This Weeks Guest on Determined Women: Lorca Peress

LORCA PERESS specializes in developing multicultural and multidisciplinary theatre, dance-theatre, musicals, opera and theatrical multimedia projects. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of MultiStages (est. 1997), and also works as a freelance director. Upcoming: Script Development Series workshop of JANUARY by Paula Cizmar. Lorca will direct this multimedia play which focuses on gun violence among children, its effects on families, society, and media exploitation. JANUARY was a MultiStages New Works Finalist and Kilroy nominee. MultiStages next New Works Contest will receive submission between June 30-Dec. 31. Details on the website. Recent Directing Credits include Desi Moreno-Penson’s "Comida de Puta (F-ing Lousy Food, HOLA Award)"; a fully-staged Bernstein’s "MASS" with her father Maestro Maurice Peress at the Colden Center and 200 singers/dancers/musicians; the award-winning musical drama, "Temple of the Souls" (6 Innovative Theatre Nominations, 4 HOLA Awards), she is one of the book writers, composers Anika Paris (her sister) and Dean Landon, story by Anita Velez-Mitchell (her grandmother); Nichole Thompson Adams’ "Black Girl You’ve Been Gentrified" at the Public Theatre's Joe's Pub. She presented a Climate Change Event in December for MultiStages with short plays through the Artists for Climate Change Action Event. She directed the AIDS Quilt Songbook at Cooper Union, and in several LPTW short plays festivals. Lorca is a featured panelist and moderator for numerous organizations including TRU, No-Passports, and at NYU and CUNY. For over a decade, Lorca has been on the NYU Tisch Strasberg Studio and Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute faculties. She was the hotINK Festival Curator for NYU Strasberg Studio (2002-2010). Memberships: SDC, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, League of Professional Theatre Women (Co-President 2011-14), Creative Network for the Federal Affairs Administration Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico. Awards include 4 MCAF Awards, Dramatists Guild Fund Award, Taino Areito Award, 5 HOLA Awards, 2nd and 3rd prizes in the National Opera Competition, 2 Collaboration Honorable Mentions from the Women in Arts and Media Coalition, and a La MaMa INKY in playwriting. Lorca is a Bennington College and NTI graduate and a visual artist. Website: www.multistages.org