Michael Cavazos, Artistic Director
Michael Cavazos is a Queer Chicanx theatre maker and visual artist. A graduate of Emerson College, they studied with famed voice teacher Kristin Linklater. They completed their graduate degree in Media Studies at The New School. Before moving to Portland Oregon, they were a member of the sketch comedy troupe Gender Offenders and performed on many New York City stages, including the Beechman Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Culture Project, and P.S.122. They have been a company member with Hand2Mouth since 2020. Their collaborative digital project Distancias was featured in Hand2Mouth’s 2020-2021 season, in the 2021 Risk/Reward Festival of New Performances and in Latino Theater Co.’s RE:Encuentro 2021 Theater Festival. They have worked with Imago, Crave, Profile, Portland Center Stage and The Portland Revels.
Michael’s video work called de los cadáveres crecen flores/from the corpses flowers grow, was commissioned by Portland Playhouse for their production Joy (Comes) in the Mourning. Along with performing, writing, painting and video art, Michael directed Hand2Mouth’s Public Platform production Universo, Joaquin Lopez’s Voz Alta: Generaciones and Voz Alta: Ahí Vamos, and The Portland Revels production of Un Pajarito Canta. Michael was a co-creator of the immersive installation HOME/LAND created in collaboration with Hand2Mouth, Begat Theatre and WaxFactory in 2022. They directed the subsequent remounts of the show in (2023, 2024, and 2026). Michael also directed Hand2Mouth’s Memento Mori and BANNED and serves as the festival director for 24H2M, a 24-hour devising festival, and The New2You Festival of New Works.
During their Centro Cultural 2022 Artist Residency, they began writing a new play, Terco Corazon, which explores media representation, racism, homophobia and class in the mid-90s. They also completed a residency in France in 2023, supporting Begat Theater in a new version of HOME/LAND. A teaching artist, Michael has taught in Egypt, Serbia and the Dominican Republic. Their visual art was selected as part of Portland’s Regional Arts and Culture Council’s public art collection: “Capturing the Moment.” Michael is one of five Oregon performing artists to receive the 2021 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship for artists of outstanding talent, demonstrated ability and commitment to the creation of new work. In 2026 they participated in La MaMa Umbria’s Playwriting Workshop with Emily Mann in Spoleto, Italy.