Art & Life with Ricky Araiza

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ricky Araiza.

Ricky, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I always loved being creative and moving and dancing but I didn’t get into arts and theatre until I was in high school. I really wanted to be a special fix makeup artist but I soon realized how much I disliked working with makeup. The next best thing I had was theatre in high school. Once I started, I was hooked. I wanted to be a theatrical costume designer so I entered ASU’s Theatre program as a designer but soon was taken by acting. I decided to change my focus work towards becoming an actor professionally because I didn’t see many actors who looked like me on stage.
Soon after graduation I became an ensemble member with Childsplay Theatre in Tempe where I worked as a full-time actor and teaching artist for ten years. I eventually left AZ and attended Dell’Arte International in Blue lake, CA. There I immersed myself in more traditional, movement based, forms of theatre like commedia dell’arte, melodrama and clown. That program and community forever changed the way I would see my craft and art in general.

After receiving my certification in ensemble based physical theatre, I returned to AZ and worked as an actor and teaching artist. I was then asked to take over the position of artistic director of Teatro Bravo, a Latinx theatre company in Phoenix, which I still run today with small productions when funding allows. In 2014, I decided to return to school and get my masters in Theatre for Youth and Communities. I am currently a freelance director and actor in the valley, but I work full time job for ASU as the Senior Coordinator of the AZ Creative Communities Institute, a place-based creative program, in partnership with the AZ Commission on the Arts.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My art has evolved so much since I first became interested in wanting to have a career in it. Theatre, for me, has been the most obvious medium for me to work in. It is a place of story and sharing and listening. It is a place to allow empathy to flourish.

My work has always centered around my identity as a brown, queer man growing up in a society that was not meant for me. I can remember when I decided to be on stage as opposed to working solely behind the scenes was because I saw so little representation and I wanted to be that change. As I’ve moved forward through my career, the challenges change. It is no longer enough to be on the stage or screen if the shot callers in the room are all white. Now in my career, I want to be at the table. I want to be a decision maker of not only who is telling the stories but how they are crafted, but on stage and especially off. Who is not in the space and why?

I think my theatrical aesthetic is something that I am still crafting. I have always been fascinated with creating work that anyone can make. One show I did I called it “if Labrynth and Cirque de Soleil was done in my papa’s backyard.” I find interest in minimalistic, found object and object transformation work. I draw a lot of inspiration from Rasquache art. It is a term that is a Nahuatl word, that often is an attitude of art of the poor or impoverished. I tend to lean heavily into these types of concepts and flip it in a creative way for the stage.

How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
For me success is reaching one person. As lame as that sounds, if I can reach one person, that’s a change and I know I’m doing what I’m meant to do. I have been touched when folks have mentioned that seeing a show of mine made them want to see more work or taking my class makes them want to pursue theatre. All it takes is one person for change to happen.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Visit the Teatro Bravo website at www.teatrobravo.org. We are also on Facebook and Instagram. We update as the work is created.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.teatrobravo.org
• Instagram: teatrobravophx
• Facebook: TeatroBravoPHX

Image Credit:
Andres Alcala, Rebecca Hollingsworth, Luz Navarro.

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