RobertoVarea’s research and creative work addresses live performance as means ofresistance and peacebuilding, in the context of social conflict and stateviolence. The focus of his creative work has centered on the development anddirection of stage projects with marginalized and vulnerable communities inCalifornia. Varea is the founding artistic director of Riot Act Theater, with inner-city Latino youth, Soapstone TheatreCompany, a collective of male ex-offendersand women survivors of violent crime, and currently, El Teatro Jornalero!, a performance company that brings the voice of LatinAmerican immigrant workers to the stage. His directing credits inLatino/Chicano Theater also include premieres of works by Cherrie Moraga,Migdalia Cruz, and Jose Rivera, among others.

Vareais an associate editor of Peace Review,an international journal on Peace and Justice Studies published by RoutledgePress, and e-misférica, an onlinejournal published by the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, wherehe writes on the intersection of performance with issues related toimmigration, exile and displacement. His current work includes the finishingstages of the anthology Acting Together on the World Stage:Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict and the direction of the SanFrancisco-based Latin@ performance collective Secos& Mojados.

Vareais an Associate Professor of Theater, and Chair of the Performing Arts andSocial Justice Program at the University of San Francisco.