Latinx Actor Training
Edited by Micha Espinosa
Latinx Actor Training presents essays and pioneering research from leading Latinx practitioners and scholars in the United States. It aims to examine the history and future of Latino/a/x/e actor training practices and approaches. Latinx representation on stage and screen remains disproportionately low despite population growth. The book was born out of the urgent need to address the inequities in academia and the industry. It seeks to reimagine and restructure the practice of actor training while also inviting a deep investigation into heritage and identity practices.
Latinx Actor Training features contributions that cover current and historical acting methodologies and principles. It explores linguistic identity, casting considerations, and culturally inclusive practices, aiming to empower a new generation of Latinx actors. The book also assists educators entrusted with Latinx actors' training, voice coaching, and dialect coaching, remaining dedicated to creating career success. The hope is to champion positive narratives to combat pervasive and damaging stereotypes. Latinx Actor Training offers culturally inclusive pedagogies that will be invaluable for students, practitioners, and scholars interested in the intersections of Latinx herencia (heritage), identity, and actor training.
Bio
Micha Espinosa is an international teaching artist, activist, and voice/performance specialist in culturally inclusive pedagogies. She is a Professor at Arizona State University School (ASU) in the School of Music, Dance, and Theatre, affiliate faculty with ASU’s School of Transborder Studies & the Sidney Poitier New American Film School (30-year member of SAG-AFTRA), Artistic Director of Fitzmaurice Voicework® (FV®), and Lead Teacher trainer for the FV® Teacher Certification. Micha is also a member of the performance art collective La Pocha Nostra and the award-winning editor of Monologues for Latino Actors and co-editor of Scenes for Latinx Actors.
Praise for this book
I wish I’d had a resource like this to ground me and guide me. If we want a robust field full of voces artísticas in all their multi fangled complexity, essays like these will help pave the way.
Quiara Alegría Hudes Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and writer of In the Heights
Latinx Actor Training is an invaluable resource for all theater practitioners who seek to bring their full, authentic selves to their creative work. This book inspires a genuine sense of hope that, in art as in politics, intentionally making space for diverse voices to lead the conversation will result in greater liberation for all of us.
Walton Wilson Professor in the Practice, Acting Program David Geffen School of Drama at Yale
