Lisa Portes
A director and educator, Lisa Portes' work in Chicago includes
Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons at Northlight Theatre, Susan
Lori-Parks' In the Blood and Caryl Churchill's Far Away at Next
Theatre, the world premiere of Offspring of the Cold War by Carlos
Murillo at Walkabout Theatre, Naomi Iizuka's Polaroid Stories and
Chekhov's Three Sisters for The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Portes serves as Artistic Director of Chicago Playworks! for Families
and Young Audiences, where she has most recently directed Cinderella
Eats Rice and Beans: A Salsa Musical by Karen Zacarías and Debbie Wicks
la Puma, and The Highest Heaven by JosÉ Cruz González . Her work has
been seen in New York at Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre
Workshop, the Public Theatre, the Flea Theatre, Cherry Lane Alternative
and Soho Rep, and regionally at South Coast Repertory Theatre, the
McCarter Theatre Lab, the Kennedy Center, Ford's Theatre in Washington,
D.C., the Cape Cod Theatre Project, A Contemporary American Theatre
Festival, the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Annex Theatre and
Sledgehammer Theatre. Honors and awards include the NEA/TCG Directors
Fellowship, the Drama League Directors' Fellowship and a Fulbright
Grant. Ms. Portes serves as Head of Directing at The Theatre School at
DePaul University. She lives with her husband, playwright Carlos
Murillo and their daughter, Eva Rose.