Beginning his career path into the doors of theater, Richard Martinez got back into theater production that once struck his attention in the days of High school.

Receiving an Associates Degree for childhood education at Cerritos College, and working in the field as pre-school teacher and administrator for seven years, Martinez decided to come back to Cerritos to complete his unfulfilled dream as a director.

Ten years passing after he experienced his love for theater, Martinez enrolled back into Cerritos College when he realized that theater was his main passion in life. Two and half years from enrolling, Martinez is now directing his own play that is to be performed this semester.

Auditioning for the “one acts” at Cerritos College, Martinez has been apart of theater as an actor who decided to finally break out of his shell and asked his advisors if he could take the lead and direct.

“For a while I have been wanting to direct and right now it just happened that the timing was perfect.” Martinez said.

Selecting submissions that student play-writers applied to, only less than few were chosen by faculty advisors. Amazed by one of the stories, Martinez chose the play with the essence of how he related to the characters.

A play called, Parallel Lines, written by speech major, Francesca Bacaltos, wrote the story about the coming of age between a traditional muslim family, who’s main character, Layla, has to overcome the obstacles of arranged marriage and self-realization.

“I definitely related to the story in terms of it being about self-acceptance and self-identification and I think anyone can relate to that.” Martinez said about how the play stood out to him.

The transition from actor to director is a new set of leadership adoptions that Martinez has said that he’s getting used to, but according to his cast member, actor Adan Gonzalez, undecided major, thinks his method of directing the cast, has improved the production of how the play has been coming along.

“He’s very detailed oriented, he knows what he wants and sees things that we don’t, which is doing a very good job at directing us.” Gonzalez said of Martinez’s directing skills.

Preparing and conducting the direction of the play has allowed for Martinez to new horizons of coordinating shows. Attending Cerritos College created friendships for Martinez that formed from the theater department into an outside theater company, New Strand Assemble.

Working with Martinez as a cast member, Enzo Conepa, sociology major, sees how his directing methods of developing the play before acting out the scenes are the main tactics to understand how to act out the character’s persona to become realistic.

“We sit down and talk about the play before we read our lines “He gets to the point and tells you in what he believes in how things will flow better. He lets us say what we think and then he gives his suggestion in how he thinks it should go.”

The play is to be performed live in the first weekend of December, when Martinez will get to watch how the show will turn out from his experience as being the director.