Milta Ortiz

Milta Ortiz is a playwright from the Bay Area, who now calls Tucson home. She’s excited with StoryWorks and the Arizona Daily Star on a play about the Arizona foster care system, and with Pima Community College on a play about two sisters, one who happens to be a Dreamer.  Her play Judge Torres, recently opened to a sold out run at Milagro Theater and will tour College, University and high school campuses across the country. She received a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) New Works grant and a National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) individual artist grant to develop and produce her play, Sanctuary, which premiered at Borderlands Theater with a sold out run in September 2018. An early draft of Sanctuary was written at a Djerassi artist residency. She devised, wrote, and directed Solving for X with The Working Classroom youth ensemble and professional actors in 2016-17, the play premiered in February 2017. Her play, Más was produced at Su Teatro in March 2017, and co-produced by Laney College in March 2016 and Ubuntu Theater Project in May 2016. Más premiered at Borderlands Theater with a sold out run in September 2015 thanks in part to an NEA New Works grant. Más was nominated for a Steinberg-ATCA Award, and an Arizona Daily Star best drama Mac award. Borderlands production of Más toured to Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University in 2016 and 2017. Más was produced at San Diego State University in November 2018.  Más was developed at Borderlands Theater through a National New Play Network residency and a NALAC individual artist grant. Más was selected to the Latino Theater Commons 2015 Carnaval play festival, and made the Kilroy List that year. Other produced plays include the 21st, 20th, 19th, 18th Annual A Tucson Pastorela, Sonoran Shadows, Disengaged, Fleeing Blue and solo play Scatter My Red Underwear. Milta worked extensively as a teaching artist and received individual artist grants to write, develop, and produce her solo work in the Bay Area. Milta teaches theater at Pima Community College. She earned an M.F.A. from Northwestern University’s Writing for the Screen and Stage program, and a Creative Writing B.A. from San Francisco State University. She is associate artistic director at Borderlands Theater and mom to a creative Kindergartener.