About
El Chelito is the artistic name of Eric Swartz, a queer, Salvadoran-American theatermaker. Born and raised in Washington, DC, he is currently based in Los Angeles pursuing an MFA in Directing at UCLA’s School for Theater, Film, and Television.
He is a former Artistic Associate with GALA Hispanic and Associate Artistic Director at Theater Alliance in DC. Additional DMV area collaborators include The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 1st Stage, Extreme Lengths, Imagination Stage, Young Playwrights’, and Pointless Theatre Co., where he is a Company Member. From 2021-2023 he received an Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Adaptation in 2019. Beyond the DMV, he has worked with the Latino Theater Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, and serves on the Steering Committee of the Latinx Theatre Commons.
Recent projects include the World Premiere of The Grand Hotel Tartarus by Richard Danielpour (Asst. Director, UCLA Opera), The Guadalupes by Noah Diaz (Director, UCLA), Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks (Co-Adaptor, Theater Alliance/The Kennedy Center), and Príncipe y Príncipe (Director/Adaptor, GALA Hispanic).
UPCOMING: Co-Adaptation of Look Both Ways is on a National Tour January-May 2025; Director Frontieres sans Frontieres by Phillip Howze at UCLA May 22-24, 2025.
