Rosalba Rolón

Rosalba Rolón (born 25 August 1951) is a Puerto Rican actress and director who is known for being the founder and current artistic director of the Pregones Theater Company, a Bronx-based touring company that focuses on Latinx stories.

Early life and education Rosalba Rolón was born in 1951, in Comerío, Puerto Rico, a small town neighboring San Juan.

Pregones Theater Company Pregones Theater Company is a Bronx-based touring company that focuses on expanding arts opportunities to Latinx theater artists.

History After their first small performance, Rolón invested in starting their own theater company. She, along with Luis Meléndez and David Crommett, began to work seriously to produce the play collection, or La Colleción, that they had created. They rehearsed wherever they could find space and performed all over New York and the surrounding states, including small towns and prisons. According to Rolón, they were in Philadelphia so much they received an award reserved for local artists.

The initial impetus behind the Pregones Theater Company was to create collective productions and bring them to people outside the mainstream theater community. To this end, they chose productions for their repertoire that would require minimal staging. As the company grew to include more actors and musicians, they decided they needed a more formal rehearsal space. By that time, they had been working with a number of Bronx organizations for more than a year, and when given the opportunity to use an office space there they jumped at the chance to settle down. During the 1990s, the company grew and began many outreach programs, including the Visiting Artists Series, the Pregones Summer Stage, and curriculum development sessions, as well as collaborations with other theaters throughout NYC and around the world. although their main focus is the Tri-State area, and they have nearly 70 premiers to their credit. The company has partnerships with many different theater companies, including the Roadside Theater in Kentucky, The Yuyachkani Collective in Peru, and the Worldwide Virtual Theater Carrousel cohort in Peru, Belgium, South Africa, and Slovakia, among others.

Merger with the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre In 2016, Pregones completed a merger with the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT) in order to expand the reach of both of their programming. The theaters now function as one institution, although they retain their previous names. Since the early 2000s, the two theaters have done many collaborations and co-productions, and Rolón worked extensively with the founder and director of PRTT, Miriam Colón. Elders Share The Arts (ESTA) New York Shakespeare's Festival Latino Teatrofestival 2008: El Diario La Prensa Outstanding Woman of the Year 2009: United States Artists (USA) board of directors 2011: APPLAUSE award, Bronx Council on the Arts 2018: Doris Duke Artist Award 2025: The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize