Rafael Lopez-Barrantes, performer, voice teacher and co-founder of Archipelago Theatre France as well as Archipelago Theatre USA, has been acting, directing and teaching with the Roy Hart Theatre in France since 1974. His research in Traditional Japanese Performing Arts and Flamenco singing has extensively shaped his approach to voice, body and performance training. He was the Voice Chair at the National School of Puppetry Arts in France (1984-1992). His teaching includes Japan, Mexico and Europe, notably the Riksteater of Norway and the French National Conservatories of Dramatic Art. For fifteen years he held a position at the Theatre Studies Department of Duke University where he directed a number of performances for main stages (Kaspar, King Ubu, Blood Weddings, The Tempest, Don Juan, House of Desires, etc.).
Between 1992 and 2015, he was a faculty member at the American Dance Festival. He established Celebrations Inc. in 1996, a very successful business venture addressing design, theatrical, and production needs in the special events industry (for such notables as President Bill Clinton, Yo-Yo Ma, Luciano Pavarotti, Michael Jordan, etc.). He collaborated as Assistant Director for the Opera Company of North Carolina in 2003 and 2004. Between 2002 and 2007, he was officially appointed Honorary Consul of Spain in North Carolina. In May 2008 he directed Rameau's opera Platee for California Institute of the Arts. In the Summer of 2016, he taught and carried his research in Spain, Argentina, and Japan.
Since 2007 he has taught Voice as a full-time faculty member in the CalArts School of Theater, serving as Associate Director of Performance from 2008-2016. In 2018 he conceived House of Voices, a CalArts School of Theater initiative presenting and exploring different ancestral voice practices to create a dialogue between practitioners, students, faculty, artists, scholars, and scientists. In 2023 his book Voice Made Visible, Multi-Octave Voice Training and Techniques for Performers is being published by Routledge. The book represents the outcome and culmination of his pedagogic career: the Barrantes Voice System.