Micha Espinosa

Professor Micha Espinosa, Arizona State University, School of Music, Dance, and Theatre, has used her personal history and extensive knowledge as a Chicana theatre artist and actor as a springboard to examine and contextualize the experience of Latinos/as/xs in theater and film. Her creative and academic writings linking actor training politics, pedagogy, identity development, and ethics have led to Professor Espinosa’s appointment as affiliate faculty with the School of Transborder Studies and the Sydney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University. Professor Espinosa is the award-winning editor for the book, Monologues for Latino Actors: A Resource Guide to the Contemporary Latino/a Playwrights and co-editor for the award-winning, Scenes for Latinx Actors. She is co-editor for Latinx Actor Training, published by Routledge and published numerous book chapters, book reviews, and articles.

As a performer, her career has spanned 35 years and she has worked in film, television, theatre, commercials, and print/commercial modeling. She has been privileged to work with award-winning film and theatre directors, including Oliver Stone, Peter Patzak, Tina landau, Les Waters, and Aaron Landsman, among others. A long-standing member of the Screen Actors Guild and a former local board member, Professor Espinosa is known as a national and international presence and a leading voice for social justice in the classroom. 

 

Over the last ten years, her work has been rooted in activism, female empowerment, climate activism, and border consciousness. Since 2016, she has created 18 site-specific performances. She is a vocal advisor and performer for Guillermo Gomez Pena’s international performance collective, La Pocha Nostra. As the inaugural Artistic Director for Fitzmaurice Institute and as a Senior Lead teacher, she teaches throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. She has also been instrumental in helping to found the Fitzmaurice Voicework Institute (Fitzmauriceinstitute.org) through her fundraising capabilities, program, and special method creation. She has given more than 100+ masterclasses in voice and liberation practices and trained over 300+ designated teachers of Fitzmaurice Voicework. In addition, Professor Espinosa has given over 50 conference presentations and been a guest on various podcasts, including Folger Shakespeare, In a Manner of Speaking, and the Theatre of Others. 



As a voice and text coach, she has worked on 100 + productions. Highlights of recent years include Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Peter and the Starcatcher, The Copper Children, Hairspray, Mother Road, La Comedia of Errors; Arizona Theatre Company:  How to make an American Son, Man of La Mancha; Dallas Theatre Center: Our Town/Nuestro Pueblo; Milwaukee Repertory: Four Hands-Two Pianos, West Side Story, In the Heights. She was the dramaturg for REDCAT/Calarts Scene with Cranes and the director for Southwest Shakespeare's Mojada.



Professor Espinosa was awarded Arizona State University’s CLFSA Sangre de Arte Award for her mentorship of Latinx students in the Performing Arts and is the recipient of the 2022 Victoria Foundation Award for Outstanding Literary/Arts. She is a member of the United States National Theatre Conference; the advisory board for Southwest Shakespeare Company; the editorial board member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and former board member; and on the steering committee for the Latinx Theatre Commons. Professor Espinosa has earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Stephens College and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of California, San Diego.