Alexander Santiago-Jirau (he/him) is an educator, facilitator, and organizational strategist whose work has centered on theatre, education, and community engagement for more than two decades. He recently served as Executive Director of Opening Act, a nonprofit organization that used theatre to empower New York City public school students, and previously spent ten years as Director of Education and Community Engagement at New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW). At NYTW, he led a wide range of education and engagement initiatives, including the Mind the Gap (MTG) intergenerational theatre program, student matinees, in-school teaching artist residencies, after-school programs, masterclasses, administrative fellowships, and community-based programs.
Some of his favorite work has included developing educational materials and curating programming for the world premiere of David Bowie and Enda Walsh's Lazarus, directed by Ivo van Hove; the world premiere of Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin; Othello, directed by Sam Gold and featuring Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo; Heidi Shreck's What the Constitution Means to Me; Jeremy O. Harris's Slave Play; and the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. He facilitated Mind the Gap intergenerational devising intensives in London and Chile and created NYTW's Youth Artistic Instigators ensemble.
A Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) practitioner who studied and worked with Augusto Boal, Alex has facilitated workshops throughout his career, particularly with youth, educators, and immigrant communities. He is Past President of the Board of Directors of Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, Inc., a national organization devoted to the work of liberatory educators, activists, artists, and community organizers, and served as Vice Chair of the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable.
Alex has presented his work at numerous conferences, and his writing has appeared in American Theatre, The Indypendent, TYA Today, The Cross Border Project Blog, Come Closer: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of the Oppressed, The Routledge Companion to Theatre of the Oppressed, and Applied Theatre with Youth: Education, Engagement, Activism. He teaches Theatre of the Oppressed for the Department of Drama at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and in the Educational Theatre Program at NYU Steinhardt. He is also a graduate student in the Marriage and Family Therapy program at Iona University.
He holds a BS in Urban and Regional Studies from Cornell University and an MA in Educational Theatre from NYU Steinhardt.