José Cruz González's plays include If by Chance, (South Coast Repertory commission), The Extraordinary ZLuna Captures the World (Denver Center Theatre Company commission), Under a Baseball Sky (The Old Globe commission), American Mariachi (Arizona Theatre Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, The Goodman Theatre, The Old Globe), Sunsets & Margaritas (Denver Center Theatre Company, Theatre Works), September Shoes (Geva Theatre), The San Patricios (PCPA), Among the Darkest Shadows (Wharton Center for Performing Arts), The Sun Serpent (Childsplay).

Mr. González was selected as one of the inaugural 2022 Kennedy Center’s Next 50, a new initiative celebrating cultural leadership with 50 trailblazing leaders and organizations. Mr. González was also a grantee of the 2021 ReImagine: New Plays in TYA, a joint effort of the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, The Kennedy Center, TYA/USA and Write Now to support in part the development of Pia’s Wondrous Adventures in Tlaxlandia. 

He has written for PAZ, the Emmy Award nominated television series produced by Discovery Kids for The Learning Channel. The Astronaut Farmworker (La Jolla Playhouse) was a 2016 PEN Center USA Literary Award Finalist. A collection of his plays, Nine Plays by José Cruz González Magical Realism & Mature Themes in Theatre for Young Audiences was published by the University of Texas Press.

He is a Professor Emeritus at California State University Los Angeles, a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Dramatists Guild of America, TYA/USA, and a board member of the New Harmony Project, dedicated to a desire to support stories of hope, optimism, and the resiliency of the human spirit.