Alumni Awards: Paul Boylan Award
2023 Recipient
Héctor Flores Komatsu (BFA ’16, theatre: directing)
Héctor Flores Komatsu is an international theatre-maker, born in Mexico of Japanese descent, and an immigrant to the United States. He is the founder and artistic director of Makuyeika Creativo Teatral, which is dedicated to the narratives and theatricalities of indigenous people, founded after a year-long journey across Mexico as an inaugural recipient of the Julie Taymor World Theatre Fellowship. His original creations include Andares, Rematch (based on the Popol Vuh), Ix-kik: blood, moon, sister, and Canek. His work has been performed all over Mexico, in the United States (Chicago Shakes, the Public Theatre, Historic Asolo Theatre), China, Germany, Chile, and elsewhere.
Flores Komatsu has worked with Peter Brook as an apprentice in Battlefield, as an actor in The Valley of Astonishment, and as co-director of the Spanish-language premiere of The Suit. He was a recent fellow at the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics of Georgetown University, and he co-directed Stay in Mexico: 360° Migrant Opera in Tijuana. He recently returned to the University of Michigan to direct somebody’s children, by José Casas. He has trained with the Suzuki Company of Toga, Japan, interned with Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, and facilitated theatre workshops in Rio de Janeiro through UNIRIO’s Teatro na Prisão.
Past Recipients
2022
Ashley Jini Park
2021
Tara Sheena
2020
Nermis Meises
2019
Justin Benavidez
2018
Janai Brugger
2017
Jennifer Harge
2016
Mimi Tachouet
2015
StarKid
2014
Benj Pasek & Justin Paul
2013
Michael Wayne
2012
Nicholas Phan
2011
Carolyn Jantsch
2010
Scott Piper
2009
Benjamin Pierce
2008
Carey Bell
2007
Derek Bermel
2006
Aaron Dworkin
2005
Gavin Creel
2004
Howard Watkins
2003
Erin Dilly
2002
Timothy P. McAllister
2001
Anita Johnson
2000
David C. Daniels