In one season at OSF: Playwrights, American Night: the Ballad of Juan José (2010)

Richard Montoya and Culture Clash formed in 1984 with six members. In their early career, they performed sketch comedy with sharp political views through a Chicano lens. Three members left and the remaining three, Montoya, Herbert Siguenza and Ric Salinas, began to write more formal shows, including Bowl of Beings, The Mission (Los Angeles Theater Center) and The Birds, an adaptation of Aristophanes’ play (South Coast Repertory). They started performing site-specific work commissioned by cities, including Bordertown (San Diego), Nuyorican Stories (New York), Anthems (Washington, D. C.), The Mission Magic Mystery Tour (San Francisco), Chavez Ravine (Los Angeles) and Culture Clash in AmeriCCa (Boston). The collective created Zorro in Hell for Berkeley Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse and PEACE, directed by Bill Rauch, for the Getty Villa. Montoya is sole author of Water & Power and Palestine, New Mexico, commissioned by Center Theatre Group. He is a member of the Sundance Writers and Directors Labs and a staff writer on John Wells’ Southland. The collective will appear in the new Tom Hanks’ feature, Larry Crowne (Paramount). (See bios for Montoya and for Siguenza in “Acting Company.”)