Luis Alfaro is a Mexican-American playwright, writer, director, performance artist, and social activist. His works focus on the Chicano neighborhoods of Los Angeles and often deal with working-class themes and the LGBTQ community, including the AIDS epidemic in Latinx communities.
Oedipus El Rey, a modern Chicano retelling of Oedipus Rex, premiered at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco in 2010. It was produced at Dallas Theatre Center in 2014, San Diego Repertory Theatre in 2015, and premiered in New York at the Public Theatre's Shiva Theatre in 2017. His one-man show, St. Jude, details his complicated relationship with his father. It was produced at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, California in 2013, the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, in 2014, and as part of the "Up Close and Personal Series" at the Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago in 2017. Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, is another Chicano retelling of a classic Greek tragedy. It premiered at the Magic Theatre in 2012 under the title Bruja. Mojada was later produced at the Getty Villa in 2015 and at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2017. Other plays include: This Golden State Part One: Delano, Alleluia, The Road, Electricidad, Downtown, No Holds Barrio, Body of Faith, Straight as a Line, Bitter Homes and Gardens, Lady Bird, Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Piñata Woman and Other Superhero Girls, Like Me, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, and The Gardens of Aztlan.
Amongst other awards, Luis Alfaro was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Foundation Fellowship in 1997 and the National Hispanic Playwriting Competition Prize in 1998. He was named Playwright-in-Residence at Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 2013-2016, and again for 2016-2019.
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