Mark Valdez is an artist, cultural organizer, and consultant.
Mark partners with communities, organizations, civic institutions, and others, using theater and creative tools to address community needs and to lift up community voices and stories.
Roe.
Boda de Luna Nueva.
You Can't Take It With You: An American-Muslim Remix.
Chato's Kitchen.
Flor.
DJ Latindad's Latino Dance Party.
With a career spanning 20+ years, Mark has created a wide range of work and has been recognized with a 2021 Zelda Fichandler Award and an inaugural 2021 California Arts Council Legacy Artist Fellowship.
Mark began his practice as the Associate Artistic Director for Cornerstone Theater Company.
Among his projects with Cornerstone, Mark directed the first-ever approved adaptation of the Kaufman and Hart comedy classic, You Can't Take It With You (adapted to the American-Muslim community in the wake of 9/11); Boda de Luna Nueva, adapted from Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding and created with the residents of the rural Central California towns of Westley, Grayson, and Vernalis (total population 800); and Order My Steps, a collaboration with African American churches and clergy focusing on the issue of HIV/AIDS within the African American community.
Image: Boda de Luna Nueva.
Flor.
Order My Steps.
Mary Shelley's Santa Claus.
From 2007-2014,
Valdez was the Executive Director of the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET), a national community of artists and organizations committed to collaborative creation. In addition to establishing new funding programs for artists, such as NET Travel and Exchange Network (NET/TEN) aimed to encourage collaborations and build community between artists, Mark launched the MicroFest USA initiative, hyper-local events that explore the value and impact of the arts and artists to communities.
Image: Honolulu Microfest.
Mark is often asked to consult and partner
with a variety of institutions interested in engagement and creative community development. He has most recently worked with clients and organizations that include Americans for the Arts, Center for Performance and Civic Practice, Opera America, EMC Arts, LISC, Cuyahoga County Arts Council, Tucson Pima Arts Council, Los Angeles' Music Center, the Irvine Foundation, Community Engagement and the Arts (CEC), NRDC's Urban Solutions, Arizona State University, and various others.
Image: Honolulu Microfest.
DJ Latindad's Latin Dance Party.
Like Sheep to Water
NOLA Microfest.
Image: Order My Steps.
As Artist-in-Residence at Mixed Blood,
Mark advised on events such as a quarterly "Hip Hop Open-Mic Night," a baby rave (dance parties for toddlers and their parents), weekly Youth Leadership Initiative, and weekly remote control car racing in nearby vacant lots. As part of this work, Mark has developed a "Good Neighbor Framework" to articulate and assess the company's work and intentions with the community. Additionally, Mark has helped design and implement Project 154, a collaboration with local health providers to use story and personal narrative as a means to improve health outcomes and patient advocacy in Cedar Riverside.
Image: Mixed Blood Theatre Community Event.
Through Woodruff Arts Fellowship,
Valdez worked with the Alliance Theatre to create a community-based production along a 10-mile stretch of the Buford Highway, home to one of Atlanta's largest immigrant and new American communities. This is also the neighborhood with the nation's second highest rate for immigration raids and deportations. Created from community stories, the play examined the toll that current immigration policies take on families in this community.
Image: Topia.
Mark has led a wide range of workshops and participated in numerous panels.
Mark received the 2019 Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities. He was a finalist for a USArtist Award and the Alan Schneider Director Award. Mark received a Princess Grace Award for Directing and for Special Projects, three MAP grants, and a NALAC Artist Grant. Mark's projects have been supported by ArtPlace America, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, the Wallace Fund, APAP, the Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, the Irvine Foundation, and various other private and public funders.
Photography by Rich Ryan, Craig Schwartz, and Mark Turek