Fall is only a month old, but UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) is already making waves. On Sept. 23, the nonprofit university will debut its latest venue, the Nimoy Theater, in the space that was formerly the Crest Theatre.
The gleaming 300-seat landmark was re-christened in memory of the late Leonard Nimoy; the “Star Trek” actor’s “Three Men and a Baby” premiered at the venue in 1987. In May, the university appointed Edgar Miramontes as the executive and artistic director of CAP UCLA, a position that includes overseeing programming at the Nimoy and its sibling venues, the Theatre at Ace Hotel and Royce Hall. The Mexican-born Miramontes is the first person of color to helm the program in its 87-year history.
Here, he reflects on artists’ ability to shape social progress from the stage.
What performance genres are you focusing on at CAP UCLA?
We start from the frameworks of dance, music, and theater. I am particularly interested in [performers] who are taking the form that they studied…and then moving in another direction. I’ve been working with a lot of artists who are rethinking the way that they make work, especially during and after the pandemic.
Such as?
I was fascinated by Zoe Scofield, a choreographer who moved into creating visual representations of the moving body on paper and recording them. She realized she could still communicate something really powerful in a moment where she was not able to be in front of other people. This was her way to continue to be a practicing artist while also expanding her practice.
We all moved into the digital space during COVID-19. I’ve been seeing a lot of work that is multimedia. I suspect that’s going to continue to be amplified, since performing arts makers have gotten so good at using video and other multimedia tools to give more breadth to what they’re trying to say to an audience.
Credit: Paul G. Ryan
U.S. artists have faced a variety of hardships in the aftermath of lockdown, particularly the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. How are you taking these factors into account in the early days of your new position?
It is managing an emotional roller coaster. I support the strike and artists being paid for their work, of course. I am often asking myself, What are the ways we’re going to come together and live a new reality? How do we hold multiple truths at once? The racial reckoning that we saw during 2020 continues, so I want to think through what that looks like for artists working in the field and asking questions that are pertinent to the changes, too. Where I come in is providing a platform for the shift that people are asking for, and also generating excitement around things that may be difficult subject matters.
There’s hope in the way in which a public university is actually sustaining—and hoping to sustain—culture in this difficult moment. I’m honored to be able to do that and listen to the difficult conversations, including, of course, the AI conversation that’s happening. AI is one of the most moral concerns that we’re going to have to deal with. I’m wondering how performing artists are going to lay the groundwork to investigate this new reality as a form of conversation.
How is UCLA facing the challenge of cultivating diversity in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action?
Leaders of color moving into positions like the one I’m holding now are being [appointed] during a very difficult recovery from such an awful time, between the lack of resources that are evident with funders not coming through as much as they have before [and] audiences not coming back. We’re inheriting things like subscription models in theaters that were once really fruitful but are now seeing some degree of collapse. There’s a responsibility and an opportunity for people in our roles to create new models that are sustainable and that engage everyone.
We have to move beyond representation that’s just about signaling some change. Leaders of color are running up against the social constraints that we’re in.
What values do you hope to encourage at the Nimoy?
I certainly want the Nimoy [to set] a tone of radical inclusion—through not only performing and viewership, but also engagement in the work. Engagement provides insights on perspectives that you may not have been aware of before. Those insights can [cause] people to act or think or research something that they might not have participated in otherwise.
To be an artist is to be a catalyst. I want theatergoers to have agency to see themselves as creatives within whatever project they’re viewing. It is a time of transition, [and that’s] the most ripe time for change. Change is possible, and it’s happening every day.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.