Los Cuentos De Nuestra Gente
Festival
Meet The Team
From mentors to producers, to managers, to designers here are
the lovely people that turned this festival from an idea pitch into a reality.
Learn more about them, about their role in this festival, as well as their future endeavors below.
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producing team
producer & CO-Artistic director
Meghan Minguez-Marshall
Meghan is so beyond excited to finally share all of these stories with you! As the executive producer of the Festival and the director of Best Thing in The World, she has learned so much as an artist and theatre manager and had so much fun with her fellow producers, cast, and designers. Meghan is currently in her final year at UCI and hopes to continue making art as a high school English and theatre teacher. She would like to thank her badass team at BBTC, her Latinx community, family, friends, and lovely partner Jose for always supporting her on all her creative ventures.
creative producer & FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Elisa Alvarez
Elisa Alvarez (They/Them) is the Artistic Director of Los Cuentos de Nuestra Gente Festival and graduating from UCI with a B.A. in Drama this Spring 2021. Elisa is a proud member of Brown Bag and Brick Theatre Company, two of UCI’s student run theatre clubs where they’ve collaborated in bringing new works from the script to audiences for the past two years. When they aren’t doing something theatre related, Elisa can be found writing, wandering around in nature, or jamming out to a good playlist. They have been so honored to have worked with everyone who has helped bring this festival to reality and are excited to share these stories through this new medium.
production manager
Marta Mendoza
Marta Mendoza (She, Her, Hers) is the Project Manager for the Los Cuentos De Nuestra Gente Festival. Marta was raised in Southern California and received her B.A. in Drama from the University of California at Irvine in the Fall of 2020. During this unique time in history, Marta has remained involved in the theatrical community by working on various virtual productions such as East Side Story and Where There’s A Will There’s A Play. Marta would like to thank Brown Bag Theatre Company for the opportunity to further develop her leadership and career skills in arts administration.
associate production
manager
Vivian Juarez
Vivian is in her first quarter at UCI and she is grateful for all the wonderful opportunities she has been given with BBTC. While Production Managing BTITW, she was also the Assist. Production Manager for the festival. She is passionate about theatre and hopes to grow as a stage manager and theatrical creator. She recently transferred from RCC where she stage managed The Wolves and The Wiz with the RCC Summer Conservatory. She would like to thank her BTITW Team, BBTC Team, her mom, boyfriend, and Jesus Lopez for their support.
ARTISTIC producer, scenic DESIGNER & website designer
Jacqueline Gonzalez
Jacqueline Gonzalez (She, Her) is a set and lighting design student at UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts. During her time in undergrad, she's taken Graduate level design classes; assisted fantastic designers; and worked as the UCI Art galleries lighting assistant (pre-pandemic). Her ultimate goal is to become a Production Designer, Set decorator, and Lighting Designer for the entertainment world. She would like to thank Brown Bag for giving her her first Production design and Website design job.
Check out more of Jacqueline's projects on
or follow her on Instagram @jackeigh_
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Carina Negrete
Carina Negrete is a third-year Theatre and Sociology double major at the University of California Irvine. She has been a part of many areas of theatre, both onstage and offstage. Aside from being a part of the CNG Outreach Team, she is also the Development and Outreach Director for Brown Bag Theatre Company. Once she graduates, she hopes to pursue a career that is able to bring performing/fine art opportunities to low-income BIPOC communities.
festival COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Natalie Satarzadeh
Natalie Satarzadeh is a 4th year Drama Major and is so excited to perform again at UCI. She is thrilled to be part of Furlosophy, especially because audio plays are so unique. She is on the Creative Outreach team for this festival, as well as one of the fine artists. She loves creating new and impactful works, and cherishes the amazing relationships she has cultivated at UCI. This is her last quarter of undergraduate studies, and will be pursuing an MFA in theatre. She is grateful to the UCI family for all she has learned.
Check out Natalie's handcrafted jewelry at:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/nataliesiarajewelry?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
executive PRODUCER,
producing & artistic MENTOR
Jesús López Vargas
Jesús López Vargas (he,him) is a producer, director & manager for the performance & visual arts. He has written, directed & produced multiple bilingual theater & performance art productions, as well various short-films. Jesús has also worked freelance as a photographer, writer, and publicity artist for the past 10 years. He has collaborated with Brown Bag Theater Company for the past two years in various leadership roles and considers his time with this group to be the most fulfilling of his entire time at UCI.
To learn more about him, his artistic collective, and his various artistic projects you can visit jelopez-stage.com
executive PRODUCER & artistic mentor
Heather Lee Echeverria
Heather (she, her) is a first year MFA acting graduate student, who recently graduated from UCI's undergraduate drama program with Honors in Acting (2020). While an undergraduate student Heather has been an actor, producer, and director in various BBTC productions. She also served as BBTC's Artistic Director in her senior year. In addition to working in the theater, she is also a co-host of “The Roasting Booth” podcast. She has been a member of BBTC for 4 years and is excited to continue creating and supporting Latinx theater at UCI for another 3 years!
Graduate Editing
Mentor
Merle Dewitt
Merle Dewitt is a third-year MFA Lighting Design Candidate here at UCI. One of his many passions beyond his main focus of lighting design is digital media creation, and its implementation in theatre through projections. Since the onset of the COVID pandemic Merle has shifted his focus for the time being into video editing and VR media creation, with the hopes to be able to implement these new skills into his theatrical works in the future.
For more information about Merle and his upcoming projects visit his website www.merledewitt.com.
UNDERGraduate Editing Mentor
Lorenz Gido
Lorenz Gido is a third-year transfer student majoring in Drama. Beyond creating and consuming art, his hobbies include visiting theme parks, collecting and building LEGO models, and pretending to be funny. When asked to serve as an editing mentor for this festival, he jumped at the chance to participate in UCI productions for the first time. Though he is disappointed the pandemic has hijacked his first year at the school, Lorenz is immensely grateful to his professors, classmates, and collaborators at BBTC for welcoming him to the Anteater community with open (virtual) arms.
POSTER DESIGNER &
GRADUATE PRODUCTION
DESIGN MENTOR
Nita Mendoza
Nita Mendoza (Class of 2021) is a current MFA Lighting Design Graduate Candidate. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Technical Theatre with an emphasis in Lighting Design from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2018. Her most recent works include New Slate, Survival Project, and Physical Graffiti. She has assisted both Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz and Jaymi Lee Smith in multiple shows throughout the state of California. During her free time, she enjoys snacking on Hot Cheetos and gummy worms while cuddling with her cat and watching The Office.
producer and faculty mentor
Lonnie Alcaraz
Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz is a co-founding member of Brown Bag Theatre Company and is the Faculty Mentor. He has been involved with over two dozen productions with BBTC as a producer, director, or mentor. Lonnie is also the head of the lighting program in the Drama Department. Lonnie is a professional lighting designer and has designed at prominent regional theatres throughout the country such as The Oregon Shakespeare, South Coast Repertory, and The Great River Shakespeare Festival where he is the Resident Lighting Designer. A large part of his designing career has been for Latinx groups and productions, such as his 20 year relationship with Culture Clash. He is an Associate Artist with critically acclaimed Cornerstone Theater Company which has given him the opportunity to create site-specific lighting designs throughout California. He is a member of the United Scenic Artist /IATSE – Local 829.
For a complete portfolio visit