Gregory Ramos
Department Chair
Theatre and Dance
About
Gregory Ramos studied and taught dance in Los Angeles before beginning his professional career. He has appeared on television and toured the United States and Europe as a performer in numerous shows, including the national tour of The King and I and national and European tours of West Side Story. He studied acting at Playwrights Horizons in New York and with Academy Award-winning actor Ellen Burstyn. He is certified in the Meisner Acting Technique through the TRUE Acting Institute.
Ramos completed his M.F.A. in playwriting at UCLA. He has performed his original solo plays Border Stories and When We Danced in venues across the country. His play A Visit from San Cristobal was part of the new play series at Company of Angels and was presented as a workshop at CV Rep. Several of his short plays have been performed at festivals around the country. His play Cuentos de Josefina (Josephine's Tales) is a bilingual play for young audiences.
Ramos has directed and choreographed plays and musicals at universities and at professional theatre companies around the country. Some of these include Ain't Misbehavin', Cabaret, Confessions of Women from East L.A., A Doll's House Part 2, The Exonerated, Evita, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar in Concert, Into the Woods, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Our Town, La Ronde, Marat/Sade, Mothers and Sons, Pippin, Real Women Have Curves, Spring Awakening, Stop Kiss, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Time Stands Still, and Urinetown.
While on faculty at the University of Texas at El Paso, he founded The Latino Guest Artists Program and the Border Public Theatre. Board memberships have included the Texas Commission for the Arts Performing Arts Panel; Las Americas, an immigrant advocacy organization on the U.S.–Mexico border; and VermontCARES, a statewide nonprofit organization with the mission of bettering the lives of Vermonters with HIV/AIDS. He served as board president for Vermont Shakespeare Festival and as national secretary for the American Theatre in Higher Education's Latino Focus Group. While on faculty at the University of Vermont, he directed the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Program and served as chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance.
Ramos's most recent play, Acts of Kindness, is inspired by interviews he conducted in El Paso, Texas, after a mass shooting at a local Walmart. The play has had readings at various national venues and was recently performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2025) with University of Redlands students, faculty, and staff.
Ramos is currently doing research for a future play about soldier shows in the South Pacific during World War II.
Education
- B.A., theatre arts, UCLA
- M.F.A., playwriting, UCLA
Professional Background
Professor Ramos worked as a professional performer before beginning his academic career. He continues to direct and perform at professional theatres when time allows. He has appeared on television and in U.S. tours, European tours, and at regional theaters. Some recent venues have included Vermont Stage, Saint Michael's Playhouse, and Company of Angels.
Academic Experience
- Assistant professor, University of Texas at El Paso
- Resident director and associate professor/professor, University of Vermont
- Guest instructor, The Stella Adler Conservatory Musical Theatre Intensive
Publications
- Ramos, Gregory. "Meisner Training in the Undergraduate Context." In Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner — Collisions and Convergence in Actor Training. Routledge Press, 2020.
- Ramos, Gregory. Cuentos de Josefina (Josephine's Tales). YouthPLAYS, 2016.
- Ramos, Gregory. "Interview with Andréa Burns." Café Onda, Howlround Theatre Commons, 2016.
- Ramos, Gregory. Theatre review, "El Año de Ricardo," El Foro de la Fabrica, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Latin American Theatre Review, spring 2015.
- Theatre reviewer, El Paso Times, 1999–2001.
Subject of Publications
- Martinez, A. "Interview: With Playwright Gregory Ramos." Texas Theatre Journal 10, no. 1 (2014).
- Lucas, Ashley. "Performing the Queer Frontera: Gregory Ramos' Play Border Stories." Revista de Literatura Mexicana Contemporanea 53 (April–June 2012): xxxv–xl.
Awards and Service
- LDBT Faculty Award, University of Vermont
- Numerous Faculty Research Support Awards
- KCACTF Region 1 Ensemble Award, Stop Kiss, University of Vermont
- Djerassi Artist in Residence Grant
Affiliations
- Actor's Equity Association
- Lincoln Center Director's Lab