Lisa Portes

Lisa Portes (she/her/hers) is a director, educator, advocate and leader whose aim is to define and promote a new American narrative that is driven aesthetically and politically by the world we are becoming rather than the world we've been. She heads the MFA Directing Program at The Theatre School at DePaul University and has created work regionally for CalShakes, Children's Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Denver Center, Guthrie Theatre, Olney Theatre, Round House Theatre and South Coast Rep. In Chicago she has directed for American Blues Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Next Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Steppenwolf Theatre, Timeline Theatre, and Victory Gardens Theatre. Portes serves on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers society, the Director’s Circle of the Drama League, and the Advisory Committee for the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC), for which she is a co-founder and champion of the LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work (2015, 2018). In 2016, she was honored with the SDC Zelda Fichandler Award for Directors. Previous honors include the inaugural TCG SPARK Leadership Fellowship, the NEA/TCG Career Development grant for Directors, Drama League Directing Fellowship program and the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Portes received her MFA in Directing from the University of California-San Diego.