Welcome to Luis Alfaro, Writer-in-Residence

Welcome to Luis Alfaro, Writer-in-Residence!

Luis will be holding his first office hours on Saturday 1/13/18 from 11am-2pm, and thereafter every Saturday through March 10, 2018. Stop by to say hello!

While at the Beach House, he is working on a commission for Center Theatre Group: a contemporary adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle with an eye on the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. In addition, he is continuing work on The Golden State, a trilogy of plays commissioned by San Francisco’s Magic Theatre and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival whose first part, Delano, focused on a Pentecostal minister and his flock in the Central Valley birthplace of the United Farm Workers union. 

He is also presenting monthly public programs under the theme of “Things We Share” on Tuesdays at 6:30pm: 1/23/18, 2/20/18 and 3/6/18, more info here.

Luis Alfaro is a community-based writer known for his multi-faceted work in the American theatre along with his poetry, short stories and journalism. A Chicano born and raised in the Pico-Union district of downtown Los Angeles, Alfaro is the recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, popularly known as a “genius grant”, awarded to people who have demonstrated expertise and exceptional creativity in their respective fields. Alfaro has also recently been named as part of the inaugural cohort of Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellows.

The first playwright-in-residence in the eighty-year history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, his plays include Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Getty Villa, Victory Gardens Theatre-Chicago); Delano (Magic Theatre-San Francisco); St. Jude (CTG Kirk Douglas Theatre); Oedipus El Rey (Woolly Mammoth-Washington DC, Boston Court-Pasadena, San Diego Repertory, 18 productions, upcoming The Public Theatre-New York); Electricidad (Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre, 32 productions); down town (Institute of Contemporary Art, London; XTeresa Performance Space, Mexico City); Body of Faith (Cornerstone Theater Company); Straight as a Line (Primary Stages; Edinburgh Festival; Goodman Theatre; National Theatre of Romania); Black Butterfly (Smithsonian Museum, The Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum).

His literary work is featured in more than 25 anthologies, spoken word CD (down town) and a short film, Chicanismo. He teaches at the University of Southern California. More here.