Lucía Castillo Selected for 2026 National Performing Arts Award in Theater

Veteran actress and theater teacher Lucía Castillo has been chosen for the 2026 National Performing Arts Award after more than seven decades in the field.

The Ministry of Culture has selected Lucía Castillo, an actress, reciter and theater teacher, to receive the 2026 National Performing Arts Award in the Theater category. The honor recognizes more than seven decades devoted to acting, teaching and training Dominican artists.

Castillo, born in Santo Domingo on December 13, 1928, graduated as a radio and theater actress in 1949 and as a recitation teacher from the National Conservatory of Music in 1952. She worked as a professor and director at the National School of Scenic Arts, of the Bellas Artes Schools, where she trained actors who now work in Dominican theater.

The selection was the result of deliberations by a jury made up of actresses Lidia Ariza and Karina Noble, actors Augusto Feria and Giovanni Jerez, critic José Rafael Sosa, filmmaker Guillermo Molina Mueses and José Emilio Bencosme, president of the Dominican Theater Workers' Union. Vice Minister Amaury Sánchez convened the jury but does not have a vote.

In 2017, the Ministry of Culture dedicated its fifth National Theater Festival to Castillo's career, alongside the late actor and director Niní Germán. That same year she was named one of the first women declared a Glory of National Theater.

According to the jurors, the recognition carries historic weight, honoring a woman who devoted her life both to artistic creation and to training those who will keep national theater alive.