BRIAN HERRERA (fiction/non-fiction/drama)
A native New Mexican, Brian Eugenio Herrera is a writer, teacher and scholar whose academic and creative work explores the historical formation of gender, ethnic and racial identities within U.S. popular entertainment and performance. Brian Eugenio Herrera holds degrees from Brown University, the University of New Mexico and Yale University, where he did his PhD work in American Studies (Dissertation: Latin Explosion: Latinos, Racial Formation and Twentieth Century U.S. Popular Performance). Brian's scholarly work has been awarded fellowship recognition from the Ford Foundation, the Smithsonian Institute, and the John Randolph & Dora Haynes Foundation. As a theatre director, Brian is an alumnus of The Drama League of New York's Directors Project (Fall Directing Program), has served as Artistic Associate with New York's Three Dollar Bill Theatre, and has worked at such theatres as Mark Taper Forum/Taper Too!, Manhattan Punchline, Circle Rep, Playwright's Horizons, and Albuquerque's Blackout Theatre. In 2007, Brian joined the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance at UNM, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Theatre History and Performance Theory, and where he has twice been recognized by The Project For New Mexico Graduates of Color as recipient of an Outstanding Faculty Member Award.
GABRIEL SHANKS (poetry/visual art/drama)
An award-winning stage director, playwright, poet and photographer, Gabriel Shanks was one of the directors of Peculiar Works Project's Village Fragments (2007 OBIE Award). He has directed over fifty theatrical productions in New York City, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Vienna, Budapest, and elsewhere, including area and world premieres by Theresa Rebeck, Brad Fraser, Daniel MacIvor, and Michael Hollinger. Currently, he is developing a multi-artist adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Gilgamesh Variations, which will premiere in 2010. Awards and recongitions include the Theatre Project Honor for Outstanding Vision, Maxim Mazumdar New Play Award, Spyglass Award, Southern Young Playwrights Award, and Washington Commission for the Arts and Humanities New Arts Leader. As a playwright, his seventeen plays have been seen in dozens of productions in the U.S. and in Vienna, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires.
Gabriel's poetry has appeared in From Now On, Chopin With Cherries, Spark, The Wild Goose Poetry Review, Ya'Sou and elsewhere. His first collection, GlitterDirt, will be published in 2010. His photographic portfolio can be seen online at GlitterLens (http://glitterlens.blogspot.com).
Gabriel received his undergraduate degree from Georgia State University and his M.F.A. from Towson University. He is the Executive Director of The Drama League, one of the nation's oldest and most renowned arts advocacy organizations. He lives in New York City with his partner of eighteen years, Dennis.
