Ralph de la Portilla is a native Miamian and alumni of the New World School of the Arts where he studied Music & Theatre. He has appeared on various stages throughout South Florida since 1990 and has traveled abroad and participated in several international theatre festivals throughout Latin America & Spain.
Aside from his experience in the Theatre, Ralph had the privilege of Co-Creating Fuacata!, arguably the coolest weekly party in Miami's relatively-recent history, headlined by Latin Grammy nominated artists, The Spam Allstars, back in 2001-2003 at Cafe Hoy Como Ayer on Little Havana's Calle Ocho!
Formerly as an Executive Board Member of 'Camposition' (www.Camposition.org), Ralph was the proud creator of the "One One One" event celebrating Miami's 111th Birthday last Summer (check out the YouTube vid below on this page...)... "One One Two" was bigger and better than the previous year's party, receiving an official Salute from Miami City Hall's own Joe Sanchez and it received tremendous reviews!
Now, as an Advisory Board Member and Performer for Camposition INC, he served as an Independent Consultant for the Target Globalbeat events last season at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County (formerly Carnival Center), was involved with the "305 LIVE!" outreach program there and was doing Front of House Management with the gang at the famous SpiegelTent (www.SpiegelWorld.com) at Collins Park in Miami Beach!
Ralph was the official Ambassador (Production Manager, etc.) of Natasha Tsakos' "Up Wake" (www.UpWake.com), which enjoyed a succesful, multi-city tour of Mexico in late 2007 with the show and is looking forward to future presentations elsewhere.
In early 2007, de la Portilla established a Helpline for a major 12-Step Fellowship with 35 wonderful numbskulls to look over in the Miami Beach area (Totally Volunteer Work) and is the Chairperson for that organization to this day.
Aside from the aforementioned projects, Ralph was a Teaching Artist for Arts For Learning Miami for the last four years, sharing his past and present experiences in the arts for after-school programs in the Drama component. He specialized in training MDCPS Middle Schoolers in transforming regular spaces in their schools into performance-viable, black box studio theatres and showcasing the work they've done throughout the school year in culminating events.
Ralph returned to the Stage as an actor where he was featured in the role of 'The Militant' in Michael Yawney's new comedy about Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade of the late 1970's, "1,000 Homosexuals", which opened at the Arsht Center on November 20th (2008)to rave reviews. The play will run again for a week at Miami Beach's Colony Theatre in late FEB (2009).
Mr de la Portilla was just appointed to a two-year term with the United States Census Bureau as Partnership Specialist in December of 2008 and works seasonally for a company known as Destination Florida as a Miami Tour Guide for cruise ship passengers arriving in the Magic City.
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