Diane Rodriguez: A Celebratory Remembrance
“Days of Rwanda” play reading talk-back at OPC 2013. (L to R) Catherine Kimmel (dramaturge), Sean Lewis (playwright), Diane Rodriguez (director), Robert Egan (Artistic Director)
Diane Rodriguez provided friendship, guidance, directorial acumen and dramaturgical inspiration to the Ojai Playwrights Conference for the past 15 years until her recent death on April 10, 2020, due to cancer.
We dedicate our inaugural series “OPC ONWARD TOGETHER” with this celebratory tribute to Diane. We will be curating and posting regular thoughts, insights and imaginings to keep our OPC community engaged, inspired and aspiring to find ways forward in these trying times.
Please enjoy the passages below from members of the Ojai Playwrights community. Every contribution about Diane’s life points to a way forward for all of us as citizen artists and nurturing human beings.
Robert Egan
OPC Artistic Director/Producer
April 13, 2020
Bill Cain
OPC Playwright
DEAR DIANE:
A quick word before you go. Not that you are going far. But a word in any case. And it might seem trivial.
Did I ever tell you at Ojai what a brilliant actress you are?
I know I did. Over and over. Did you ever really hear it? Let me say it again then, just to be sure. Those cold readings in the library?
You made those cold readings hot.
It didn’t matter the part.
African soldier for Danai? White middle class for Liza? Rich. Poor. Angry. Placid. Most hilariously a valley girl. Valley girl much?, you might have said - making us all laugh very hard.
You played them to the hilt.
There was room in you for any character because of the depth of your heart, the breadth of your vision, your sense of fun, your understanding of tragedy.
And because there was room in you for all of us. And all of our visions.
When you read in my last Ojai play a woman director who dismantles Shakespeare – quite a stretch, I know - you exploded the room on practically every line.
You dreamed of a theater that could be.
One that included us all. And that’s what you managed to do. Include us all. With a wary critical eye.
Letting your anger blaze when you saw injustice embedded in our understanding or hidden in our work. And loving the work and the workers. Yes, and so many other dramaturgical, directorial things, but above all –
Did I ever tell you what a brilliant actress you are?
You are a brilliant cold read, Diane. It’s not a small skill. That’s all life is after all. No time to rehearse. You’re on. Period.
You do it brilliantly.
And, as I say, you’re not going far. Just deeper into our hearts. Keep warming our cold reads, Diane.
Did I ever tell you how brilliant you are?
-Bill Cain
Bill developed the following plays at OPC: “The Patriots” (2018), “The Last White Man” (2017), “Hasty Pudding” (2014), “30.3 thirty three” (2011), “How to Write a Book for the Bible” (2009), “Nine Circles” (2008), “Equivocation” (2007)
Phyllis Moberly
OPC Publicist
AN INVINCIBLE SPIRIT
Diane was a woman who was a real life, tangible role model for me and countless others. She listened, she was a friend, someone to count on, someone who understood immediately, intuitively, what was true and what was important.
She lifted people up, those who were anywhere near her, just as a matter of course. You needed an ear? A job? A recommendation? Perspective? Inspiration? Some eye candy (nobody dressed as well, tastefully or imaginatively as Diane!)? You needed your play edited, shaped, simplified or embellished in the best possible way? You needed a leader, a path-finder, a passionate defender? You went to Diane. Her spirit was invincible, but human. She recognized talent with a radar-like perception. She wanted you, and everyone, to succeed, because that is, obviously, so much more fun for all of us. She wasn't corny in her love of the world and other people -- she was way too hip for that.
I was honored to spend the last couple of days collating basic information and other people's reverent thoughts, trying to support Diane and her family in informing the press that a living goddess of pragmatic, positive, radiant spirit was gone. I'm glad I had a job, a chore to do, grateful to show my thanks to Diane Rodriguez for her friendship and support in my own tough days. Thank you, Diane. Thank you. Oh, I am stunned with grief.
-Phyllis Moberly
A theatre publicist for more than thirty years, Phyllis worked with Diane at Center Theatre Group.
Richard Montoya
OPC Writer-In-Residence
DEAR LADY DI!
Stopped by your crib today in the Echo - you were supposed to see 70 Mujer - 80 - your Jefa will bury her second daughter soon - Roger & I stood at the magic gas station down the street and poured coffee onto concreted earth - homies for the homegirl - we were gonna be 90 in the teatro old folks carpa so we could laugh at all the battle royals and remind ourselves why we loved Michael Friedman and why we know the words to Le international and De la Chao - we were gonna do all those things to defy odds and the gods and pull thru like the Chicana/os that we are - saying it was all worth it - art ain’t polite - art don’t ask permission - art is birth and complexity and after birth and all the little deaths we suffer of all the little things that fail then rebirth! we pulled off some great stuff my Lady - we tried - we seek conflict our entire creative lives - what’s the conflict, we demand in rehearsal and at the writing table - then we find conflict and we conquer it and that resolution is the funniest and most rewarding part of all - coming out unscathed and jumping into the next onda - the next fire - and for that I am pissed and most heartbroken about - we had new joints to hatch Lady Di - we’ll get there one day - I promise you we will see it thru - your Venice dream and all the seeds you planted in us Dear Lady Di!
