Estela Garcia, Collaborating Teaching Artist, supports the physical theatre, movement, and visual arts components of TWP’s reentry programs.
A Los Angeles-born native, she is a performer, movement coach, deviser, community engagement specialist, mask maker, teacher, and tinkerer of materials. She received her MFA from Dell’Arte in ensemble-based physical theatre. In addition to being Movement faculty at CalArts, Garcia is a resident teaching artist for Center Theatre Group.
She has served as Puppetry Director for South Coast Rep’s The Long Road Today, and most recently, she was Movement Director for Born of Chaos for TheatreWorkers Project, a community-based play featuring formally incarcerated individuals in college. She collaborated as Movement Director and/or Assistant Director on numerous award-winning productions with Rogue Artists Ensemble. Additionally, Garcia worked alongside Kinan Valdez as AD on Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven, co-produced by Center Theatre Group and El Teatro Campesino.
She has been a guest artist at Cal State LA, The University of Irvine, Cal State Northridge, ELACC, and East LA Magnet, where she helped lead the creation of Ensemble Created Devised Work. Recently, she was a visiting faculty at her alma mater DAI School of Physical Theatre, where she taught a two-week Winter Intensive.
Garcia is best known for her portrayal of surrealist painter Remedios Varo in a play by the same name that she created, last presented at 2018’s [LAX] Performance Festival. She played Josefina in Mojada by Luis Alfaro for Center Theatre Group’s partnership for the Digital Stage. Her experimental short film TRYING can be found on The Music Center’s website as part of the For the Love of L.A. series.
Most recently, she co-devised and directed Hija de mi Madre (Daughter of my Mother), a short mask play for the Short+Sweet Hollywood Latinx Festival. It won Best of Fest, Best Writing, and Best Acting awards.
Other notable acting credits include Esperanza in House on Mango Street at Greenway Court Theatre, Mother in Mourning of All Our Sons at Theatre at the Museum by Moving Arts at LACMA, and 14 at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre at the University of Michigan.
In February 2023, Garcia was a featured artist on the panel: PUPPETS, MASKS & CRANKIES: Shifting the Story.
