Diane Rodriguez was an American theatre artist who directed, wrote and performed. An 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.
History
Schooled in activist art, she received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from the 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, she was born in the 1950s to American parents from farm working families. She co-founded two theatre companies, El Teatro de la Esperanza and Latins Anonymous, and was a leading actress for the seminal Chicano theatre group, El Teatro Campesino. 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. In 1988 she co-founded the comedy troupe Latins Anonymous as a response to the Hollywood stereotyping of Latino actors. Rodriguez then served as director of the Latino Theatre Initiative at the Mark Taper Forum from 1995-2000. 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 Award in 2007 for playing multiple roles in Heather Woodbury's Tale of Two Cities. 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.
"The Pride of the Comunidad: Deeply tied to his culture, Miguel Delgado had a brief career fired by boundless energy. But his friendship was his greatest gift". Los Angeles Times 7 December 1998 sec F. p. 4.
"A Skeleton In and Out of the Closet". Los Angeles Times, 1 November 1996, sec. F, pp. 1, 20
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 Ballad of Ginger Esparza co written with Luis Alfaro
Los Vecinos/A play for Neighbors co-written with Luis Alfaro
Water
Critical studies
Sandoval- Sanchez, Alberto and Saporta, Sternback, Nancy. Stages of Life: Transcultural Performance and Identity in U.S. Latino Theatre. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. 2001 Rodriguez, Diane 62; The Path to Divadom 130, 133, 138, 147-48
Broyles-Gonzalez, Yolanda. El Teatro Campesino Theater in the Chicano Movement. Austin. University of Texas Press 1994 Rodriguez, Diane, 45, 128, 137, 141, 156, continued work of 153, 163. on gender issues being ignored 139, not mentioned in history 132. women's early passivity 139 and Zoot Suit 178
Krasner, David Twentieth-Century American Drama. Writing Beyond Borders: US Latina/o Drama. Rodriguez, Diane 379, 383
Broyles-Gonzalez, Yolanda "The Living Legacy of Chicana Performances: Preserving History through Oral Testimony" Frontiers Vol. XI, NO. 1 1990 FRONTIERS Editorial Collective pgs 46-51
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
McMahon, Marci R. "Redirecting Chicana/Latina Representation: Diane Rodríguez's Performance and Staging of the Domestic" in DOMESTIC NEGOTIATIONS: GENDER, NATION, AND SELF-FASHIONING IN US MEXICANA AND CHICANA LITERATURE AND VISUAL ART. Rutgers University Press, 2013.
