Alison De La Cruz bio
Alison De La Cruz (she/he/they/siya/DeLa) is a senior artivist leader, facilitator, cultural organizer, multi-disciplinary theatre artist, educator, contemporary ritualist and elder. DeLa is a collaborative leader with over twenty years of arts and cultural production, relationship and programmatic development, budgeting, staff and project management experiences and skills. They have raised over $4.5 million throughout their career to capacitate artists, communities and the organizations that serve them. De La Cruz has collaborated with local artists and produced community events of all sizes, developing Los Angeles’ world class cultural ecosystem for over 25 years.
De La Cruz is the new Executive & Artistic Director of Great Leap, Inc. and is also spending time as a Community Self-Determination & Cultural Transformation facilitator working with the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena Waldorf School, and the cultural legacy organization Self Help Graphics & Arts. DeLa also serves as a Co-Project Lead for the Vallejo Arts Fund.
De La Cruz has over thirty years of experience facilitating circles and spaces for youth, strangers, neighbors, friends, colleagues, and collaborators to explore diverse communities and break down bias and systemic inequity. De La Cruz has devised trainings and national convenings for the Network of Ensemble Theaters, California State University Polytechnic, Pomona, Marlborough School, Thacher School, and Theatre Communications Group among others. De La Cruz has also been a featured speaker at national convenings for Art Change US: Arts Equity Summit, Grantmakers in the Arts, and the Weingart Foundation.
De La Cruz’s individual artistic work has been presented at venues across the country including the Smithsonian Institution, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Asian Arts Initiative, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Highways Performance Space, East West Players and the former Northwest Asian American Theatre. De La Cruz was the poet narrator for the documentary: Grassroots Rising Asian Immigrant Workers in Los Angeles (Visual Communications, 2005). Their work is included in Going Home to a Landscape: Writings by Filipinas (Calyx Press, 2003) and In Our Blood: Filipina/o American Poetry and Spoken Word in Los Angeles (LA Enkanto Collective, 2001).
De La Cruz served as Executive Producer of the LA premiere of the Broadway musical ALLEGIANCE (2018, EWP & JACCC) at the historic Aratani Theatre followed by the world premiere of TALES OF CLAMOR (2019, JACCC & NCRR) in the Aratani Theatre Black Box. De La Cruz was previously the Vice President of Programs at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center where they oversaw programming in Performing Arts, Culinary Arts, Visual & Cultural Arts, Community Engagement, and Neighborhood Placekeeping work with Sustainable Little Tokyo.
As a director and dramaturge, De La Cruz has worked with queer artists such as D’Lo; Nathan Ramos, Claudia Rodriguez; Butchlalis de Panochitlan; Cynthia Ling Lee of Post Natyam Collective; Nico Dacumos, and Ser among others. De La Cruz’s directing credits include the world premiere of Nathan Ramos’ AS WE BABBLE ON (2018, East West Players), Claudia Rodriguez’s MIDNIGHT STEEL (2016, Grand Performances / DCA); Post Natyam Collective’s SUPER RUWAXI (2014, Fury Factory), East West Players’ EVOKE FESTIVAL (2013 & 2012), TeAda Productions’ TEADAWORKS (2010 & 2008). In 2024 DeLa served as Adjunct Lecturer for the University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts where they directed the world premiere of the Marilyn Schotland’s SOMEWHERE SOMEONE IS TRAVELING FURIOUSLY TOWARDS YOU.
De La Cruz has led at the intersections of dramaturgy, adaptation, youth development, generative processes, community organizing, dialogue, workforce investment and playwrighting on over 10 Youth Arts productions by Shakespeare Center Los Angeles, About Productions and East West Players.
During the pandemic, De La Cruz started to nurture joy with other Women of Color and created Trek Table, a podcast & webshow centering the perspectives and insights of BIWOC Star Trek fans, unpacking social justice, community-building and our own expressions of BIWOC Trekkie-ness.