Justin Lucero (Director) is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama where he is Associate Chair for The John Wells Directing Program. Justin also currently serves as Artistic Director of El Paso Opera. Select/recent directing engagements include Creede Repertory Theatre (Colorado), Asolo Repertory Theatre (Florida), The Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, Abingdon Theatre Company (NY), Kane Repertory Theatre (Chicago), Live & In Color (NY), University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance, City Theatre (Pittsburgh), Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Point Park University (Pittsburgh), the UTEP Dinner Theatre. Select fellowships/appointments: FAIR Directing Assistantship with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Stage Directors & Choreographers Foundation Directing Observership at South Coast Repertory (LA), Directing Fellowship with Asolo Repertory Theatre, Directing Attachment at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre (London/West End).
Justin was named to the 2021-2022 BIPOC Leadership Circle by artEquity, in partnership with the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and a 2022-2023 Rising Leader of Color by the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), supported by the Opportunity Fund and Walt Disney Imagineering. He is also a part of the governance ecology for TCG, as an inaugural member of its new Next Generation Taskforce.
Training: MFA in Directing with Distinction, London’s East 15 Acting School. Justin’s work is at the intersections of the performing arts, education, community building, and the championing of underrepresented voices. His art and teaching aim to normalize the voices of the underrepresented and historically marginalized, including the championing of diversity, equity, inclusion, intersectionality and interculturalism. As a theatre-maker, Justin explores the performer-spectator dynamic and exploits an audience’s necessary role in theatrical creation.