-Richard Montoya
Richard was a writer-in-residence at OPC in 2017, working with Roger Guenveur Smith and Diane Rodriguez on “Venice is Dead.”
Casey Stangl
OPC Associate Artistic Director
HONEY
I'd met Diane many times over the years but we really got to know each other at the 2017 OPC Festival where we were both directing. During that (always) magical two weeks she started calling me "honey" and we sought each other's advice on how to nudge our collaborators into making changes. And we had intense conversations about managing life, love and work as women in this business. Diane's wisdom and advice was invaluable to me. I admired her ability to coax great work from her collaborators with a combo of charm, wit and rigor. Diane shattered a lot of glass ceilings with her signature combo of charm, wit and rigor, and she always held open the door for others. She paved the way for a wave of women leaders that is now bearing fruit. Diane didn't suffer fools, but if she called you "honey" you got to bask in the warmth of her enormous heart. She will be sorely missed.
-Casey Stangl
Casey directed the following plays at OPC:”John Proctor is the Villain” (2019), “Evanston Salt Costs Climbing” (2017), “The Cake” (2016), and “Women of a Certain Age” (2015).
Roger Guenveur Smith
OPC Writer-In-Residence
COMRADE AND NEIGHBOR
With great pleasure I knew Diane Rodriguez as comrade and as neighbor.
Quite frequently, not long after the sun had risen, I’d run into her and JD, hand in hand, making their way on the long long trail that was their life together.
Her eclectic achievements in our field are peerless.It was not enough for Diane to open doors for herself. She held them open for all of us, and challenged us to do the same. She did this by the force of sheer will and her exemplary talents as writer, director, performer, producer, and administrator.
Diane’s journey continues. Thank you JD for sharing her spirit.
You will never walk alone.
- Roger Gunveur Smith
Roger was a writer-in-residence at OPC 2017, working with Richard Montoya and Diane Rodriguez on “Venice is Dead.”
Nataki Garrett
OPC Director
IMPACTS
Diane was more than a mentor. She was a beacon for those of us who needed proof that we could and should pursue our dreams of having careers in the theater. Diane was the first woman of color I knew who held a prominent role in a major theater who was in a position to affect my career. She was a gate keeper and a gate opener. There were times in my early years as a director/producer in LA when I, who had no clarity or understanding of the immensity of her job or the toll of her being one of the few women of color leading in an American theater, that I wished or expected her to do more. I had no idea how much she was doing just to hold the space. She held the space for the rest of us. She waited for us to catch up and when we did she opened the door.
Diane made a clear impact in my life without ever being acknowledged for it three times. The first was was when she recused herself from a panel for an award I was up for. An award I received and never thanked her for because I felt she hadn’t supported me. It was years later when I understood that she recused so that I could be fully considered for the award without the bias of our previous relationship.
The second was when she mentored me through that same award and we had a tough conversation. With a tight jaw and a tense tone she said, “Nataki, it’s a hustle, it’s always a hustle. I hustle every day! If you are not prepared for the hustle then you are in the wrong business.”
The third impact was when I was applying for several artistic leadership positions at theaters across the country. After a few major disappointments over several months I was ready to stop and drop out. Diane told me to stay in the search – that I had a chance and I needed to stick with it. And I did. I owe her for always being straight with me, even when I didn’t agree with her. I am grateful that she was clear and plain with me when I needed straight talk and not gas lighting. She was open with me about the truth of what it means to be a woman of color in theater leadership and she was real with me about the immensity of responsibility we have to make a path for future generations of marginalized people to have it better than we had it. I am forever in her debt. We all are.
- Nataki Garrett
Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Nataki directed “53% Of” (2018) and “BLKS” (2016) at OPC.
Luis Alfaro
OPC Playwright
MY TRAVELS WITH DIANE
I spent ten years sitting across from Diane Rodriguez at a dining table we installed in our office, in lieu of desks, when we ran the Latino Theatre Initiative at the Mark Taper Forum, from 1995-2005. What an amazing time to run a new play development program. We were trying to create, produce and fund lots of new work, while also trying to diversify one of the most important regional theatres in America. We commissioned over fifty plays, produced over a hundred readings, workshops or productions, and we hired over a thousand Latinx actors, directors, designers, stage managers and dramaturges. In short, we tried our best to be part of the connective tissue and the historical thread that links us to theatre in this country. Our country. Our politics were clear, if our feelings about what constitutes good art were a bit different from each other.
