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Lisa Portes is a Cuban-American freelance director. She serves as the head of the Masters of Fine Arts directing at The Theatre School at DePaul University. Portes is active in her community as the as artistic director of DePaul's Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences. She is a committee member in a national organization called the Latina/o Theater Commons. Portes has directed numerous readings and workshops in different development programs such as the Sundance Summer Theatre Lab and Vineyard Arts Project. In 2016, she won the Zelda Fichandler Award, “which recognizes an outstanding director or choreographer who is transforming the regional arts landscape through singular creativity and artistry in the theatre”.

Early Life
Lisa Portes She is the daughter of a Cuban father and Nebraskan mother. Her father immigrated from Cuba to the United States when he was 15 years old. Portes parents met in Creighton University located in Omaha, Nebraska and later moved to Madison, Wisconsin to attend graduate school. According to Lisa Portes she was the “daughter of an Air Force brat and Cuban exile”. Lisa Portes was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Being the oldest of the family Lisa would often make a play and show it to her father, this is when she realized how creating a play would force her father to stop and watch. She would us her younger brother and sister as actors in her plays.

Education
BA (with Honors) Oberlin College; MFA in Directing, University of California - San Diego.

Career
Lisa Portes has worked at DePaul University since the year 2000.

Chicago Playworks
Her "Chicago Playworks credits include: Barrio Grrl: A Musical by Quiara AlegrÍa Hudes, Pinkalicious by Elizabeth and Victoria Kahn, Cinderella Eats Rice and Beans: A Salsa Musical by Karen ZacarÍas, and Highest Heaven by José Cruz Gonzalez. Other recent projects include Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West (TimeLine Theatre Company), Ghostwritten (Goodman Theatre), and After A Hundred Years (Guthrie Theatre) all by Naomi Iizuka; Night Over Erzinga (by Adriana Sevahn-Nichols), Ski Dubai by Laura Jacqmin and Spare Change by Mia McCullough (First Look Repertory of New Plays, Steppenwolf Theatre), Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue by Quiara AlegrÍa Hudes (Teatro Vista and Rivendell Theatre at Steppenwolf), Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons (Northlight Theatre), The Piano Teacher by Julia Cho, Far Away by Caryl Churchill and In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks (Next Theatre), Undone by Andrea Thome and Seven Spots on the Sun by Martin Zimmerman (Victory Gardens, Ignition Festival), El Grito del Bronx by Migdalia Cruz (Latino Theatre Festival, Goodman Theatre), Offspring of the Cold War by Carlos Murillo (Walkabout Theatre), and Wilder: An Erotic Chamber Musical by Erin Cressida Wilson, Jack Herrick and Mike Craver (Playwrights Horizons, NYC)"

This is Modern Art
The Play This is Modern Art was staged at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. The premise of the play deals with the struggle of graffiti crews, who view their work as art while others see it as vandalism. One night, one crew completes a huge piece which incite backlash from the community as opinions on the validity of graffiti as art are polarized. This play ran from February 25th to March 14, 2015. It sparked controversy in the Chicago area as it presented the graffiti crews in a positive light. One critic at the Chicago tribine mentions how "is a romantic ode to the art of graffiti and the act of tagging, a piece that demystifies authorial signatures and charts the storied history of graffiti art in Chicago, shouting out its great artists and their canvases, from Kennedy underpasses to CTA train yards... [but] Graffiti comes at a price. It can be invasive, self-important and disrespectful of the property of others — and plenty of struggling folks have had to clean graffiti off something they own or love"

Ghostwritten
Naomi Iizuka's Ghostwritten was directed by Lisa Portes in the Goodman Theatre in April 2009. The play references the war in Vietnam, creating a complex narrative on complicated dual identities of Vietnamese children, the imperialistic nature of the United States and the effects of the war, and invisible yet real geopolitical boundaries between countries.

Wilder: An Erotic Chamber Musical
Wilder: An Erotic Chamber Musical ran in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York City from October 14, 2003 – November 14, 2003. The musical looks to the past, focusing on a growing teen, who goes through puberty in a "depression-era bordello". The plot plays with Oedipal themes while the main character reminiscences on his childhood growing up in a brothel.

Personal Life
Lisa Portes is the oldest of three children. She has one younger brother and younger sister. Portes is married to playwright Carlos Murillo. They live in Chicago with their two children Eva Rose and Carlos Pablo.

Awards
Portes has won a Drama League and NEA/TCG Director's Fellowships, Fulbright/Hays Fellowship, and Illinois Theatre Association Outstanding Contribution Award. She has been awarded grants from DePaul University, University Researcher Grant; DePaul University Public Service Council Grant, (3) DePaul University Quality of Instruction Grants.

Lisa Portes received the 2016 Zelda Fichandler Award, winning $5,000 in grant money. The award is dedicated to "an outstanding director or choreographer who has transformed the regional arts landscape". Lisa is the first freelance director to receive this award.

Other Article Sections/Standards to Add

 * One of those side chart things that have basic info such as: birth, education, alma mater, occupation, years active (applicable?), family, awards, and website. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a good example.
 * Early Life
 * Career -> maybe split this into directing and also role as festival/community organizations?
 * Filmography tab too. Check against Thomas Kail
 * Should also have an awards/recognition tab

Information
2016 Zelda Fichandler Award to Lisa Portes. (http://www.americantheatre.org/2016/10/12/lisa-portes-receives-2016-zelda-fichandler-award/) (http://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/chicago-director-lisa-portes-to-receive-fichandler-award/)

Lisa has directed numerous readings and workshops in such development programs (https://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/players/lisa-portes/)