Ruben Sierra, Visionary Actor, Founded Seattle Group Theatre

Friends remember Ruben Sierra, the founder of Seattle Group Theatre, as a visionary actor, director and playwright, a leader in multicultural theater and a dedicated mentor to those who wanted to follow in his footsteps.

He died Thursday of pancreatic cancer at age 51.

"He was, from my point of view, one of the great Hispanic theater artists in this country," said Richard Toscan, former dean of Portland State University's arts program, where Mr. Sierra taught.

Toscan compared Mr. Sierra to Latino directors like Luis Valdez ("La Bamba"), "people who really made a mark in the field at a time when it was not easy to do."

When Mr. Sierra and others built Seattle Group Theatre in the late 1970s on blood donations and maxed-out credit cards, the only notable Hispanic theater in America was Teatro Campesino, Valdez's politically charged troupe in San Juan Batista, Calif. "The whole professional theater scene was pretty exclusively white," Toscan says.

Mr. Sierra was on the forefront of the color-blind casting movement, which became common practice for repertory theaters nationwide. By the late 1980s, when he left Seattle and the theater he founded for other opportunities, it was hard to find a repertory company that wasn't at least giving the approach some kind of lip service.

Mr. Sierra "wanted to try to find a way to use theater to bring folks together in some meaningful way," Toscan says.

Mr. Sierra's approach drew a widening range of audiences, and Toscan says that Seattle Group Theatre's eventual closure this year was a testimony to his success: His practices had become so common that its specialty was no longer needed.

His last play, "When The Blues Chase Up A Rabbit," premiered at Portland's Miracle Theater.

"He brought multicultural theater into people's awareness," says Angela Castaneda, a co-founder of Seattle's "Mira!" festival of Latino film, video and performance.

"He put his life into it and gave a long list of actors and actresses, and those who wanted to be, the chances to do that."

A native of San Antonio, Mr. Sierra also had a minor role in "Mi Familia," which starred Edward James Olmos. Olmos was among the 200 people who attended a tribute to Mr. Sierra at this year's Mira! festival at the King Cat Theater in September.

By then, Mr. Sierra knew he was dying, but that was not the reason Olmos had come to see his friend of 20 years. Instead, Olmos said he'd come because there is no more rarely exercised opportunity than to honor someone while they are still around.

"He did not look like the Ruben of old," says Roberto Maestas, director of Beacon Hill's El Centro de la Raza, a social-service agency.

Mr. Sierra, he says, had lost 30 percent or so of his body weight, made frail by his sickness. But his spirits remained high, buoyed by a broad palette of young actors and directors who told of Mr. Sierra's influence in their lives, as well as "his efforts to get the arts world to make room for some of the brilliant contributions of minority people," Maestas says.

It was young people who captured Mr. Sierra's heart. He led university workshops describing what it took to break into the acting, directing and playwriting fields as a person of color. He faithfully studied the careers of those who confessed their ambitions as youngsters.

His knack for mentoring made him a popular and well-loved professor at Portland State, where he also served as head of the Chicano/Latino studies program.

"I think he really excited his students," says Sandy McDermott, budget officer for PSU's fine and performing arts program. "He was like a Pied Piper to them."

Two days after a round of surgery, he was back in the classroom. He would continue to return until two weeks before his death.

As he played out the final, surreal scenes of his life at a Portland hospital, he was surrounded by his family and friends that included Olmos and Tex-Mex singer Tish Hinojosa - Olmos at his bedside, stroking his head, Hinojosa playing "Something in the Rain," Mr. Sierra's favorite of her compositions.

His friends remember him as upbeat and dynamic, sensitive and gentle, absent of ego.

"I think that's why people liked working with him so much," Toscan says. "He was always there for them and not for himself."

He is survived by his wife, Mary; a daughter, Mariel, and a son, Miguel; his brothers, Miguel and Arturo; his sisters, Mary Flores and Michele; and his mother, Elvira.

Services are scheduled for noon Friday at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Portland. A celebration-of-life service is set for 3 p.m. Friday in the Smith Memorial Center Ballroom at Portland State University.

Contributions can be made to the Ruben Sierra Benevolent Fund at any branch of Washington Mutual Bank.