INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Repertory Theatre announced its new Associate Artistic Director Ismael Lara, Jr. during its monumental 51st Season. Lara joins Margot Lacy Eccles Artistic Director Benjamin Hanna in his first year at the helm of the organization, helping to support Hanna’s artistic vision and serving as an artistic ambassador for the Theatre.
Ismael is a Mexican director, artistic leader, educator, and community organizer hailing from the Gulf Coast of Texas. In recent years, his work has focused on bridging the gap between institutions and the Latiné community. Ismael has directed and developed plays in collaboration with Goodman Theatre, Cleveland Play House, the Story Theatre, Paramount Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, National Museum of Mexican Art, Cleveland Public Theatre, Rec Room Arts, Creede Repertory Theater, the Lark, and National Queer Theatre.
Lara is a recipient of Northwestern University’s Aurand Harris Award, a Drama League Directing Fellowship, Northlight Theatre’s Artistic Fellowship, Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Emerging Directing Fellowship, an SDC Observership, and was a participant in the Center for International Theatre Development’s Linkages: Hungary program. He has served as a Co-Artistic Director of the Hangar Lab Company, as a producer with the National Museum of Mexican Art in collaboration with Nancy García Loza, the Joyce Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts; he also worked within the education department at Cleveland Play House to bring basic needs and arts programming to the Latiné community. Ismael has been an adjunct faculty member at Lake Forest College and Northwestern University. He earned his B.A in Theatre and Education at Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi and his M.F.A. in Directing at Northwestern.
