Michael Torres, Actor (Joe)

Michael is a founding member of Campo Santo where he has acted for eighteen years, originating roles for the country’s greatest writers including Richard Montoya, Christopher Chen, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Dave Eggers, Jessica Hagedorn, Denis Johnson, Jose Rivera, Greg Sarris, and Octavio Solis. Michael received Back Stage West and San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Outstanding Performance awards, and eleven Best Ensemble awards in his twenty seven year old career. Michael has played at Shotgun Theater, The San Francisco Playhouse, Word for Word, Thick Description, Encore, Berkeley Repertory, B St Theater, Teatro Campesino, California Shakespeare Festival, The Eureka, The Magic, Teatro De La Esperanza, and in France, Spain, and Germany and throughout the United States via a couple of tour gigs. Michael directed Donald Lacy’s hit show Colorstruck, whose national tour included the Congressional Black Caucus and National Black Theater Festival. He is on the board of directors for The Shotgun Players and the up and coming Ubuntu Theatre Project. Recently, Michael recreated the role of Crow for the movie The Other Barrio co-written and starring Richard Montoya (in post production). Presently, you can see him as Po in the film About Cherry written and directed by Stephen Elliot and starring James Franco. Michael was also the deputy coroner on the T.V series Trauma. Torres is Chair and Director of Laney College’s Theater Department where he founded The Fusion Theatre Project. He holds a BA from SF State University and MFA from UC San Diego.