Staff

David Lozano serves as the Executive Artistic Director of Cara Mía Theatre and specializes in writing, directing and producing original bilingual plays for the Latino community in North Texas.

Notable mainstage productions include To DIE: GO in Leaves, by Frida Kahlo (devised by Cara Mía’s artistic ensemble), Nuestra Pastorela (co- written with Jeffry Farrell), and The Dreamers: A Bloodline (devised by Cara Mía). The Dreamers: A Bloodline, the first in a trilogy on immigration, was awarded the TACA Donna Wilhelm Family New Works Fund in the grant’s inaugural year in 2012 and was named the “Best New Play of 2013 by Local Writers” by TheatreJones.Com.

David recently co-wrote and directed Deferred Action, the second installment of the trilogy for a Cara Mía co-production with the Dallas Theater Center in April 2016. Deferred Action was also the recipient of the TACA Donna Wilhelm Family New Works Fund.

In 2009, David co-wrote and directed the play Crystal City 1969 with Raul Treviño, which was named the “Best New Play of 2009” by The Dallas Morning News, TheaterJones.Com and the Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum.

Notable children’s and educational plays written by Lozano include Searching for the Six Flags of Texas and The Wisdom of Viejo Antonio, which travel to North Texas schools, Texas museums and area cultural centers.

Lozano recently completed the inaugural artEquity Facilitator Training Program at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and is a founding steering committee member of the national Latinx Theatre Commons.

In March of 2013, Lozano accompanied a delegation of 20 U.S. theatre artists to Cuba with the Theatre Communications Group.

In 2014, he was recognized by The Dallas Observer as one of six “Masterminds of Arts & Culture”.

Lozano was trained by Fred Curchack from the University of Texas at Dallas, Alicia Martínez Álvarez with the Laboratorio de la Máscara in Mexico City, Jeffry Farrell at Park Cities Yoga, Joan Schirle from Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, California, and at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Lozano has studied with various directors and­­ master teachers from Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, France, Senegal, Spain, and the United States.

Selena Anguiano began her artistic career in classical ballet at age three, training for over a decade before transitioning to theatre as a teenager. Her early experience included an internship with Dallas Theater Center, leading roles in award-winning productions, and performances with Teenage Communication Theatre and Junior Players. She has since contributed to a wide range of arts and education programs across the U.S. and internationally, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Dancing Classrooms NYC, US Performing Arts, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Children’s Theater, and London’s Bubble Theatre Company, as well as cultural initiatives in the UAE and Pakistan. In Washington, DC, she collaborated with more than 15 arts organizations—helping launch several and secure nonprofit status—while working alongside leading artists and local and international civic leaders.

An accomplished arts administrator, producer, director, and educator, Selena has developed youth-centered programs on both coasts, led innovative arts initiatives in her native Dallas and globally, and supported the creation of more than 10 nonprofit arts organizations in the U.S. and abroad. Her work spans collaborations with organizations such as Shakespeare Dallas, Orchestra of New Spain, and Cara Mía Theatre, as well as international consulting engagements with Charles University, Prague, CZ; The Little Art, Lahore, Pakistan; and the Cultural Offices of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi, Sharjah, UAE. She currently serves as Cara Mía Theatre’s first Director of Development, following her fundraising role at the Kennedy Center. A member of Actor’s Equity Association, an Ambassador for the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series and a member of the Dallas Opera Audience and Development Committee, Selena studied at the University of Dallas, the University of Southern Mississippi, and City University, London. https://www.selenaanguiano.com

Lainie Simonton is an educational leader, arts administrator, and theatre educator with more than 20 years of experience developing arts education programs, curriculum, and student performance experiences across Texas. Her work focuses on connecting theatre, literacy, and community engagement through meaningful, student-centered learning opportunities.

Lainie has led districtwide Fine Arts initiatives in Dallas ISD, Tyler ISD, and Houston ISD, with experience in curriculum development, instructional leadership, educator coaching, and performance-based learning. She also partners with schools, arts organizations, and community institutions to develop educational programming, student performances, residencies, and career-connected learning experiences that expand access to the arts for students and families.

Virginia Grise is a recipient of the Yale Drama Award, Whiting Writers’ Award, the Princess Grace Award in Theatre Directing, and the Playwrights’ Center’s Jerome Fellowship. Her published work includes Your Healing is Killing Me (Plays Inverse Press), blu (Yale University Press), The Panza Monologues co-written with Irma Mayorga (University of Texas Press) and an edited volume of Zapatista communiqués titled Conversations with Don Durito (Autonomedia Press).

In addition to plays, she has created a body of work that is interdisciplinary and includes multimedia performance, dance theater, performance installations, guerilla theater, site-specific interventions, and community gatherings. Virginia has taught writing for performance at the university level, as a public school teacher, in community centers, women’s prisons, and in the juvenile correction system. She holds an MFA in Writing for Performance from the California Institute of the Arts and is the Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Cara Mía Theatre in Dallas, Texas and a Matakyev Research Fellow at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University.