Yolanda Suarez has been performing in some capacity since she was 12 years old. Most recently, she took a position as Artistic Director of Longview Stageworks in Longview, Washington after graduating with her M.F.A. in Performance in August 2005. The year she worked there, she successfully produced Fully Committed, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Romeo and Juliet and Always, Pasty Cline. In May 2006, she decided to move to Portland, Oregon to pursue an acting career. She was immediately cast in a movement piece with Many Hats Collaboration called Rest Room and performed (in a rest room, no less) at the World Trade Center in Portland as part of the Portland Center Stage’s JAW/West Festival. After performing in Rest Room, Yolanda was cast in defunkt theatre’s Second Hand Smoke. Even before she could take a breather, she was cast in yet another Many Hats Collaboration production called Mutt by Lava Alapai, co-Artistic Director of Many Hats. Yolanda will be the puppeteer as Whoopi Goldberg for Mutt which opens November 2006. As a company member of Theatre Vertigo, she realizes she is going to lose a lot of sleep.
