Tlaloc Rivas is a Mexican-American writer, producer, and theatre director. He is one of the co-founders of the Latinx Theatre Commons, which works side by side with HowlRound to revolutionize American theater and to highlight and promote the contributions and presence of Latinos in theatre. Central to Rivas' work is the Latino experience, but also exploring the American experience through the lens' of underrepresented voices. Rivas focuses on writing and directing plays that significantly explore Latino identity and history. Additionally, Rivas has also translated and adapted plays from the Spanish language and directed Spanish-language and bilingual plays such as Mariela in the Desert by Karen Zacarias and classical works such as Peribáñez y el Comendador de Ocaña.
Early life and education
Tlaloc Rivas was born in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico and is a Chicano/Mexican immigrant of Indigenous (Cora People/Nayarit), Afro-Venezuelan, and Spanish descent. He is named after the Aztec God of Rain and Fertility, Tlaloc. He spent his early childhood in Mexico and has noted that his family members were oral storytellers. The early exposure he had to storytelling helped Rivas shape and develop his own storytelling skills at a young age. His parents were both involved in the Chicano Movement from the late 1960s into the 1970s while living in San Diego, and Rivas' honorary godfather at his baptism was civil rights leader Rodolfo Gonzales.
Rivas' family later moved from Escondido, California to Watsonville, California where he attended Watsonville High School. Spurred and marked by the events of the Watsonville Canning Strike, the Gomez v City of Watsonville Supreme Court voting rights decision, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, he deferred college for several years to remain involved as a community organizer and voting rights activist. He later enrolled at Cabrillo College, where theatre classes prompted him to get involved with theatre in general. In 1993, after having interned with El Teatro Campesino for nearly two seasons, Rivas along with three other classmates (Manuel Montez, Leonard Maestas and Renee Sola) founded Chicano TheatreWorks, a company created in response to the passage of California Proposition 187.
In the Fall of 1993, Rivas transferred to The University of California, Santa Cruz. He graduated with honors from UC Santa Cruz within a two-year period, obtaining a B.A. in Theater Arts. During his time at UC Santa Cruz, Rivas focused on acting and stage management, but transitioned into directing with a production of The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe, which toured to South Central Los Angeles communities in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots with support from Stevenson College. His senior thesis production of The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa by acclaimed playwright Luis Valdez was honored with a Dean of the Arts award, Chancellor's Honors, and the Regents Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research.
In 1996, Rivas departed Chicano TheatreWorks after being only one of two directors nationwide accepted into the School of Drama at the University of Washington. As a student in the Professional Directors Training Program, he studied under M. Burke Walker (founder of the acclaimed Empty Space Theatre in Seattle, Washington) and Valerie Curtis-Newton. He directed productions such as José Rivera's The House of Ramon Iglesia, The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca and Octavio Solis' El Paso Blue. During his final year of graduate studies, he completed a Directing Fellowship with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, serving as assistant director on their productions of Othello, The Good Person of Szechwan, and Rosmersholm. Rivas graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Directing from UW in 1999.
Career
Tlaloc Rivas started writing and directing plays in California and has since then done the same in other states including New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Mexico, Washington, and Iowa. While still an undergraduate student, Rivas served as Artistic Director of Chicano TheatreWorks, a company which he also helped establish. Then, while he was in graduate school, he further dived into his professional career as a director with a position as Artistic Associate for The Group Theatre in Seattle. Upon obtaining his MFA in Directing, Rivas was appointed Artistic Director for Venture Theater Company.