By: Lucia Perez, Artist & Philanthropist
Spanish-Peruvian actress and stage manager Isabel Criado on Shakespeare, New York theatre, versatility, and building a career beyond a single title
For Isabel Criado, theatre has never existed on only one side of the curtain.
A Spanish-Peruvian actress and stage manager based in New York, Criado has built a career that moves fluidly between performing and creating the conditions that make a performance possible. Onstage, she has taken on principal roles in Shakespeare productions in New York and internationally, including Viola in Twelfth Night with the Prague Shakespeare Company and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra. Behind the scenes, she has worked as a stage manager across Off-Broadway, experimental theatre, festivals, and new work.
Her identity as a Spanish-Peruvian artist has also become an important part of how she approaches storytelling. Moving between cultures, languages, and artistic traditions has given her a particular sensitivity to the ways stories can change depending on who is telling them, and who is listening.
That dual perspective has shaped the way she understands a career in live performance. For Criado, success isn’t simply about being talented enough to get onstage. It is about preparation, adaptability, relationships, resilience, and understanding that a sustainable artistic career is built over time.
We spoke with Criado about her journey, the realities of working in New York theatre, her relationship with Shakespeare, and what she has learned from experiencing live performance from both sides of the stage.
You work as both an actress and a stage manager. How did you come to have these two careers?
I think I’ve always been interested in the whole theatre machine, not just the part that happens under the spotlight. Acting is obviously the part that initially pulled me in. I love being able to disappear into a character and tell a story from inside someone else’s experience.
But something I also understood from the beginning was that in order to do something you love, you have to understand everything around it. Because of that, I’ve always been very curious to take any role around a production. After all, experience in something other than acting is never bad for an actor. And I ended up landing as a stage manager a lot of the time! It kind of just fell into my lap.
Still, I don’t really see acting and stage management as two completely separate careers. They’re different jobs, absolutely, but they come from the same love of theatre. One puts me in the story, and the other allows me to help hold the entire story together.
How has being a stage manager changed you as an actress?
It has made me much more aware of the fact that I am never performing alone.
As an actor, you can get very caught up in your character, your scene, your nerves, your lines, all the little things happening inside your own head. But stage management forces you to zoom out.
You start seeing the entire picture. You notice the person waiting for a costume change, the technician waiting for a cue, the designer watching something they’ve spent months creating, the director hoping a transition finally works the way they imagined it.
So now, when I’m acting, I think a lot more about the ensemble. And I also think it has made me less precious. Theatre is collaborative. Things will go wrong. You have to be able to adjust without completely falling apart because someone moved a chair six inches to the left.
I do still, sometimes, notice the chair, though.
And how has acting made you a better stage manager?
I know what it feels like to be the person standing in the middle of a rehearsal room thinking, “Am I doing this right?” I know what it feels like to get a note that you don’t immediately understand, to have a bad rehearsal, to be nervous before a performance, or to walk into a room where everyone seems to know each other except you. That experience stays with you.
As a stage manager, I like to create an environment where people can actually do their jobs without feeling like they’re constantly being judged. Where authority and kindness move hand in hand. I would much rather be the person people know they can come to when something is wrong than one they don’t want to talk to. It also just makes my job as their stage manager so much easier!
At the end of the day, we’re all there because we care about the same show.
You have worked extensively with Shakespeare. What continues to draw you to classical theatre?
I love how alive Shakespeare feels. There is this tendency to think of Shakespeare as something very formal and untouchable, but the characters are actually a complete mess. They’re jealous. They’re horny. They’re ambitious. They’re ridiculous. They fall in love with the wrong people. They make terrible decisions and then spend an entire play dealing with the consequences. That feels really modern to me.
I also love that Shakespeare gives you room to bring your own perspective to the work. As a Spanish-Peruvian actress, I don’t come into a Shakespeare rehearsal as a blank canvas. I bring my own culture, my own languages, my own experiences, and my own understanding of family, love, power, and identity. I think that’s what keeps classical theatre alive. You don’t preserve it by keeping it frozen. You preserve it by continuing to ask new questions of it.
