This is Luis Alfaro reporting for duty as your Winter Writer-in-Residence at the Annenberg Beach House. Forgive my late entry into the blogging world, but I am a Facebook regular, so I am now moving operations over here for the next few weeks.
I am a playwright and a professor. This season I had an adaptation of one of my Greek plays (developed down the way at the Getty Villa!) Oedipus El Rey, produced off-Broadway at the storied Public Theatre. We sold out our entire run, extended three times and were a critics pick of The New York Times. It was a dream come true. At the same time, on this coast, I had another Greek adaptation (also developed at the Getty Villa) Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, run for six months at one of my artistic homes, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and it subsequently transferred over to Portland Center Stage. I am a tenured professor at the University of Southern California (USC) in the School of Dramatic Arts.
This semester I have been granted a wonderful creative leave to finish a bunch of new work and also to launch some productions around the country. So, you can imagine how lucky I am to have been selected for this distinguished honor from Santa Monica Cultural Affairs.
My time at the Beach House has already been jam packed and fun-filled with lots of really interesting people and events. Just last week we celebrated Marion Davies' birthday, and crowds showed up en masse dressed up in period outfits. It was the best. There was a live band, some Arthur Murray dancers from the studio in Santa Monica, along with some great exhibitions about the beach house history.
My office is upstairs in what is considered the only original remaining building, the Guest House. Built in the early 1920s by one of the few female architects of the time, Julia Morgan, my non-functioning restroom is a sight to behold. Tile work in light blues, greens and yellows, a nod to the sand and the sea.
To be honest, I was never one for nature.
I was born and raised in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, on a street corner known as Pico & Union. So, you can imagine that I am a city boy. My closest connection to nature was as a Boy Scout (Troop 321) based out of Immaculate Conception parish over by The Pantry Restaurant. We learned how to fish at MacArthur Park and Echo Park lakes. City workers would come by and dump a bunch of live fish every quarter. Nature! I learned how to endure nature on a weekend survival trip to Griffith Park, where I learned to suck water out of cactus, then dry it and turn it into a rope. The truth is, I always imagined that if I was being chased by a pack of coyote, I would just run to the Golden State Freeway at the edge of the park...
The harsher truth is that an aunt of mine drowned in a riptide at Santa Monica Beach when I was little and my immigrant family took this as a sign that the ocean was not our friend. I can remember a field trip to the Getty Villa from 10th Street Elementary off Olympic Boulevard and having to eat my lunch on a big yellow bus, while my classmates frolicked in the sand, because of our fear of the ocean.
I didn't see the ocean truly until well into my 20s.
Nowadays, I feel very connected to nature. I am in my fifth season as the Playwright-in-Residence at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which is located in the rural south end of the State of Oregon in Ashland. A town full of lakes, deer, some sweet bears and a whole lot of nature.
Listen, I won't bore you with my introductions here. But if you would like to know more about me or my work, I will be presenting tomorrow, Tuesday, January 23rd at 6:30 at the Beach House, about my plays and how I make art work around the country.
In the meantime, feel free to come visit.
I am trying to use my time during the week to do some serious writing, but I am always in the office on Saturdays from 10-2 and it is such a pleasure to meet folks and hear about where they come from.
We have such a rich and interesting history here at the edge of the ocean, on the Pacific Rim. I can't wait to celebrate that even more during my time here in Santa Monica at the Beach House.
I will share details about my upcoming projects in the next few days.
But for now, what a pleasure to meet you!
