Good news sometimes travel in three's. Company of Angels (CoA) is excited to welcome their new managing director, a new grant from the California Community Foundation and Producing Director Richard Azurdia named one of 54 fascinating Angelenos featured in LA Weekly's People Issue 2015
Good News #1
New Managing Director Selene Santiago is an LA native who is passionate about furthering CoA’s mission to create a theater of Los Angeles that is deeply connected to communities who are under-represented on Los Angeles stages.
“Selene embodies our mission and we are thrilled to have her bring her unique experience as a theater artist and arts manager to support us as we continue to develop local theater artists and create work that depicts Los Angeles,” said Artistic Director Armando Molina.
“I am totally jazzed at the opportunity to work with the longest-lived repertory theater company in Los Angeles that is committed to exploring and providing a platform for Los Angeles’ diverse stories,” says Santiago, “and I look forward to collaborating with the CoA team and our communities on furthering creative engagement.”
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Selene Santiago is an arts manager, director, designer and writer who hails from Boyle Heights, CA.
She is a co-founding teatrista of the theater troupe, Tongue in Chíc*ana, and founding member of the theater and art space CASA 0101.
She has worked with various theaters and artists as a creative and arts manager across Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and the Bay Area such as Cornerstone Theater Company, El Teatro Campesino, Latino Theater Company and others. Her monologue, Yellow is the Color, was commissioned by and performed at Off the Tracks Theater in Los Angeles and published in Atrium Magazine. A collection of her poetry can be found through PIM Publishing.
Selene is an alumnus of the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture’s Leadership Institute, recipient of La Opinion’s “Mujeres Destacadas” award in Arts & Culture, and an Ahmanson Foundation Arts Management Fellow.
She is a graduate of Claremont Graduate University in Arts Management (MA), Cal State LA in Theatre (MA) and UC Berkeley in Theater + Chicano Studies (BA).
You can listen to her backlog of radio shows for Toothsome on Killradio.org on Mixcloud.
Good News #2
The California Community Foundation (CCF) has made a $52,000 grant to Company of Angels to support the company’s core operating expenses over the next two years.
The grant will support CoA’s work to increase arts participation among ethnically diverse, low-income residents and artists, and to increase operational and business capacity.
“We are deeply grateful to CCF for this support that will allow us to strengthen our infrastructure in a way that will help us to grow our art for years to come.” stated Armando Molina, CoA’s Artistic Director.
The mission of CoA is to honor our history as the oldest non-profit professional theater in Los Angeles, by producing theater that reflects and responds to the richness, diversity, and complexity that is our city.
Our Company of diverse theater artists fosters mutual learning partnerships with the residents of Los Angeles through artistic development opportunities, community building enterprises, and life experiences.
Company of Angels develops emerging artists, creates new work, and re-envisions theater to entertain new audiences and serve the City of Angels.
In 2009 CoA celebrated its 50th anniversary by re-assessing its history and planning for its future.
This process resulted in a new mission statement that committed the Company to reflecting the city of its birth through the art of theater.
Since that time the Company has produced eight seasons (41 plays) of original theatre by under-represented artists who reflect the communities that make up the City of Los Angeles.
These plays have included pieces about Thai immigrants held captive in a sweat shop, immigration marriage and gay marriage, Iraq war veterans,and the civil unrest of April 1992.
In addition the Company engages non-theatre artists from low-income communities including Boyle Heights and Skid Row to develop original theatre pieces for performances on our main stage.
California Community Foundation unites the power of philanthropy with innovative strategies to create greater equity, opportunity and prosperity in Los Angeles County.
The Foundation has served as a public, charitable organization since 1915, empowering donors to pursue their own personal passions and to collaborate with us in transforming Los Angeles.
CCF stewards more than $1.4 billion in total assets and manages nearly 1,600 charitable foundations, funds and legacies.
Good News #3
Company of Angels Producing Director named one of 54 fascinating Angelenos featured in LA Weekly's People Issue 2015
laweekly.com/arts/richard-azurdia-does-shakespeare-he-does-west-side-story-he-does-netflix-5534144
