Brian Fruits-Esparza holds an M.F.A. in Stage Direction from the University of Memphis and hails from Chicago. He also holds a B.A. in Secondary Education from Concordia University of Chicago in River Forest. Brian has directed several educational, community, regional, and professional productions throughout the country and is an Intimacy Consent-Forward certified director. While he was in graduate school, he received the prestigious 2012 Meritorious Teaching Award, given to one graduate student teacher a year, and the 2013 Creative Excellence Award, given to one student in the Fine Arts Department. He was the Ostrander Award Winner for Best Director at the University of Memphis for Wit and received a full scholarship for one year to study masks and physical Theatre in Europe with Donato Satori and Paola Coletto. He has taught and created drama classes for adults with special needs and disabilities at the L'Arche Community Center and West Suburban Special Recreation Association and served as an intern with the StillPoint Theatre Collective and Chicago Shakespeare. In 2014, he worked for B.B. King and helped mount the current show Beale Street Heat on a few of the major Holland America Cruise Lines. Brian is a proud member of the Illinois Theatre Association (ITA) and an associate member of the Stage Director & Choreographers Union (SDC). Most recently, he studied under Anne Bogart during The Beautiful Lady at La Mama in NY and directed an equity musical in Houston. Later this fall/winter, he will be directing Macbeth and Superior Donuts. Check out his Joseph Jefferson award-winning 501c3 theatre company, Saltbox Theatre Collective. He dedicates this show to Keegon, April, and Chewie.