Stephanie Ybarra

Stephanie Ybarra is the former artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage. and a co-founder of the Artists' Anti-Racism Coalition, a grassroots effort to help the Off-Broadway community dismantle systems of exclusion and oppression. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Ybarra holds an undergraduate degree from Baylor University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She has worked in theaters of all sizes across the United States.

Early life and education Ybarra grew up in San Antonio Texas, and identifies as multi-ethnic. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in 1999. While at Baylor, she was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority and was a part of the Theatre Student Society. After two years at Citizen Schools, Ybarra began her master's degree at Yale. As Producing Director at The Playwrights Realm, Ybarra produced many early-career playwrights including Anna Ziegler, Jen Silverman, and Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco. where she began as an Artistic Associate in 2012. The Mobile Unit is the branch of the Public Theater that, based on the notion that "culture belongs to all," performs free Shakespeare plays across the five boroughs in prisons, homeless shelters, and community centers.

Baltimore Center Stage In 2018, Stephanie Ybarra was appointed as the artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage, in Baltimore, MD.

In 2020 she announced Center Stage's plan to address systemic issues in the theater industry with a series of commitments including adopting a limited rehearsal schedule (five days a week instead of six), prohibit very long rehearsal days, pay playwrights for time spent in rehearsal, and equalize pay between their small and large spaces.

In response to the pandemic, Ybarra helped organize a group of theaters to create, Play at Home, plays written to be performed by people at home. When it became clear that in person theater was cancelled she said, "it seemed important to not just share our content virtually, but to engage people in the act of making theater and participating in the art form in a different way”.

Teaching Stephanie Ybarra also teaches, the class she teaches at Juilliard is called Elements of Producing.

Producing style Ybarra is a self-described "creative producer." She seeks to find a delicate balance of creativity and business acumen, explaining that, in her opinion, producers ought to have a place in the room where creative processes and decisions are occurring. Ybarra views vulnerability as important to her work and says that her artistic superpower is "being able to speak fluently in both the artistic and business vocabularies, and using the art and the commerce to make both thrive." In 2017, with the Public's Mobile Unit, she brought a Cuban-inspired version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night to venues including New York City's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center and Rikers Island Correction Facility. Ybarra wants to encourage work that taps into our collective imagination.

Awards and recognition

Producers Chair Award – Foundry Theatre (2006) TCG's Continuing Education Grant (2015) Congressional Award for Achievement in Excellence - Zara Aina (2016) The Baltimore Sun's 25 Women to Watch Nation Builder Award - National Black Caucus of State Legislators (2018) YBCA 100 - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2019)