Welcome to the fall 2020 season of SolTalk! In this episode, Sol Project Associate Artistic Director David Mendizábal and Associate Producer Joey Reyes chat with director Lileana Blain-Cruz about some of her most recent projects, being a theatre artist in the time of sheltering-in-place, and what it means to create a safe rehearsal space. 

Lileana Blain-Cruz (she/her) is a director from New York City and Miami and was recently announced as resident director at Lincoln Center Theater. She is a recipient of a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and an Obie Award for Marys Seacole at LCT3. Recent projects include Anatomy of a Suicide at The Atlantic Theater Company, Fefu and Her Friends at Theater For a New Audience, Girls at Yale Repertory Theater, Faust at Opera Omaha, and The House That Will Not Stand at New York Theater Workshop. 

She was a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, an Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage, and a Usual Suspect of New York Theater Workshop. She was awarded a 2018 United States Artist Fellowship and the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theater Women.   She received her BA from Princeton and her MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama, where she received both the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize and the Pierre-Andre Salim Prize for her leadership and directing. Upcoming projects include Dreaming Zenzille at St. Louis Repertory Theater and McCarter, and The Listeners, a new opera by Missy Mazzoli which will premiere at Opera Norway and Opera Philadelphia. Learn more at www.lileanablaincruz.com. 

David Mendizábal (he/him) is an NYC based director, designer, one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of The Movement Theatre Company, and Associate Artistic Director of The Sol Project. Learn more about David and his work at www.davidmendizabal.com.  

Joey Reyes (they/them) is a queer and non-binary grandchild of a Mexican immigrant, born and raised in Southern California with six younger siblings. In addition to being The Sol Project's Associate Producer, they also serve as the Executive Assistant and Line Producer at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT. Follow them on IG & Twitter at @mxjoeyreyes.

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