“I’m drawn to the grandiose and the grotesque, the transcendent and the trashy. My aesthetic often pays homage to drag, club-kid, Queer, Black, Filipinx, and pop culture. ”
Born in Wiesbaden, Germany and raised all over the world, Raymond O. Caldwell (he/him/his) is an award-winning director, writer, and producer. Since 2025 he has been the Producing Artistic Director at The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Prior to this he spent six seasons as the Producing Artistic Director at Theater Alliance in Washington, DC. Before moving into artistic leadership, he was a faculty member and resident director in Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts, and served for six seasons as the Community Engagement Partnership Manager at Arena Stage. Committed to using theatre as a tool to transform communities, he has partnered and worked with artists, activists, non-profits and NGOs throughout the world, including leading the Kennedy Center Directing and Opera Intensives, and developing curriculum for BroadFutures to empower young neurodivergent people in the workplace. In October 2022—in partnership with the US Department of State—he lead an Arts Envoy of 23 artists and activists from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and the US. The ensemble developed a play (A GLOBAL I.D.E.A) that explored what Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility means on the global stage. He has done similar work throughout the US, India, Ukraine, Croatia, Tunisia, and Senegal. He is the recipient of two Helen Hayes Awards for his directing and writing, and received the 2023 SDCF Zelda Fichandler Award in recognition of his contributions to theater making in Washington, DC. When not making theater Raymond loves to garden and spend time with his large extended Filipinx family in Southern California.
MFA, Acting/New Play Development: The Ohio State University; BFA, Acting: University of Florida.
A word….
The American theatre is at an exciting and crucial moment. Playwrights, designers, directors, universities, and regional theaters are working together to redefine the theatre for the age we live in. These collaborations are making theatre accessible to communities that long have been disenfranchised and are giving voice to stories that have long woven the American tapestry, but who have gone unheard.
But these positive developments are taking place at the same time American theatre risks becoming ever more insular and disconnected from the lived realities of many people who have come to believe theatre is for other people, rich people, white people – them, not us. At a time when so many other institutions of public life have failed us, there remains a deep, spiritual hunger for meaning and connection. The theatre – one of the last public squares in America; a universal temple to ideas and ideals – is one of the few places where the mysteries of our lives and human existence can still be unearthed and the truth laid bare.
