José Cruz González's plays include Los Valientes, The Sun Serpent, Super Cow Girl and Mighty Miracle, Sunsets and Margaritas, Invierno, The Heart’s Desire, The Blue House, Tomás and the Library Lady, September Shoes,Harvest Moon, Salt & Pepper, Earth Songs, The Cloud Gatherer, Lily Plants A Garden, Old Jakes Skirts, Watermelon Kisses. His plays have been published by Dramatic Publishing, University of Texas Press, Smith and Kraus, Inc., Anchorage Press Plays, Inc., Playscripts, Inc., Lion and Seagoat Press, and Dutton Children’s Books. A collection of his plays, Nine Plays by José Cruz González Magical Realism & Mature Themes in Theatre for Young Audiences was published by the University of Texas Press in 2009.
Mr. González has written for PAZ, the Emmy Award nominated television series produced by Discovery Kids for The Learning Channel. Mr. González was a recipient of a 2004 TCG/Pew National Theatre Residency grant. In 1997 he was awarded a NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, and in 1985 received an NEA Directing Fellowship.
His professional directing credits include Native Voices at the Autry, South Coast Repertory, The Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Borderlands Theater, Coterie Theatre, A.S.K. Theatre Projects, and the Sundance Theatre Institute.
He has served as a literary and theatre consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts Playwrights Residency, The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Conference, The New TCG/Metropolitan Life Foundations, Lilia Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, The Gerbode Foundation, California Arts Council, Ohio Arts Council, and Wisconsin Arts Council.
Mr. González was awarded the 2012 Ann Shaw Fellowship by Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, 2010 Kennedy Center National Teaching Artist Grant, 2009 American Alliance for Theatre & Education Distinguished Book Award, and is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2001 he was a finalist for the USA West Literary Award for Drama. In 2006, Professor González was selected as an Outstanding Professor at California State University Los Angeles.
He earned an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of California, Irvine, M.A. in Theatre from Arizona State University, and B.A. in U.S. History/Chicano Studies from the University of California, San Diego.
He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America and TYA/USA. He is an Associate Artist with Cornerstone Theater Company (CA), and Playwright in Residence with Childsplay (AZ).
