#luis alfaro

[lauriemarch]

mojada by luis alfaro (a mexican retelling of days gone by)

[fuckyeahgreatplays]

Luis Alfaro didn’t expect to find the heroine of a Greek tragedy at a juvenile hall in Tucson, Ariz. As a traveling playwright teaching a workshop for teen felons in 1999, he met a promising student: a 13-year-old Mexican-American girl who, he learned, had killed her mother for putting out a hit on her father, a drug dealer. Fascinated by her story, he went to the theater that night and spotted a deal in the lobby bookshop: 10 Greek plays for $10. “The first play was ‘Electra,’ the story of a daughter who murders her mother for killing her father,” Mr. Alfaro recalled recently. “I went: ‘Oh my God! I have to adapt this play.’” “Electricidad: A Chicano Take on the Tragedy of ‘Electra’” updated Sophocles, beat for beat, to Mr. Alfaro’s native Los Angeles. The title character mourns her father, a slain kingpin, and plots revenge against her entrepreneurial mother, while a gossiping threesome of fatalistic “mujeres” serves as a Spanglish chorus.

Rewriting Greek Tragedies as Immigrant Stories

[public-digiturgy]

13 Artists On: Immigration

Art doesn’t just reflect the world — it engages with it, so T asked contemporary artists to make works responding to the subject.

Mojada

The challenges that Medea and her family face as undocumented immigrants in Mojada, are widespread in today’s immigrant community. In this article, 13 Artists share their work in response to the subject of immigration.

One of the artists, Patrick Martinez, writes that, “Empathy is necessary when dealing with issues surrounding immigration and the unfortunate types of circumstances that can force family members to leave their homeland. Immigration controversies often prevent us, as a nation, from examining uncomfortable social and cultural truths. Rather than using immigrants as scapegoats for issues related to crime or unemployment, we must call for social reform. “

[public-digiturgy]

A Look at Jackson Heights, Queens | Real Estate, Block by Block | The New York Times

The Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights combines ethnic diversity with private gardens and still-affordable apartments. Grab the embed code for this video...

Mojada

While New York City is considered the “melting pot” of the United States, Jackson Heights, Queens is the melting pot of New York City. There are 167 different languages spoken there! It also happens to be where Luis Alfaro’s Mojada takes place. The play illustrates what it means to be an immigrant in one of the most diverse places on earth.

[public-digiturgy]

When Luis Alfaro came to town recently, he got right down to his job as a playwright. Which for him meant getting out of the theater.

Oedipus El Rey

Playwright Luis Alfaro is describes as having “…an avid desire to make plain the relevance of the theater to the currents of everyday life, to show the uninitiated how even classical theater can be an exciting mirror.” His script for Oedipus El Rey asks many questions, not the least of which being, “What is the role of a playwright?” In this written portrait, Alfaro answers his own question in his words, his art, and his actions.

[shelley-sackett]

The Huntington’s ‘Oedipus el Rey’ Transposes Sophocles to The Barrio with Mixed Success

By Shelley A. Sackett Playwright Luis Alfaro has put lot on his plate. His Oedipus el Rey (2010) swirls together themes of contemporary social iniquity, anger, frustration, and political and social outrage with the classic myth of Sophocles’ mythic character, Oedipus. Throw in big ticket philosophical questions about divine fate, prophecy, religion, self-determination and thirst for messianic…

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[frontmezzjunkies]

Public Theater’s Mojada Caked in the American Dream

#frontmezzjunkies reviews: #MojadaPlay @PublicTheaterNY written by #LuisAlfaro directed by #ChayYew w/ #SabinaZunigaVarela #SocorroSantiago #AlexHernandez #VanessAspillaga #AdaMaris #BenjaminLuisMcCracken #OffBroadway #PublicTheaterNY

Benjamin Luis McCracken, Socorro Santiago, and Sabina Zúñiga Varela. Photo credit: Joan Marcus.

The Review: Public Theater’s Mojada By Ross Flying in on palm leaf wings dressed in angelic white, playwright Luís Alfaro (Oedipus El Rey) finds the ceremonial ritual in his leading lady’s desire to make her spiritual way home, even when home is something to run away from and someplace impossible to…

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[caroleditosti]

'Mojada' by Luis Alfaro at The Public, A Superb Update of 'Medea' via the Migrant Crisis

‘Mojada’ by Luis Alfaro at The Public, A Superb Update of ‘Medea’ via the Migrant Crisis

(L to R): Benjamin Luis McCracken, Socorro Santiago, Sabina Zúñiga Varela in ‘Mojada,’written by Luis Alfaro, directed by Chay Yew (Joan Marcus)

Luis Alfaro’s riveting update of the Greek Tragedy Medeaspun out against our current immigrant crisis is authentic, primal and timely with exceptional direction and evocation by Chay Yew. I saw it this weekend, one day prior to the Trump announced ICE…

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