Adrian Centeno (he/him) is a dramaturg and arts educator based in Los Angeles. He’s helped develop and support new works at South Coast Repertory, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, New York Stage & Film, Teatro Bravo, Childsplay Theatre Company, foolsFURY Theater Company, IAMA Theatre Company, and Playwrights’ Arena, among others.
A fierce advocate for new plays, Adrian has proudly served by invitation on new play development grant panels and festival selection committees for the National Endowment for the Arts, Page 73, Signature Theatre, The Public Theatre, The Playwrights’ Center, Athena Project, and the Latinx New Play Festival. He’s also a proud affiliate dramaturg with Beehive Dramaturgy Studio in New York City.
He holds a master’s degree from UC Santa Cruz and was recently honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award. He is the former literary manager of Playwrights Arena and Boston Court Pasadena. Adrian currently serves as Assistant Professor of Theatre at Cal State Long Beach, and as the artistic director of Seven Devils New Play Foundry.
UPCOMING PROJECTS
JUNE - 2025 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference in McCall, ID
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
An evolving list of things that guide my artistic and educational practice:
an attention to the text, and a commitment to questions that explore its many threads.
greeting the work with curiosity, gentleness, and grace, of which we’re all deserving.
a refusal to take myself seriously; humor as a tool, a weapon, a salve.
listening, genuinely, without judgment (when possible), and a desire to understand.
collaboration, communication, and care as guiding principles.
an interest in the strange, uneven; a resolve to never make beautiful things “perfect.”