Pedro Adorno Irizarry

Founder and Artistic Director of Agua, Sol y Sereno (ASYS), Pedro Adorno Irizarry is a film and theater director, actor, visual artist and arts manager based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He began his career in the 1980s with the group Los Teatreros Ambulantes de Cayey (The Traveling Theater-makers of Cayey), directed by Rosa Luisa Márquez and Antonio Martorell. In 1989 he relocated to Nicaragua to work with the cultural group MECATE and offer theater workshops in rural communities. Later he moved to Vermont where he worked for three years with Bread and Puppet Theatre. Back in Puerto Rico in 1993, he founded Agua, Sol y Sereno together with Cathy Vigo, where he engages with art through the creation of masks, sculptures and visual arts. Adorno has directed ASYS repertoire works, including “Una de cal y una de arena.” He has also directed educational workshops and artistic residencies at the national and international level, and has participated in theater festivals in Europe, Latin America and the United States.

In 2004, together with Emilio Rodríguez, he wrote and directed the feature film “El Clown,” which won two awards for directorial début at the Chicago Latino Film Festival 2007. As a visual artist he has created exhibitions and participated in artistic residencies. He has received various prizes for his cultural work. Adorno completed his Master’s in Art Education from Goddard College in Vermont and Seattle. Apart from holding his position as artistic director of Agua, Sol y Sereno, he works as a professor in the Master of Arts Management program at Puerto Rico University, Recinto de Río Piedras.

To reaffirm our commitment to approach artistic creation from Puerto Rican knowledge, elevating our Afro-Caribbeanness and reconnecting to the ancestry of our earth. We are glad that through our work, our artists working in theater, carnaval and our musical tradition can receive this deserved recognition that our people have fought for while conserving their identity. I am grateful for this support of our artistic, cultural, and community operations with which we continue to investigate our work so that each story we tell becomes a place where we combine the celebration of what we are with a critical thinking that helps us to defend our cultural rights.