Dianna Cortez (she/her) is an Interdisciplinary Performance Artist (Singer/Actor/Director), and Voice & Dialect Coach based in NYC. She creates interdisciplinary artworks within her company Lucada Mélange which combines her skills as an Actor, Opera Singer (mezzo soprano), and Butoh performing artist for social and environmental healing. Some of her inter-artworks include “A Safe House in Tenderloin” performed and sponsored by the Garment District Alliance, “Chroma” a performance art installation for “Ice on Fire” in Montpelier, VT, and the current development of “Les Berceaux and the Lighthouse” a 5 movement multidisciplinary experimental opera–Movement 1 “A Mental Health Crisis” was performed at UNFIX NYC. As an Actress, some roles include: “Beatrice” in Much Ado with Oxford Shakespeare Festival, “M” in Crave by Sarah Kane at Theatre on the Side, Gertrude in Hamlet scenes at Interplayers Theatre, “Mrs. Manningham” in Angel Street at Howmet Playhouse, as well as, “Therese Raquin” in Therese Raquin, and Jenny in The Cellar with City Attic Theatre.

She has coached actors On and Off Broadway and in Liverpool, including work at The New Group Theatre with Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, Marisa Tomei, and Vincent D’Onofrio. She worked with Sam Rockwell in the Broadway premiere of A Behanding in Spokane, and “Sex and the City” star, Kim Cattrall in the title role in Antony and Cleopatra directed by Janet Suzman at the Liverpool Playhouse in Liverpool, England, and is a coach for Shakespeare On The Sound (in CT). She’s worked with Solo Performance Artists: Susan Stein, Alana Ruban Free, and Yokko (International and National Award Winner). She currently teaches at Malloy University/Cap 21 (BFA Musical Theatre), Syracuse University/Tepper Program in NYC (B.F.A), Circle in the Square Theatre School (Chair of Voice, Diction, & Dialects), The Linklater Center for Voice and Language, and has a private studio.

Dianna was the Artistic Director of City Attic Theatre (2006-2010), and her most recent interdisciplinary works include “Dans L’Ombre: In the Shadows”, “A Fireside Celtic Christmas”, “Hymn to Life”, and (at performing at UNFIX NYC 2022 & 23) with “Mi Amor and the Queen Bee”, “A Riverside Tree”, “My Chamber”(Best Original Editing), “Plastic not Fantastic”(Best Comedy).

Her B.A. is in Acting and Opera from Central Michigan, MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University, opera lessons with Kate Johnson (2014-2020), and she is a Designated Linklater Teacher and a certified Louis Colaianni Speech and Phonetic Pillows practitioner.