Quick Facts
Biography
Octavio Solis (born 1958) is an American playwright and director who has had his productions shown in A-list 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, Solis started his career in theater by joining his high school, Riverside High School’s (El Paso, TX) theater group when he was fourteen. 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. 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. 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".
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. 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.
In Disney's Coco, Solis voices an Arrival Agent.
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. 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.
Awards[5]
| Award | Dates |
|---|---|
| Barri and BC Stavis Playwriting Award, National Theatre Conference | 1992-93 |
| Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund: Writers for Young Audiences (for La Posada Magica) | 1992-93 |
| The Will Glickman Award for Best New Play in the Bay Area (for Santos & Santos) | 1993 |
| The Roger L. Stevens Award: Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays (for Santos & Santos) | 1994 |
| Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays (for Dreamlandia) | 1997-98 |
| Playwriting Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts | 1995-97 |
| McKnight Fellowship: The Playwrights' Center | 1998-99 |
| TCG/NEA Theatre Artists in Residence Grant, Dallas Theater Center | 1998–2000 |
| National Theatre Artists Residency Program, Pew Charitable Trusts | 2000-02 |
| TCG/NEA Theatre Artists in Residence Grant, Shadowlight Productions | 2000-01 |
| National Latino Playwriting Award: Arizona Theatre Center | 2002 |
| Creative Work Fund, Campo Santo, Intersection for the Arts | 2002-03 |
| New Works Fund Grant, Theatre Bay Area | 2006-07 |
| Thornton Wilder Fellow, MacDowell Colony | 2008 |
| Denver Post Ovation Award, Best Production (for Lydia) | 2008 |
| Henry Award, Outstanding New Play (for Lydia) | 2008 |
| Bay Area Critics Circle Mid-Career Achievement Award | 2010 |
| United States Artists Fellowship | 2011 |
| Pen Center Award for Drama (For Se Llama Cristana) | 2014 |
| Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater Award by the William Inge Center for the Arts | 2019 |
Works[5]
| Production | Theaters | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Impatiens | Intersection for the Arts, SF, CA | August 1990 |
| Scrappers | South Coast Repertory, CA Teatro Milwaukee, WI | Fall 1992-93 May 1995 |
| Man of the Flesh | Teatro Dallas, CA South Coast Repertory, CA Los Medanos College,Pittsburg, CA | Oct. 1998 May 1990 Oct. 1990 Feb. 1991 Nov. 1991 May 1997 Oct.-Nov. 2014 |
| Prospect | El Teatro Campesino Latino Chicago Theatre Company The Magic Theatre North Coast REpertory, CA University of California, San Diego | April 1993 Sept. 1993 Jan. 1996 May 2002 2002 |
| La Posada Magica | Odyssey Theatre Los Angeles La Companía, Albuquerque, NM South Coast Repertory San Jose Repertory, CA Teatro Visión, San Jose University of New Mexico, Albuquerque | Dec. 1996 1996 Dec. 1994-2008 Dec. 1995 2000, 2002, 2004 2002 |
| El Paso Blue | Intersection for the Arts The San Diego Repertory Teatró Vista/NEXT Theatre, Chicago University of Washington, Seattle Cornish College, Seatte, WA | May 1994 March 1995 Sept. 1997 1998 Nov. 2011 |
| Santos & Santos (Play) | 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 | Dec. 1993 May 1995 Jan. 1996 May 1996 July 1996 1997 1998 2000 2002 2003 |
| 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 | Oct.-Nov. 2005 |
| Lethe | Cornerstone Theatre Institute | Aug. 2006 |
| Marfa Lights | West Texas State A&M University, TX St. Mary's College of California | Oct. 2006 Nov. 2006 |
| June in a Box | CampoSanto, Intersection for the Arts St. Mary's College of California | March 2008 November 2011 |
| Lydia (play) | 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 | Jan. 2008 2009 Feb. 2009 March 2009 April 2009 Oct. 2013 Oct. 2013 |
| Quixote | The Oregon Shakespeare Festival | 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 | June 2010 June 2012 |
| Cloudlands | South Coast Repertory Theatre, CA | April 2012 |
| Se Llama Cristina | Magic Theatre Kitchen Dog Theatre Theatre at Boston Court INTAR Theatre, NY | Jan. 2013 May 2013 Jan.-Feb. 2014 April–May 2015 |
| Alicia's Miracle | Tides Theatre in collaboration with the Center for the Investigative Reporting | Jan.-Feb. 2015 |
Books
- Retablos: Stories From a Life Lived Along the Border, City Lights, 2018
