BEATRICE CASAGRÁN

A theatrical educator, actor, director, and producer, Beatrice co-founded Ophelia’s Jump Productions in 2012 with a mission to produce works that invite questioning and spark discourse while providing meaningful opportunities to intersectionally underrepresented artists including womyn, Queer people, people of color, especially the very underrepresented community of Latinx artists and Artists who are neurodiverse. Since that time Ophelia’s Jump has grown from an itinerant company renting space at clubs, galleries, and other theaters to an established and critically acclaimed non-profit theatre company with its own intimate theater space in Upland.  Casagran has led Ophelia’s Jump in groundbreaking endeavors such as the launching of the annual Claremont Midsummer Shakespeare Festival, which takes place at the Sontag Greek Theater on the campus of Pomona College each July and includes both a process-based Shakespower Camp for young performers and a robust paid internship program.  Ophelia’s Jump was honored as the Claremont Non-Profit of the Year for 2016 for its work in the community including the Theatre for Good Program launched by Casagran to leverage the storytelling power of theatre in support of partner nonprofit organizations.  The Theatre for Good Program presents free staged readings and musical performances to raise awareness and funds for community organizations with social justice and community building missions.  In 2018 Casagran received recognition as a Woman of Distinction from Assemblymember Chris Holden for her work.

During the past 3 years, Beatrice has played a key role as an advocate for small nonprofit performing arts in California.  Casagran serves on the board of the Theatrical Producers of Southern California (“TPSCA”) and has helped lead the organization to expand its membership base and activities beyond Los Angeles County to all of Southern California.  Under Casagran’s co-leadership TPSCA entered into a historic collaboration with Actors’ Equity Association to co-sponsor SB1116.  Casagran advocated for and  helped draft the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund which was authored by Senator Anthony Portantino and signed into law by Governor Newsom in 2022.  Beatrice continues to work as part of the Catch Up California Coalition that is advocating to secure funding for the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund. They were among five key members of the coalition to who were recognized for their singular contributions receiving the 2022 Gordon Davidson Award for distinguished contribution to the LA theatrical community from the LA Drama Critics Circle and the Queen of the Angels Award from LA Stage Raw.