programs in Houston, Texas. He was Production Manager for
NYC’s Dance Makers for their 2010 Gotta
Dance show in Manhattan.
Co-Founders
Miguel Belmonte Born in Spain. He began his theatre
education at Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, and later graduated from the
Nancy Tuñón Studio with a degree in Drama.
He appeared regularly on
Spanish television in the series Secrets de Familia and Laberint
D’ombres for TV3 Productions and was chosen to appear in the play OBS by
the renowned theatre group La Fura Dels Baus.
Upon receiving a scholarship,
Belmonte headed to Milan, Italy, where he studied Commedia dell’Arte at the
Filodrammatici di Milano.
Following a brief period in
London, England, doing voiceover work, he came to New York and has studied the
Meisner Technique with Ted Bardy. Belmonte has appeared in plays such as the
OOBR Award-winning production of Tango Masculino, directed by Jeffrey
Corrick at the Wings Theatre; The Odd Couple with the Stage East
Ensemble; and a staged reading of The Adventures of Don Quixote with The
Dramatists’ Guild under the direction of Diógenes Grassal.
He has collaborated with the
off-Broadway theatre company Repertorio Español, where he appeared in
Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding, directed by René Buch.
Belmonte’s film credits
include the leading role in The Kiss, directed by Joshua Cody, currently
in the independent film festival circuit. He has also appeared in Zero Hour
by Marcio Venturi, and co-starred in The Love Bite by Macdara Vallely
(2004 Best Irish Short at the Galway Film Fleadth in Dublin, Ireland).
Belmonte was seen on film at the Museum of Modern Art’s P.S. 1 in the art exhibit Birds of Paradise, which was chosen to be a part of the ARCO, the International Contemporary Art Fair, in 2004. He continues to work as an actor in New York City.
Jorge Dieppa
Born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Holds and MFA in Scenic Design from Brooklyn College (CUNY).
He first became involved in the
theatre while studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico
in Mayagüez. His career as a professional actor began at Ateneo
Puertorriqueño with director and playwright Roberto Ramos Perea. His
theatre credits include Jav & Joss, Nuestra Señora de la Tortilla,
Tiempo Muerto, Amor a los 21, Picasso at the Lapin Agile,
Romeo and Juliet, and Melodía Salvaje, among others. He has also
appeared in plays such as Reflejos, Noche de Halloween and Caras
(as part of the Monaco International Theater Festival), all by Puerto Rican
playwright Adriana Pantoja for her Cuarzo Blanco theatre company.
Dieppa has extensive experience as a
radio actor and was part of the Drama Project of the Public Broadcasting
Corporation of Puerto Rico (WIPR) for several years. On TV, he starred in the
films Vampiros, Sudor Amargo, Plaza Vacante, the
miniseries Papá Mendigo, and the soap opera Cuando despierta el amor,
all produced in Puerto Rico. In 1996, Dieppa won the Actor of the Year award
granted by the Theatre Critics’ Circle of Puerto Rico.
In New York, he collaborated in New
York with Karina Casiano in her independent projects “¿Qué me trajiste?:
Cabaret Boricua”
and “Colonia 2007 o el cabaret de
los días terribles” at HERE Arts Center. Also, he appeared off-Broadway in The
Dog in the Manger at Repertorio Español. He starred in the short film Reasons
for Exxxile by JuanMa Calderón. He recently appeared in the play
“Salsa Gorda” at Pregones Theater.
Dieppa has designed
multiple sets for Teatro Círculo, Repertorio Español and other companies in New
York City. A multi-talented artist, Dieppa is also a wood-carving
artisan, specializing in traditional Puerto Rican devotional figures.
Collaborators
Antonio Pantojas
A pioneer of transgender solo shows in Puerto Rico, Pantojas has a four-decade career as an actor, dancer, director, producer, writer and teacher.
He has extensive experience as a
television actor and hosted his own show for several years on Puerto Rican TV.
A seasoned night club varieté
entertainer, Pantojas made waves beginning in the seventies in the Puerto Rico
night club scene with his musical shows full of incendiary political satire and
his gender-bending characters.
A versatile thespian, he has played roles as diverse as “Estragon” and “Pozzo” in Waiting for Godot, “Juliet” in El Público (The Audience) by Federico García Lorca (in its world premiere in Puerto Rico in 1978,) and originated the small-time, street-wise narrator in The True Story of Pedro Navaja, based in the Three Penny Opera and one of the longest-running plays in Puerto Rico’s history.
Pantojas produced, directed, taught,
written and performed for more than 12 years for the National Theater
Production Company in Puerto Rico. With them he staged plays such as his own
version of Alexandre Dumas’ Camille, Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, Jules Tasca’s An American Comedy, Venezuelan Isaac Chocrón’s The Revolution
and Chilean Marco Antonio De la Parra’s The Secret Obscenity of Everyday Life,
as well as the theatrical versions of Weekend at Bernie’s and The Full Monty.
He has also played “Zaza” and “Albin” in La Cage Aux Folles, and “Buzz”
in Love, Valor and Compassion. Pantojas gave life to "Padre
Amado" in the Spanish version of Silence is Health/Silencio es Salud for
La Criatura Theater in 2006.
As a playwright, he has trained in New York and Florence,
Italy. He has written over 20 shows which he has taken throughout Puerto Rico,
the Dominican Republic, the United States, Mexico and Perú.
Pantojas is currently based in New York, and is the director of the New York City Housing Authority Theater Training Program in the Lower East Side.
Other La Criatura Theater collabotarors have included composer/musician José "Chenan" Martínez and actors José Acevedo, Elodián Barbosa and David Storck.
