ABOUT CHRISTIAN D. HENRRIQUEZ

ABOUT ME:

My name is Christian D. Henrriquez. Most of my friends and family know me as Chris or Chrisito. I'm a lighting designer and stage manager from Costa Mesa, California. I am a proud, queer Salvadoran American and have a passion for telling stories of marginalized QTBIPOC communities. Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of record-keeping and ways to pass traditions over time. While I am a first-generation born in the US, my family has used storytelling as a way to keep our culture alive and passed down through our family. I hope to use theatre as a vehicle to tell the stories of the vibrant cultures in Latin America and beyond. 

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I am currently based in the Washington DC area and an MFA Design candidate at the University of Maryland. My research interests include Latin-American influence on popular culture in the US, magical realism, Latin-American performance practices, and decolonization of the American theatre process.

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AESTHETIC AND WORK:

When thinking about my design aesthetic, the two words that come to mind are color and texture. Although very simple, these two words hold the most weight in my designs. In my Latin American community, the food, music, clothing, people, stories, and everything about us is colorful. Life is lived in a spectrum of vivid color. This influences my aesthetic immensely. Likewise with texture. Like a painter, a lighting designer paints with brush strokes. Every light beam, regardless of if it is lighting an actor’s face or a windowpane, is a brush stroke. The character of those brush strokes and the way they hit the surfaces on stage work together to create a picture. These aspects find their way into my work through immersive art. In addition to theatre, I have a background in theme parks and events which have influenced the way I imagine a theatrical production. To reach my design goals, I try to keep a human-focused approach when I work; people come first. I believe that a working environment should excite folks to be in the room. At the end of the day, we are creating art and telling people’s stories. It is exciting.

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AFFILIATIONS: 

In 2020, I co-founded Wayward Voices, an initiative of The Wayward Artist to amplify, uplift, and empower BIPOC artists. The initiative manifested as a virtual four-show season, a new play workshop, and a collaboration with California State University Fullerton’s Theatre Artists Union for Student Equity and Diversity. Wayward Voices is currently in its third season of production.

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Company member at In The Margin, service-minded, community-oriented art and advocacy organization comprised of multifaceted, intersectional creatives and community organizers from around the country.