Conversations with Jaime Robledo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaime Robledo.

Hi Jaime, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Well, I suppose my story starts as most people’s do…as a wide eyed kid with dreams of Tinseltown in their eyes. But the thing was, I didn’t have the chiseled looks of a model, I wasn’t the son of an Academy Award winning director, and I didn’t go to a powerful Ivy league school with all the connections that come with it.

I was just some guy who knew a little bit about everything and had a deep huger to learn. In that vein, I tried a little of everything. I acted in commercials and low budget indie films, I did extra work, and consumed as much media as I could: Film, TV, reality, and yes, my first love…theater.

I found a creative home at Sacred Fools Theater that allowed me to experiment, to learn, to try and fail with artists of every level. And eventually I found out who I was creatively. I learned to write, direct, perform, and design for live audiences on a weekly basis with their late night shows Crime Scene and Serial Killers. I expanded upon what I learned and wrote my first play “Watson: The Last Great Tale of the Legendary Sherlock Holmes.” And since then I haven’t stopped working (well, COVID did put a damper on things for a while). Which brings me full circle to today, where I’m about to open the first show of Sacred Fools Theater’s 30th Anniversary season: Recent Alien Abductions by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas.

It’s a show near and dear to my heart; one that challenges me as an artist and delves into parts of my Puerto Rican heritage I never dealt with on stage before.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t think, even for the most charmed of careers, one’s road can be especially smooth. I’m a late bloomer. Always have been. I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted for myself creatively until I was 30. My mom was a postal worker and my dad was a fire fighter. They didn’t know anything about show business nor how to foster the creativity of a kid a little too advanced for his public school in the Bronx.

I moved out to LA as soon as I turned 21 with no plan, no money, and no connections. So of course, I got stuck in a survival job until I was able to work my way out of one. I was able to build up steam and kind of catch up. I built a reputation as a director in town and consulting for companies like Disney and Dreamworks. I even got a steady writing gig..,and then the whole world was confined to their living rooms.

My last pre-COVID job was as the head sketch writer for the Razzie Awards, which was set to broadcast globally. It was supposed to be it’s biggest production ever and 24 hours before we were supposed to air…the country locked down.

My art needed an audience and it wasn’t there. You could play sports in a bubble, but you couldn’t do theater in one. I actually watched a university in Texas perform a virtual reality production of one of my plays. I applauded the effort from my laptop but it wasnt the same.

During that time we had other upheavals. Theaters across the country shut down for good. Funding dried up. #METOO shook loose a lot of institutional rot. And unrealistic financial restraints were put on the theater community I called home with laws like AB5. Could I move? Sure. But things were tough all over. I’d just be choosing a different shit show to navigate.

If I was gonna make it anywhere, it would be where I already had all my stuff.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a director, writer, and designer living and working in Los Angeles who specializes in live theater. I suppose I’m best known as a two time Saturn Award nominee (and one time winner) for best local stage production. I’m also a writer for the Wondery network.

My theatrically creative stage work sets me apart from most of the directors in town. There is an expectation with my work, that you’ll see imaginative staging, design, and a strong ensemble. You’ll also get to live in a world you’ve never seen before on stage.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I really can’t quantify how much luck has to do with my career. There have been huge opportunities I never was able to capitalize due to sheer dumb luck. Like, for instance, I missed out on one of my shows going to Broadway because my producer got gravely ill and wasn’t able to continue with the production. And then three years later, a director had to drop from a huge production due to illness and I took their place.

In the end it evens out, you know? The coin will flip heads or it will flip tails. I know some wildly successful people, good friends of mine, close collaborator. Their coin flipped heads over and over and over for them. But it’s a gambler’s fallacy to think your proximity to their success means you’ll never succeed or, conversely, your success is around the corner.

You just have to keep flipping the coin for yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jrobledo.com
• Instagram: @Roblizzle

Image Credits
-Jessica Sherman Photograpy
-Jim Cox
-Mandi Moss Holmes
-Clarence Alford