One of the first things we did as co-directors was to take a trip to Arizona. Tucson, one of our favorite towns, with a vibrant arts and theatre community. Our bond was with Borderlands Theatre, a non-profit community-centered producing company that was focused on telling the stories of the Americas, not just the United States. We saw a number of plays that weekend, and we were wrestling, not with the content, but the approach. At the time, we were also just getting to know each other. Diane was interested in mainstream commercial work. I was a student of Maria Irene Fornes and had just the opposite desire. We wrestled on how we would come together to produce artists that satisfied both of our interests.
I should also say that it is interesting to me now how much we influenced each other. Now I love mainstream work as much as the avant-garde, and Diane really took to devised theatre, world theatre and a non-playwright driven process. One day, we were in an argument about a play we saw. A community pageant, that lacked what we thought was nuance and sophisticated writing, but in truth was a huge crowd-pleasing spectacle that spoke its politics with big neon lettering. Just the kind of work we both liked, but not what we imagined we could do at the Taper.
Going on the road with Diane was a completely different experience than in the office. At work, we were ON, trying to convince everyone to take a chance on what we were creating. In the desert, she was calm, introspective, thoughtful as a traveler, yielded to the group dynamic and I remember we even went on a Gay/Lesbian bar nightclub tour because I was fascinated with the names of the bars in Tucson. The Gay one was called “It’s ‘Bout Time” and the Lesbian one “Ain’t Nobody’s Business,” I loved the irony.
Anyway, on our last day we ended up at Mission San Xavier del Bac, built by the O’odham people of Arizona. We finally shut up about work while we walked the grounds in silence and came to an epiphany about what we were doing. We had forgotten to bring our authentic selves into the building on our first day. Maybe because we thought we had to please. That trip reminded us that we were first Chicanos, then Latina/o’s and that we needed to reflect all of the Americas in our work. Our plays run the gamut of experience, and as we moved through our years at the Taper, we came to realize that not every great play fell into the model of what was considered ‘well written’. Some of our best work spoke to the times in passionate declarative theatrical expressions that used language, ritual and heightened theatricality to tell urgent stories about what it meant to be Latinx today.
I am going to miss Diane’s passionate pleas for theatre, but I know that I now carry her in the connective tissue that is our mission. She now becomes part of the ancient thread of our experience and expression. The essential work continues in new generations and new forms of expression. Rest in Peace, Friend.
-Luis Alfaro
Luis developed the following plays at OPC: “St. Jude” and “St. Jude - Part Two” (2011, 2012), “Holy Road” (2005), and “No Holds Barrio” (2002)
ROBERT EGAN
OPC Artistic Director/Producer
ONWARD TOGETHER
I knew Diane for over 25 years. I was part of the Taper leadership team that hired her and Luis Alfaro to direct our Latino Theatre Initiative and serve as senior members of our Artistic Staff. What was remarkable about Diane was her towering, fierce and brilliant spirit. She attacked everything with equal passion and resiliency:
Activist/Leader. Making sure the theatre was truly representative of all communities.
Director/Dramaturge. Making sure the art on our stages was excellent in form and content and deeply spoke to the social, cultural dynamics on our time.
Administrator/Teacher. Making sure there were new generations of artists being nurtured and trained to speak to the possibilities of our future.
And Performer/Muse. Yes, she was also a luminous actor. Combining great emotional range and physical presence and vocal dynamics. She had the unique and rare combination of bringing child-like vulnerability, innocence and playfulness that transformed into inspired maturity, wisdom and sensuality that transpired into fierceness, vision and purpose of the timeless spirit. That was also her life. Diane’s laughter and smile were infectious both off and on the stage. And her sacred, battleground home was truly the stage. It is where she lived so fully in all her many cultural roles and where her spirit will continue to hover, engage and delight us for generations to come.
Diane truly embodied the deeper values of the OPC experiment. She was a beacon of light. May her spirit light a path to a better future for all of us. Diane’s life points to a way forward for all of us as citizen artists and nurturing human beings.
We send our love and support to our dear friend and equally amazing force Jose Delgado, Producing Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. He is a pillar of strength and kindness within our organization. And I know he has been that for Diane throughout their relationship. He will carry Diane’s soul into the whirlwind of the world and wrap us all in his and her glowing inspiration and love. Together they will continue to lead us ONWARD . . .
-Robert Egan
An award-winning producer and director, Robert has served as the Artistic Director/Producer of OPC since 2002.
Pictured L to R: Diane with husband Jose Delgado; Diane performing at OPC’s Truth Will Out in 2017; Diane on panel for OPC’s So Cal Artistic Power event with Jon Robin Baitz and Richard Montoya in 2017.