The Lab Community

Sebastián Torres is an actor, writer, producer, and director born in Caracas, Venezuela. He is the son of forced migration and welcoming arms in a land that he now calls home. He studied performing arts with the internationally acclaimed Elia K. Schneider at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theater in L.A. and in 2007 co-founded Grupo Teatral Emergente de Caracas, devoted to social and political productions. The company earned acclaim in Caracas, but due to the precarious living conditions in Venezuela, Sebastián and his theater group were exiled to Mexico. This move gave his devotion to social topics a new focus: speaking up about the Venezuelan diaspora, the largest in the American continent. In Mexico, he produced and performed the leading role in “Hamlet in Caracas,” about a young actor forced to leave his country. His latest production “Emigrants,” by Slawomir Mrozek, won second place at the International Latino Festival in Chicago 2021 and is sponsored by the Polish Embassy in Mexico and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He has learned from experience that giving a little can be so much to others. He has seen it when a person leaves the theater knowing that they are not alone, that someone else is going through the same thing they are living. He plans to tour “Emigrants” to countries hosting Venezuelan refugees.