Introducing the 2026 RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellow
Theatre Bay Area and the RHE Charitable Foundation announce Deanalís Arocho Resto as the 2026 RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellow. Resto will be introduced as the awardee on Monday, October 26, 2026, at Theatre Bay Area’s California Theatre Conference: Artistic Intelligence.
Resto, a proud queer Boricua theatre artist, singer, presence seeker, and nature lover, has been seen on stage across the Bay Area, including San Francisco Playhouse, Center REP, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Playhouse, American Conservatory Theater, Oakland Theater Project, Marin Shakespeare Company, and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor. Recent notable appearances include Cabaret at Oakland Theater Project and Co-Founders at American Conservatory Theater.
“I am deeply grateful to the RHE Charitable Foundation, TBA, and every single human in the Bay Area theatre community that has believed in me and co-created space where I can step onto the stage and into a story with my whole being.” says this year’s RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellow Deanalís Arocho Resto. “To everyone who has ever laughed with me, cried with me, listened to my whining, and held me down when I thought I might crumble, I love you and you are a part of me forever. There is no me without you.”
The RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellowship makes a significant investment in an individual artist that will allow them to take the next step in their career. Candidates for the RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellowship are female or nonbinary actors of color with exceptional promise nominated by a diverse panel of established theatre professionals.
The $10,000 Fellowship “provides a jet pack to the careers of our awardees,” says Jennifer Heyneman Sousae, Executive Director of RHE Charitable Foundation. “I follow our awardees’ careers for years afterwards. It’s deeply gratifying to see how much they’ve accomplished. Past awardees have appeared on Broadway and on LORT stages across the nation.”
“The RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellowship is where excellence meets opportunity,” adds Theatre Bay Area’s Executive Director, Sean Fenton. “This award celebrates extraordinary Bay Area talent and invests directly in promising artists whose work enriches our stages. We are so grateful to the RHE Charitable Foundation for their continued partnership in this program.
Notable past Artistic Fellows include Reggie D. White (2014), Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Chibueze Crouch (2019) who was a 2023-2024 Zellerbach Family Foundation Fellow.
About the Awardee
Deanalís Arocho Resto (they/he/she) is a proud queer Boricua theater artist, singer, presence seeker, nature lover, and nap enthusiast, born on/raised by Susquehannock lands in northeastern Turtle Island. Since first coming to Ohlone lands in 2022, he has worked with San Francisco Playhouse, Center REP, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Playhouse, American Conservatory Theater, Oakland Theater Project, Marin Shakespeare Company, and Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor.
The prayer in their heart right now: through presence, connection, shared joy, willingness to change and be changed, and some good naps, we can weave the art magic that inspires us to live into our liberation with vitality and create more possibility.
About the Award
The RHE Charitable Foundation is dedicated to edgy arts, human resilience, and the environment. It honors the legacy of generosity of its tireless volunteer founder, Richard H. Epstein.
More information about the RHE Charitable Foundation Artistic Fellowship can be found here: www.theatrebayarea.org/grants/rhe-artistic-fellowship/
Theatre Bay Area (TBA) is one of the largest regional performing arts service organizations in North America. TBA serves hundreds of theatre artists and companies across the greater San Francisco Bay Area, providing professional development resources and direct funding.
Theatre Bay Area is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to unite, strengthen, promote, and advance the theatre community in the San Francisco Bay Area, working on behalf of the conviction that the performing arts are an essential public good, critical to a healthy and truly democratic society, and invaluable as a source of personal enrichment and growth. Visit TheatreBayArea.org for more information
