Performing Arts

FORT WORTH – Jaime Castañeda has been rehearsing Sonnets for an Old Century all over the country – in New York and Los Angeles and his apartment living room in Las Colinas. Given his schedule, he hasn't had a choice.

BEN FREDMAN/DMN

TCU grad Jaime Castañeda founded FireStarter Productions.

Mr. Castañeda won a best- director award from the Dallas Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum for this powerful José Rivera piece last season. A revised version begins the residency of the company he founded five years ago, FireStarter Productions, at Circle Theatre in downtown Fort Worth tonight.

Mr. Castañeda has had to fit his work on Sonnets between prestigious gigs assisting Atlantic Theater Company artistic director Neil Pepe on some major premieres – by Ethan Coen and Jez Butterworth in New York this winter and currently one by David Mamet in Los Angeles.

"I've been stacking up the frequent-flyer miles," the 27-year-old director says.

Somehow he'll find time to be in Fort Worth a lot this year, though. FireStarter will perform another show in Circle's basement digs this fall, and Mr. Castañeda will direct two or three of Circle's own season shows as well, beginning with Chesapeake in May and June.

"Obviously, this is a talent who is really busy," Circle executive director Rose Pearson says. "He loves Texas, so Circle is giving him a base so he can bring these things he's learning to our region. My main worry is that Texas doesn't lose him."

Sonnets is a series of monologues, so Mr. Castañeda has been able to rehearse individually with the performers in the show based in New York and with his older brother Jorge, a professional actor who lives in Los Angeles, while working in those other cities. Jorge Castañeda was in last year's version too, but he's taking on a different role this time around.

It was Jorge who got his brother interested in theater in the first place. The two grew up in a rough neighborhood on San Antonio's south side. Jaime, the youngest child, was the first member of the family born in the United States.

"Gangs were prevalent in the area," Jaime says. "Getting into theater in high school was a way out."

Jaime followed his brother to Texas Christian University on scholarship. He finished in 2003, and TCU gave him a base to found FireStarter that year. Three years later he became one of the few Dallas-area directors with a master's degree, earned from the University of Texas at Austin. He's also had prestigious professional learning opportunities such as the Directors Project of New York's Drama League, which also turned out the Dallas Theater Center's new artistic director, Kevin Moriarty, a decade ago.

"We all think he has a big future ahead of him," Drama League artistic director Roger Danforth says. "He's not a big-city boy. A lot of people think there's nobody outside of New York or California, and he's proof that's not true. You examine him and find there's a really great mind there."

Mr. Danforth says that the working relationship Mr. Castañeda has built with Atlantic Theater Company's Mr. Pepe is "what we work for. That's exactly what we want to happen."

But Mr. Castañeda claims he really learned how to direct when he managed a restaurant at San Antonio's Sea World while still in high school.

"I was 17 years old and in charge of a staff of 50," he says. "The parallels are actually astonishing. It has more to do with communicating and listening than anything else."

Mr. Castañeda has directed professionally in places as far flung as Juneau, Alaska; Cincinnati, Ohio; and San Diego, Calif.

"It's an anomaly that I can actually make a living at this at my age," Mr. Castañeda says.

He's also involved in writing projects such as a version of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding for a Chicago company and a screenplay with brother Jorge. Eventually he'd love to run a major theater somewhere, but he really wants to base himself out of the Dallas area.

"Literally I haven't had one day off in four months, but coming back home to Texas is always a nifty experience," he says. "Oh, the sky!"

For this young artist, the sky indeed seems the limit.PLAN YOUR LIFE Sonnets for an Old Century runs at 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday at Circle Theatre, 230 W. Fourth St., Fort Worth. $10 to $15. 817-877-3040, www.firestarter productions.org.