Rosalba Rolón, founder of Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, was recently awarded the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for artistic and cultural achievement. Rolón is the first person of Puerto Rican descent to receive the honor in its 31-year history.
The Gish Prize was established through the legacy of stage and screen actor Lillian Gish and is valued at more than $250,000. It is awarded annually to “a highly accomplished figure from any discipline of the arts who has pushed the boundaries of an art form, excelled in their field, and served as a model and encouragement to the next generation,” according to a statement announcing the winner.
Rolón joins the distinguished company of past winners, including director/writer Ava DuVernay, soon-to-be New York Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and film director Spike Lee.
“In unanimously awarding the Prize to Rosalba Rolón, we celebrate not only her lifetime of artistic excellence, but also her profound contributions to an essential thread of the American cultural fabric,” said Juan José Escalante, chair of the Gish Prize selection committee and executive director of the Miami City Ballet.
In a Bronx Times interview, Rolón, who has lived in the borough for more than 30 years, said she comes from an “arts-oriented family” and has been active in music, dance and theater since childhood. Though she pursued social sciences in college, she “eventually just landed in theater professionally,” she said.
Rolón moved from Puerto Rico to New York in 1973 in a student exchange between CUNY and the University of Puerto Rico. In the city, she became active in dance and theater workshops and gradually committed to a career in the arts. Although a creative life is challenging, “I cannot get away from it anymore,” Rolón said she realized.
She gradually put together a small theater ensemble after working repeatedly with the same people, many of whom were fellow Puerto Rican transplants. Rolón became interested in expanding audiences’ worlds and bringing Latino theater to places that usually do not experience it.
“It was all about people wanting to come to New York and love New York, but what are we learning about where they come from? What are we learning about other parts of the world?” she said.
Accordingly, the group traveled frequently and deliberately avoided establishing a permanent space. They performed in urban and rural areas all over the country and the world, sometimes traveling to three states per week.
Later, they began working extensively in the Bronx and started to establish a more formal structure in the organization. Though still traveling often, they began rehearsing in a Bronx church gym and later built a theater there, which they shared with other organizations.
The group began to receive more critical acclaim and in 2005 established a 130-seat theater in the Bronx on Walton Ave., then merged with Manhattan’s PRTT in 2014.
Today, Pregones/PRTT performs musical and theater works in English and Spanish, including premieres, and partners extensively with other arts organizations. Since the group’s founding in 1979, they have visited 600 cities throughout 38 states and 18 countries.
Rolón said the news of receiving such a major honor as the Gish Prize — awarded last year to her friend Vicky Holt Takamine, a Hawaiian activist and hula teacher — was a complete surprise. “I said, ‘Oh my goodness, is this for real?’”
Although the prize is awarded to Rolón individually, not to Pregones/PRTT, she said the funding will help relieve financial pressure on the organization. Decades after establishing the theater company, she has now begun planning for the security for herself and other longstanding members of the organization, some of whom have been with her for 30 years.
“This [award] is coming at a time in my life when I am looking at my future and succession and new leadership, so this is something that will help my family secure that,” said Rolón. “Nobody can do this alone. I would not be here if I didn’t have the most amazing team in this world.”
The prize committee is planning a Nov. 18 celebration in Rolón’s honor. In other good news for Pregones/PRTT, Mayor Eric Adams just added the theater to the city’s Cultural Institutions Group, a 39-member public-private partnership aimed at providing long-term stability and recognition to culturally significant organizations.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
