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Diane Rodriguez was born in the 1950s and died of lung cancer on Friday, April, 10, 2020.  She co-founded two theatre companies, El Teatro de la Esperanza (Theatre of Hope) and Latins Anonymous, and was a leading performer for the seminal Chicano theatre group, El Teatro Campensino. (Theater of the Farmworkers). In 1988 she co-founded the comedy troupe Latins Anonymous as a response to the Hollywood stereotyping of Latino actors. Rodriguez then served as director of the Latino Theatre Initiative at the Mark Taper Forum from 1995-2000. She began directing in 1991 and was awarded a Natinal Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Directing Award in 1998. She won an OBIE Award (Off-Broadway) Award in 2007 for playing multiple roles in Heather Woodbury’s Tale of Two Cities (Best Ensemble). In January 2015, it was announced that President Obama nominated Diane Rodriguez to the National Council on the Arts, whose purpose is to advise the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts on matters of policies and programs. Her last directing assignment was for Playwrights’ Arena in Los Angeles, where she helmed Janine Salinas Schoenberg’s play Las Mujeres del Mar (The Women of the Sea), working with producer Jon Lawrence Rivera.

My Friend Left Us

By Jon Lawrence Rivera

Diane Rodriguez and Jon Lawrence Rivera in Krakow, Poland

Last time I was in Krakow, I got a text from Diane to meet her for coffee. I had just arrived the night before. She had already been there for two days as she was part of the international jury judging the Divine Comedy Theatre Festival there.

I go to the designated cafe and, from a distance, I can spot her as she sashays into sight with that unmistakable strut of hers in two-inch boots, and in her undeniably fashionable winter get-up. This is at 10 AM in the dead of a Polish winter. That’s my friend.

I can always see Diane enter. She doesn’t enter any room quietly. I don’t mean she is loud vocally (although you’d hear her laughter from across any room), but her flair for colors, scarves, jackets, shoes, all shine a light on her.

I love meeting her for our usual power breakfasts at Brite Spot. The hour or two goes by so quickly because there is so much territory to cover. What are you doing? Did you see that production? Have you heard of this grant? What do you want to do next? Where are we going to get the money? How’s your theater doing? How’s your mom? The subjects are endless, and they flow naturally from one to the other. Another coffee please.

In 2005, when she was working at Center Theatre Group, I pitched an idea to Diane about moving my production of Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn to the Kirk Douglas Theatre. I knew she was a big fan of the work since it premiered at a community center in Filipinotown the year before. She walked the idea right up to Michael Ritchie, with all my stipulations: the cast of 20 mostly Filipino actors stay pretty much intact and we need to convert the KDT to a theater in-the-round. The following year, Dogeaters opened in the re-configured KDT with Diane by my side for moral support all the way through closing. She was a champion of diverse theater. Not just Latino theater.

Through the years, Diane continued to help my company, Playwrights’ Arena, with development or financial support from CTG. Be it through workshops, commissioning fees for The Hotel Play, or to help usher Boni B. Alvarez’s Bloodletting in to Block Party (Center Theatre Group’s annual showcase of successful productions by small, local companies); she was always there raising us up.

Occasionally, when her schedule permitted, she would play in our small sandbox, having directed Pyretown by John Belluso, Sick by Erik Patterson, and most recently Las Mujeres del Mar by Janine Salinas Schoenberg just last fall (her final directing project). She pushed our capability with her big ideas. She did not let our small space dictate the expansive vision of her production. She always wanted us to think big, bigger! Like her personality.

We have shared so many happy moments together: New Year’s Eve parties at her house, Holiday teas at mine, endless panels on diversity, social networking sessions (are you going to that one?), another theater meeting, plays we have attended, and our trips to Krakow.

We have been lucky enough to have be invited by Joanna Klass to the Divine Comedy Festival on several occasions. Looking at my pictures, Diane and I have been there four times together. Those trips were magical for us. A Latina and a Filipino in chilly Poland seeing five-hour plays in some cavernous TV studio, or schlepped to Warsaw to do a reading. So much laughter, so many stories shared, so many meals.

My favorite story of our many trips was when we decided to walk to the open market while a blizzard-like condition fell upon the old city. We literally stopped every two blocks to get shelter at a café to get hot tea and then continue our walk. It was so cold we were hysterically laughing because we could not feel our feet at all. With all the stops we made, we made it to the market just as they were packing it up. But like the true bargain shoppers that we were, we still managed to buy some beautiful ceramic pieces, Christmas ornaments and paintings.

Diane loved living large. She loved being the bridge, the connector. She loved people to thrive. She loved to support artists. She loved to have a great laugh.

This is why, today, I join the many people who are mourning her passing. She left us with a wealth of remarkable artistic work. But we cannot deny that she left with more to be done. She has more dots to connect, more cities to travel, more artists to champion.

And so, for now, we simply must continue to dream big.

Goodbye, my friend.