Richard Montoya

Richard Montoya is writing his fifth Berkeley Rep play commission, which spans three Berkeley Rep artistic directors and four decades of creating works with Culture Clash and as a solo playwright. The nation’s leading performance trio was established in 1984 in San Francisco, and their works for the national stage include Radio Mambo, Bordertown, Zorro in Hell, Chavez Ravine, and Nuyorican Stories, to name but a few. As a solo playwright, Montoya authored Water & Power, American Night, Palestine New Mexico, as well as works for Campo Santo: The River, Nogales, and Translating Selena. A Sundance Institute and Annenberg Film Fellow, his current documentary Playing with Fire is streaming on the Netflix platform. American Night was the first produced play of the American Revolutions canon of American authors for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He is grateful to Johanna Pfaelzer and Berkeley Rep for supporting the creation of Suicide on Telegraph in these still uncertain and perilous times. A graduate of the American Conservatory Theater’s Summer Training Congress and a proud alumni of Luis Valdez’ El Teatro Campesino, he raises two pint sized LatinX monsters in Los Angeles where he makes a home with the public practice artist and California Arts Council member Chelo Montoya.

Photo: Lou Dematteis