Amanda Novoa is a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine in the drama department. Her focus on projects involving community-engaged theatre led her to be an assistant coordinating producer on South Coast Repertory’s Dialogues/Dialogos Project, involving the Latino/a community of Santa Ana and culminating in the production of The Long Road Today/El Largo Camino de Hoy. Currently, she is serving as engagement director and co-producer for UC Irvine’s community-engaged work, The Service Workers Project. In June, she will be directing a production for The Black Youth Stories Project, a community-engaged project connecting with black youth in America.

Brown Bag Theatre Company was founded in 2011 to support Latino students on the UC Irvine campus and to give them more of a presence/voice in the theatrical community. BBTC has produced three full productions, Loa to the Divine Narcissus, Lorca’s Yerma, and Contra La Corriente (Against the Current), a Community Engaged Project. As BBTC looks forward, its plan is to increase outreach to their local community at UC Irvine and in the Orange and LA area.  Their production for next spring will be a Chicano work with accompanying symposium engaging the student body and beyond.