Ricardo A. Vila-Roger

Ricardo is a Pittsburgh-based actor, singer, director, & intimacy choreographer. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder where he studied acting, directing, and voice. While in CO, he worked as an actor, singer, director, scenic painter, and properties designer, and studied performance techniques under numerous teachers (including a week-long Shakespeare intensive with Martin Jenkins, the director of BBC Radio Drama, and a musical theatre audition intensive workshop with Ben Vereen). He received a Peak Area Performance Award (PAPA) nomination for best actor for playing Yvan in the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Repertory Theater Company’s production of Yasmina Reza’s Art. Since moving to Pittsburgh, he has appeared in the regional premieres of Fixing King John and Orange Flower Water as well as the world premiere of Oedipus and the Foul Mess in Thebes with No Name Players. Recent acting work includes the Pittsburgh premieres of Gloria for The Hatch Collective, Murder on the Orient Express and Indecent at the Pittsburgh Public Theater & Peribañez with Quantum Theatre. He directed the regional premiere of Dead Man’s Cell Phone — the inaugural production of Organic Theatre Pittsburgh (which was named best new theater company by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). He also directed Pittsburgh premieres of Quiara Algeria Hudes' Pulitzer Prize-winning play Water by the Spoonful and Kirsten Greenidge’s Baltimore at the University of Pittsburgh. Additionally, he has intimacy training with TIE and has been the intimacy director on several shows including Spring Awakening for the Marietta College Theater Department and 39 Steps here at Pitt Stages. He attended the ArtEquity national facilitator training in 2017 and continues his work with equitable practices and anti-racism in the theatre. Ricardo currently serves as the head of performance and teaches performance and directing in the Department of Theatre Arts