Alexandra Meda Awarded the 2025 Diane Rodriguez Teatrista Award by The Latinx Theatre Commons

The Latinx Theatre Commons has awarded the 2025 Diane Rodriguez Teatrista Award to Alexandra Meda. “The Diane” is the LTC’s award dedicated to an individual working in the theatre field who is committed to increasing Latinx representation across disciplines. Named in honor of director, writer, performer, and advocate Diane Rodriguez, this award aims to support theatremakers in continuing her legacy. It also includes a $5,000 unrestricted award. Alexandra succeeds 2024 recipient Miranda Gonzalez, 2023 recipient Adriana Gaviria, and inaugural 2022 recipient Patricia Garza.

“This year we received our highest number of nominations for The Diane. Watching this award grow over the last four years is a testament to the impact Diane continues to have on our field. The Latinx Theatre Commons is proud to elevate Latinx theatremakers at a time when opportunities in our field are scarce. The process for nominating and selecting The Diane's recipient is rooted in community and generosity, a reminder that our field is in great hands among such talented individuals," said LTC Producer Jacqueline Flores. "The committee unanimously selected Alexandra based on her tremendous impact on a local and national level throughout her career. The LTC is thrilled to add Alexandra Meda to the recipients of The Diane Rodriguez Teatrista Award.”

The selection committee for this year’s award included previous Diane recipient Miranda Gonzalez; Diane’s husband, Jose Delgado; LTC Advisory Committee member, Gina Sandi Diaz; Dolores Chavez, and Debra Padilla.

“Diane believed a Latinx artist's versatility was vital to creating the greatest social impact. Her legacy reminds us that we are conduits for bridging differences and propelling forward movement when we put our creativity at the forefront. She was the bright spot in every room she entered, table she sat at, and process she collaborated on,” said Miranda Gonzalez, Selection Committee Member and 2024 The Diane Awardee. “This award amplifies those of us who are unafraid to embody radical care and rigorous artistry.  It illuminates the courageous souls who use imagination to disrupt and reconfigure frameworks that shape our collective practice.”

Alexandra Meda (she/Ella) is a nationally recognized cultural strategist, artistic director, and transformation architect working at the intersection of ensemble-based praxis, systemic change, and collective restoration. With a foundation in devised theater, stage direction, and an expansive practice that spans strategy, facilitation, and immersive experience design, she guides institutions through moments of reckoning, realignment, and radical reimagining.

Her approach is shaped by over two decades of experience in ensemble and collaborative creation. As Artistic Director of Studio Luna, a Latinx and Women of Color ensemble formerly known as Teatro Luna, she develops immersive, emotionally charged performances and new plays that center marginalized stories, provoke dialogue, and invite collective transformation. Her artistry, rooted in rigorous process and joy-infused collaboration, remains the blueprint for how she approaches systems change.

As founder of Culture Change Lab, Meda partners with organizations across sectors to build new systems rooted in justice, care, and creativity. From Sundance Institute, Harvard’s American Repertory Theater, and Yale University to The Walt Disney Company, New York Stage & Film, Center Theater Group, and A.R.T./New York, she has supported teams through courageous transitions; restructuring leadership, redesigning governance, repairing harm, and embedding equity into every layer of their work. Across every context, Meda holds complexity without collapse. Whether designing shared leadership structures, producing gatherings and festivals, facilitating and mediating change or harm reduction efforts, leading strategic planning, she helps move from fragmentation to coherence, with integrity and imagination.

She is a founding year artEquity facilitation training alum and recently co-produced their 10th anniversary Alumni National Gathering.  Meda also serves as the co-producing director for the Network of Ensemble Theaters, an Executive Committee member of Twenty43, and a former Impact Director at the National New Play Network. She works with Penumbra Theatre's Center for Racial Healing, served as an advisory member of the Theatre Communications Group's Accountability For Abundance National Initiative and TCG's Thrive re-granting program, and is a board member for the André Cailloux Center for Justice + Performing Arts, Theater Communications Group, and Michael’s Daughter Foundation. She was a steering committee member of the Latinx Theater Commons from 2014-2020. You can read more about her directing work at www.alexandradirects.com

Nominations for the 2026 LTC Diane Rodriguez Teatrista Award will open in Fall 2026. Applicants will be nominated by peers and colleagues throughout the field and recipients will be selected by an appointed committee.