The Theater Arts Program of the Department of Performance, Play & Design of UC Santa Cruz is producing famed playwright and citizen artist Luis Alfaro’s play: Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles.
From his home in Los Angeles, Alfaro, a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant and a revered maestro of modern Chicano theater, is reflective and buoyant when talking about his work.
“I think every play is a representation of its time. They’re living, breathing organisms,” Alfaro quips.
Alfaro started his community work in politics during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and found grassroots activism to be crucial and fulfilling. A celebrated poet and performance artist, Alfaro brings all of his colorful and heartbreaking world experiences to the stage.
Alfaro’s plays (which he refers to as Trigger Plays) have been called mesmerizing, gut-wrenching and timely. And, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles checks all the boxes. Mojada is a modern retelling of Euripides play, Medea. Alfaro’s version incorporates the grueling, spirit-crushing struggles of women and families who have immigrated to the United States and the choices and sacrifices that they must make.
Mojada is Alfaro’s third dip into the far past, where he continues to find deep inspiration in the plays of Ancient Greece.
“What I think is so fascinating about the Greeks, and why I fell into them is that, number one, they feel to me like they are asking you questions. Like big eternal questions. Why do we hurt? Why do we not forgive? Why are things still the same, right? The Greeks always ask you, they don’t tell you the answer. And the answer is meant to be wrestled with by the audience. And that’s where the Greek chorus comes in, right? So the chorus is really asking you those questions. The big questions of the day,” Alfaro says from his home in Los Angeles.
Like a member of his own Greek chorus, Alfaro isn’t afraid to ask himself, and us, the big questions. “How do we do theater in times of fascism? And one element that feels very important to me is that in Greek society, you have these Greek festivals that are attended by hundreds of people. Thousands of people. And you saw these plays which were written very quickly. A big part was that they weren’t there to forget. It wasn’t an entertainment. You went because you wanted to deal with what was going on. You wanted to talk about the current political situation. So somebody would write a play about it,” Alfaro says.
Playing the role of Tita is Kassandra Zarate. A 25-year-old UCSC student who was a third-year transfer from Gavilan College and who received her associate’s degree in theatre arts. Now on her way to a master’s degree, Zarate feels a deep connection with Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles.
“In my personal life experience, I come from a family of individuals that immigrated over here to this country,” the well-spoken and thoughtful Zarate explains.
“Seeing this story of what sacrifices you really make crossing over here, and what your intentions are when you come here, it solidifies the motive of somebody wanting a new and better life. And what they do to achieve that. But with this story, it’s Euripides. It’s a tragedy exploring the sacrifices and choices that are made for themselves and others. I can’t help but think back to my family and what sacrifices were made to get me to be able to get an education at an institute. Whereas my relatives didn’t even finish college. That’s the underlying connection to my life.
“But also playing Tita has been a learning experience for what we do for health and self-healing. She’s a curandera (a traditional folk healer). Tita focuses on remedies for self-healing instead of taking medication. Thinking about what we do to heal our soul, our mind, and body. So that’s been really, really interesting and nice to kind of learn and embody in this place,” Zarate says.
Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles opens on Friday, May 22, at 7:30 p.m. and runs through Sunday, May 31, at 2:00 p.m. at the UCSC Theater Arts Experimental Theater, 455 Kerr Rd, Santa Cruz. Tickets $0–20 on Eventbrite. For more information, go to events.ucsc.edu/series/mojada.
[1]I think we’re not supposed to use italics in display type, but single quotes
