Staff

Artistic Director:

photo by Sunny Bak

“I’m aligned with Highways’ commitment to diversity, to the development of new works, to the exploration of new forms of performance, and to our commitment to the First Amendment right to speak freely. I will continue to facilitate artistic expression in a supportive, non-elitist, non-judgmental, non-dogmatic way. At Highways, I believe that we contribute to culture and society by affecting progressive change through performance. There’s no place I’d rather be.” -Leo Garcia

Leo Garcia, an NEA award-winning playwright, actor, filmmaker, producer, teacher, and activist has served as Highways’ Artistic Director since 2003.

One of the most versatile theater artists in Southern California, Leo Garcia is a nationally respected playwright, actor, filmmaker, teacher, director and producer. His plays have won awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, New York Foundation for the Arts, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, The National Hispanic Media Coalition, and MCA/Universal. Garcia’s works have been presented by numerous nationally-established companies and presenters, including New York’s Theater for the New City, The New York Shakespeare Public Festival, The Jewish Repertory Theatre, INTAR, The Los Angeles Theater Center, The South Coast Repertory Theatre, The Tiffany Theatre, and Santa Fe Stages, among many others. He worked for many years with his mentor, internationally acclaimed playwright and director, Maria Irene Fornes, as writer and actor and has been directed by her in her plays in New York, Los Angeles and Siena, Italy at the Dionysia World Festival. Fornes also directed Garcia’s play, “Dogs,” at West Coast Ensemble Theater in LA.

Garcia has also been a fixture on the Los Angeles alternative performing arts scene for many years, one of a handful of artists who represent a fully developed, professional approach to multidisciplinary work. His show of solo works, “My Alien Abduction,” was an LA Weekly Performance Pick of the Week. Between 1995 and 2002, he served as an artist, teacher, director and producer for numerous productions and classes at Highways ; Resident Playwright with the Mark Taper Forum’s Latino Theatre Initiative; and Project Artistic Director and Playwright of the community-based San Diego Playwrights Project. As an actor, Garcia appeared in over 30 off-Broadway and regional theatre productions and guest starred in such episodic series as “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Tour of Duty,” and “Jake and the Fatman.” He was also a regular on the daytime drama Santa Barbara. As a filmmaker, Garcia’s film, “A Rainy Day,” was distributed by Universal Television and was shown in festivals nationally and internationally. Garcia has been recognized by Out Magazine as one of the OUT 100 of 2005, a list of the year’s most interesting, influential, and newsworthy LGBT people. He is the recipient of the Master of Fine Arts degree from the Asolo Conservatory.

To email: leogarcia@highwaysperformance.org

Co-Artistic Director:

photo by JC Earle

Patrick Kennelly’s direction, design, performance, and curation in the realms of theater, film, installation, and performance and visual art has been presented in Los Angeles at a variety of venues, including Highways

Performance Space and Gallery, the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Track 16, CrazySpace, UCLA’s Freud Playhouse, Sophia Louisa Projects, Human Resources, and New Wight Gallery at the Broad Arts Center.

His theatrical work has included original plays, large-scale performance installation, and image-based physical theater.

Kennelly received his BFA in Film/Video at CalArts and an MFA in Theater Direction at UCLA. He was a recipient of the 2008 Princess Grace Award for Theater, and has received awards and fellowships from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, and the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Kennelly is Co-Artistic Director of U-N-M-A-R-K-E-D, a project dedicated to live and remote Outer-disciplinary spectacle, horror, glamour, and social justice & committed to ultra-violence through “art”

To email: patrick@highwaysperformance.org

Development Associate / Administrator

Jamie Benson, as a Los Angeles performer and producer, aims to challenge performance traditions and create accessibly original work through dance, instruction and choreography. Produced for venues such as On the Boards, Highways Performance Space, Studio A, Electric Lodge and for events like the Art’s Edge Festival, Benson’s goal is to observe and explore humanity by pairing dance forms with unusual, and often humorous, everyday landscapes. Benson has also been featured on the television series Dance 360, LATC’s Ovation award winning Shag with a Twist, Taking Back Sunday’s Make Damn Sure music video, Rei Aoo’s Dance Planet, and McDonald’s Mario Art Commercial. Benson is now a member of the Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble, which premiered the post-modern choreographer’s latest work Surrender Dorothy at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex in June and will do so again at the Pasadena Armory in October of 2009.