Meet The Company
Area Stage prides itself on our committed, passionate and artistically driven team. Our team members uphold our mission through their work in productions, administration and education to foster a love of the arts and propel our organization forward.
giancarlo rodaz
Artistic Director
Giancarlo is a Miami native and grew up in the theatre, working in all areas of production. Directing credits: Alice in Wonderland, Ride, She Kills Monsters, Shrek the Musical, The Wizard of Oz, The Little Mermaid, Matilda the Musical, Annie, Be More Chill, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Lionel Bart's Oliver!, Lady Miasma. Playwright/directing credits: Peter x Wendy, Rise of the Titans (Arsht Center), Janis Matthews & The Dodo Scouts (Area Stage), The Lone Wolf of Honeysuckle Valley, Don’t Fear the Rain (MicroTheater), and Lady Miasma (Area Stage). His musical The Ballad of Janis Matthews and the Dodo Scouts, performed at The Mile Square Theatre (NJ). Giancarlo has won the Silver Palm Award for Outstanding Direction for Oliver! (2024), Be More Chill (2022) and Beauty and the Beast (2022), followed by two Carbonell Awards for Best Director and Best Production of a Musical for Beauty and the Beast. In 2019, he won a Silver Palm Award for his Outstanding Direction and Highly Theatrical Vision of She Kills Monsters and The Wizard of Oz. Giancarlo was nominated for a Carbonell in Best Lighting Design for The Nether.
John Rodaz
Founder, Producing Director
John has produced, directed, designed, and performed in over 350 productions in South Florida, becoming the first recipient of the South Florida Critics Association, Carbonell award nomination in all four major play categories: Production, Directing, Design, and Acting, and has received numerous awards. Regional, stock, and Off-Broadway credits include working with playwrights, directors, and actors such as Olympia Dukakis, Mac Wellma, Omar Shapli, and David Esbjornsen. John has also worked in the TV and film industries as a creative consultant. In 2011, he was honored by Major Don Slesnick and the City of Coral Gables with the designation of January 29th as “John Rodaz Day” for his cultural contributions. Training: NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Acting Conservatory; Etienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau, Paris; Desmond Jones, London. Christine Dolen, Theatre Critic for The Miami Herald, wrote: “The Director who set high standards in South Florida Theatre” and “Rodaz, one of South Florida’s best and most creative directors...” John was the first and only Artistic Director of Area Stage after founding the company in 1989, passing the torch to his son Giancarlo in 2023.
maria banda-rodaz
Executive Director
Maria was born and raised in Ecuador, and moved to NYC in 1980 to continue her performing arts training at Columbia University and Kean University. After a career in production in Ecuador, of the critically acclaimed Area Stage Company, where she worked with and later married, John Rodaz. Maria has also been involved with the TV and film industry, first as the Associate Producer of We Shoot ‘Em, later independently, working for companies such as Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony, 20th Century Fox, HBO, Disney, and NBC. This award-winning director graduated Summa Cum Laude from FIU’s School of Modern Languages and holds certificates in Nonprofit Management (UM) and Arts in Education (Kennedy Center). To date, Maria is the only Hispanic woman to receive the Carbonell Award in the Best Director and Best Production categories. Other awards include the 2013 New Times Best Director, the 2017 Woman of the Year in Public Service by the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce as well as the 2020 in the Company of Women Award from the Miami-Dade County Parks Foundation.
