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.