The Collective
Ludmila de Brito
Ludmila de Brito. Selected Directing Credits: Hedda Gabler (CSUSM), Motherloss (WNPF), The Rogue’s Trial, and The Promise (UCSD). She has developed new work at Berkley Rep, The Public, La Jolla Playhouse, Cygnet, Rattlestick and The Tank. Associate/ assistant directing credits: Dead Girls Quinceañera (Barrington Stage Theatre), Hello Dolly (Ogunquit), Primary Trust (Center Theatre Group), The Heart Sellers (South Coast Rep), The Janeiad (The Old Globe), The Siblings Play (Rattlestick) and The Village (The Tank). Ludy is a Lin-Manuel Miranda Family Fellowship, NTI and United World Colleges alum and Public Mischief Collective member. UCSD MFA. SDC associate.
Mylan Gray
Mylan Gray (they/he) is an Eagle Scout and Kansas State Debate champion turned playwright. He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he received the Kennell Jackson Jr. Award for his honors thesis. He has also received the Lorraine Hansberry Award from the Kennedy Center for his play Buried in Blood. Their work has been developed by the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Portland Center Stage, New Roots, Cygnet Theatre, Tank Theater, Workshop Theater, Kansas City Public Theater, Whim Theater Company, the Mid-America Theater Conference, Whitman College, Loyola Marymount College, and the Writing Downtown Residency in Las Vegas. Currently, he is under commission from La Jolla Playhouse for a play about AI companions, masculinity and intimacy. Most recently, Gray is joining us after his fellowship at Whitman College as Visiting Faculty in Theatre and Dance. His work draws on his deep reverence for Brazil and his penchant for spiritual journeying.
Stephanie Carrizales
Stephanie Diane Carrizales is a stage manager and arts administrator based in Southern California. Originally from Clovis, California, she earned a BA in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in Tech and Design from California State University, Fresno and an MFA in Stage Management from UC San Diego. Professional credits: Crime and Punishment and What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (The Old Globe) and Redwood (La Jolla Playhouse). Stephanie currently serves as Marketing and Program Coordinator for Palomar Performing Arts. She brings extensive experience in production management, stage management, and new work development to her practice.
Wesley Guimaraes
Wesley Guimarães is an actor, writer, director and teaching artist based in Los Angeles.He was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro until relocating to Italy at age 16 to attend a United World College. From there, he immigrated to the United States to study Theater & Dance at Amherst College. He holds an MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater.As an artist, he works from a deep sense of heritage and community to create work that uplifts his culture and celebrates his identity. He is a passionate collaborator whose work has been featured at the American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Rep, The Huntington Theater and film festivals in Los Angeles, New York and Brazil.The only child of a single mother who works in the cooking industry, Wesley is a competent sous-chef, a soccer fanatic, a lover of samba and Carnaval, and a disciple of Augusto Boal's teachings in The Theater of The Oppressed.
Luana Fontes
Luana Fontes is an actor, deviser, and educator, born and raised by the warm ocean waters of the Brazilian Northeast, and a founding member of both LUPA (Natal, Brazil) and the Public Mischief Collective (USA). She developed her craft while completing a law degree, blending the subversive, collaborative art of her country with techniques inspired by Augusto Boal. She was the first Brazilian accepted into The Old Globe MFA Acting program, where her research focused on the queer political experience and its collisions with traditional family structures. Her practice spans Commedia dell'Arte mask work, clown, costume design, and artistic makeup, alongside a background investigating Northeastern Brazilian identity through original texts staged with LUPA. She continues to split her creative life between Brazil and the US, moving fluidly between ensemble-devised work, classical repertoire, and original texts.
Cambria Herrera
Cambria Herrera (she/they) is a Xicanx theatre director, dramaturg, and educator based in San Diego, CA and Portland, OR. Inspired by the BIPOC elders that came before them, they use Xicanx theatre methods to empower young people in building empathy for themselves and the world around them. She is Program Coordinator for Latin American Studies at UCSD and has worked as adjunct faculty at various colleges including San Diego Mesa College and Fullerton College. At UCSD, she completed an MFA in directing and created The Stars Through the Smog Showcase for a collective of diverse students to incubate original works on themes of identity and reclamation. She has directed at various theatre companies including: Crave Theatre Company, Gather Repertory Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Beach Opera, and Portland Opera. Currently they are co-writing an immersive piece on immigration with collaborators in Munich, Germany for a forthcoming premier.
THE METHOD
Our mission is to create theatre born from community and for community—work that confronts the realities of our time while honoring the humanity, resilience, and stories of immigrants, children of immigrants, and allies. Through humor, satire, and shared experience, we highlight the absurdity of systems rooted in fear and hatred, using laughter as both medicine and resistance.
We believe in theatre as a space where people can feel seen, where hard truths are faced without dilution, and where comedy becomes a tool for survival. By holding up a funhouse mirror to society, we challenge power, provoke conversation, and ignite courage.
Our work embraces non-traditional creation and participation, fostering a safe space where artists can be bold, imperfect, and unapologetically strong. We transform streets into playgrounds, poke the bear when necessary, and speak truth to power—keeping theatre grounded in the community that inspires it.
Our collective and the work produced names that we live in a political climate that is simultaneously absurd, disappointing, and shocking, making it difficult to decide whether to react with humor or despair. We invite you to come laugh with us.