Octavio Solis

Author of over 20 plays, Octavio Solis is considered by many to be one of the most prominent Latino playwrights in America. Born in El Paso, Texas, Solis studied and began his professional career in Dallas before relocating to California and eventually… Oregon.  PCPA produced Solis’ Mother Road in the early spring of 2022.  The play had significant resonance and impact on audiences and our community.  So, we are thrilled to be workshopping his newest play Oregon Gothic.

With works that both draw on and transcend the Mexican-American experience, he is a writer and director whose style defies formula, examining the darkness, magic, and humor of humanity with brutal honesty and characteristic intensity. His plays, Mother Road, Quixote Nuevo, Hole in the Sky, Alicia’s Miracle, Se Llama Cristina, John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven, Ghosts of the River, Quixote, Lydia, June in a Box, Lethe, Marfa Lights, Gibraltar, The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy, The 7 Visions of Encarnación, Bethlehem, Dreamlandia, El Otro, Man of the Flesh, Prospect, El Paso Blue, Santos & Santos,and La Posada Mágica have been mounted at the California Shakespeare Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Yale Repertory Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Theater Center, the Magic Theatre, Intersection for the Arts, South Coast Repertory Theatre, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, the San Jose Repertory Theatre, Shadowlight Productions, the Venture Theatre in Philadelphia, Latino Chicago Theatre Company, Boston Court and Kitchen Dog Theatre, the New York Summer Play Festival, Teatro Vista in Chicago, El Teatro Campesino, the Undermain Theatre in Dallas, Thick Description, Campo Santo, the Imua Theatre Company in New York, Cornerstone Theatre, and the Pacific Conservatory Theatre - PCPA. Solis was also the “cultural consultant” on the Disney Film Coco, for which voices an Arrival Agent in the film and its spinoff short. 

Solis is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and grants for his work, including being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in drama.  His new book Retablos: Stories From A Life Lived Along The Border, is published by City Lights Books.  Octavio Solis’ imaginative and ever-evolving work continues to cross cultural and aesthetic boundaries, solidifying him as one of the great playwrights of our time.