How does being a Spanish-Peruvian artist influence the stories you want to tell?
It probably influences me way more than I realize.
I grew up with both Spanish and Peruvian influences, and then moved to New York and entered this incredibly international artistic community. Being between cultures has made me very aware of how subjective storytelling is. A story that feels completely obvious to one person can feel totally different to someone else. So I’m constantly moving between different ways of seeing things.
I think that’s something I really value as an actress. I don’t want to erase those different parts of myself in order to fit into one idea of what an actress is supposed to look or sound like. I want them to inform the work I do. And I think audiences are hungry for that now. We want to see people who actually come from somewhere, who have specific experiences and perspectives.
What has working in New York taught you about building a theatre career?
That there is absolutely no straight line. New York is full of incredibly talented people, and that can be both inspiring and terrifying. You very quickly realize that being talented isn’t enough. Not because talent doesn’t matter, but because there are so many talented people. You have to learn how to collaborate, how to communicate, how to keep showing up, and how to create your own opportunities.
I’ve also learned that one job doesn’t necessarily lead directly to the next job. Sometimes you meet someone on a tiny production and three years later you’re working together again. Sometimes you do a reading that doesn’t seem particularly important at the time, and it introduces you to someone who becomes a huge part of your career.
You really never know. So I try to treat every room with respect, regardless of how big or small the production is. I’m still working on it every day, though. No one is perfect.
What role has versatility played in your career?
A huge one. I don’t think I’ve ever been particularly good at putting myself in one box..
I’m Spanish. I’m Peruvian. I can be an actress. I can be a stage manager. I can work on Shakespeare. I can work on something completely experimental. I can be in a rehearsal room developing new work. I can be backstage making sure everyone gets where they need to be. And I can also be a million other things outside my work! And, honestly, I like me this way.
Every job teaches me something that I can bring into another job. Being versatile doesn’t mean you aren’t serious about your craft. In fact, it probably helps the craft!
It ‘s not easy. Sometimes it’s very confusing. Sometimes I feel like I need to choose one specific thing. But I think I’ve come to understand that what is easier is not necessarily what is better. And I can’t make myself fit in a box if I know I won’t be comfortable in it, just because most people have told me I should be there.
What is something you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?
That you don’t have to have your entire career figured out.
I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to know what we’re doing next. Especially as an actor, you can feel like you’re constantly supposed to be moving toward something: the next role, the next audition, the next theatre, the next big opportunity. But our career isn’t built that way.
There are detours. SO many detours. There are strange little jobs that teach you something unexpectedly important. There are periods where nothing seems to be happening, and then suddenly everything happens at once.
I choose this for myself, and I have to keep choosing it. To trust the detours. Sometimes what looks like a distraction is actually teaching you something you will need later on.
What does success mean to you now?
I think success has become much more personal for me.
Of course I want to work. I want to play incredible roles. I want to work internationally. I want to continue growing as a stage manager and eventually create more of my own work. But I don’t think success is just about collecting credits, or working at the best theatres, or getting the most articles.
I want to be proud of my work. I want to collaborate with amazing people that I believe in. I want to tell stories that change minds, that excite people, that scare them a little. And I still want to be curious. I think I would take it as a much bigger failure if I ever stopped being curious.
What advice would you give to someone trying to build a career in theatre today?
Don’t wait for someone to give you permission. If you want to act, produce it yourself. If you want to write, get into some writing classes. If you want to direct, find something to direct. If you want to stage manage, get into a rehearsal room!
You don’t have to wait until someone decides you’re officially the thing you want to be.
And be kind. I know that sounds almost embarrassingly simple, but it matters. Theatre is a small world, and people remember who was generous, who was prepared, who showed up, and who made a difficult day a little easier. Life is already hard. Try not to make it harder for someone else.
