Trinity University (BFA) Trinity University (at Dallas Theatre Centre) (MFA)
Occupation(s)
Playwright and director
Spouse
Jeanne Sexton
Octavio Solis (born 1958) is an American playwright and director[1] whose plays have been produced at theaters and small companies across the United States. He has written over 25 plays, including his most famous works: Lydia, Santos & Santos and Man of the Flesh. His works have earned numerous awards and grants.
Life and career
Born in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican parents,[2] Solis started his career in theater by joining his high school, Riverside High School's (El Paso, TX) theater group when he was fourteen.[3] He received a BFA at Trinity University and went on to earn his MFA at Trinity University's off-campus program at the Dallas Theatre Center.[2] After college, while acting in Eric Overmyer's Native Speech in Dallas, Solis was inspired to write his own plays rather than act in them. In between acting and writing, he taught high school students at Booker T. Washington School for the Performing and Visual Arts.[4] He moved to San Francisco in 1989 to further his career, as he felt he was "hitting a glass ceiling" in Dallas, and felt that California would be a good place to participate in the "Mexican American experience".[4]
Solis uses his experiences in life to help create and shape his plays, often drawing directly from his time in El Paso, where he states that he was able to see both the first-world and the third-world from his backyard.[2] In his play Lydia, which focuses on a working-class Mexican-American family and an undocumented maid who arrives in the broken home, he draws upon his own experiences as a Latino living only a mile from the Rio Grande.
Solis was a "cultural consultant" for the Disney film Coco.[5] He voices an Arrival Agent in the film and its spinoff short.[6]
Contributions to Latino Theatre
Octavio Solis has made a large number of contributions to the Latino Theatre community, namely in the number of works he has created that are designed to be for and played by Latino/as. One of his most critically acclaimed works, Lydia, focuses on a Latino family and their maid who recently came from Mexico to work in the states. His importance in the Latino/a community have been widely recognized, as evident by his numerous awards such as his National Latino Playwriting Award and his being awarded the Henry Award for Outstanding New Play.[7] He has also received a number of grants and funds, including the New Works Fund Grant from the Theatre Bay Area and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays.[7]
Intersection for the Arts The San Diego Repertory Teatró Vista/NEXT Theatre, Chicago
University of Washington, Seattle Oregon Shakespeare Festival The Venture Theatre, Philadelphia, PA Miracle Theatre Group, Portland, OR Summer Play Festival, New York, NY Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
Cornish College, Seattle, WA
May 1994 March 1995 Sept. 1997
1998 Feb.-June 1999 Nov. 1999 March 2000 Aug. 2004 Dec. 2006
Thick Description Company The Dallas Theater Center Mixed Blood THeatre Company Teatro Vista, Chicago Campo Santo/Thick Description
University of Washington, Seattle
Texas Tech University, Lubbock
Cal State University, Monterey Bay
California State University, Sacramento
University of Texas at El Paso Imua Theatre Company, New York, NY Nushank Theatre Collective, Austin, TX El Centro Su Teatro, Denver, CO San Pedro Playhouse, Can Antonio, TX Teatro Visión, San Jose
Dec. 1993 May 1995 Jan. 1996 May 1996 July 1996
1997
1998
2000
2002
2003 July 2000 Dec. 2000 Feb. 2004 March 2005 May 2005
El Otro
Thick Description, San Francisco, CA
July 1998, Aug.-Sept. 2009
Shiner
Undermain Theatre, Dallas, TX
1999
Dreamlandia
The Dallas Theater Center Thick Description Teatro Vista
May 2000 Aug. 2002 March 2008
The Seven Visions of Encarnación
Shadowlight Productions
Oct. 2002
Bethlehem
Campo Santo, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA Proxy Theatre, San Antonio
July 2003 Aug. 2013
Gibraltar
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival Thick Description, San Francisco, CA San Jose Stage Company, San Jose, CA
July 2005 Nov.-Dec. 2006 Feb.-March 2007
The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy
Campo Santo, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts Attic Rep, San Antonio, TX The Yale Repertory Theatre Marin Theatre Company Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum National Pastime Theatre, Chicago
Sul Ross University, Alpine TX Napa Valley Conservatory Theatre Cara Mia Theatre Company, Dallas, TX
Jan. 2008 2009 Feb. 2009 March 2009 April 2009 Oct. 2013
Oct. 2013 Jan.-Feb. 2015 April 2015
Quixote
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, Oregon
June 2009
Ghosts of the River
Teatro Visión Shadowlight Productions, San Jose/San Francisco, CA
Oct.-Nov. 2009 October 2009
The Pastures of Heaven
California Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley, CA The Western Stage, Salinas, CA
