"To succeed in life you need three things-
a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone."
-Reba McEntire
mojada:
A Medea in Los Angeles
WRITTEN by Luis Alfaro
Directed by CarlosAlexis Cruz
August 9-24, 2024
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m.
Performances will be held at
The Arts Factory at West End Studios
1545 W. Trade St
Single Tickets and Flex Passes Available Now!
Advance Purchase Online: $25 inclusive of all taxes and fees
Night of Show at the Door: $30 inclusive of all taxes and fees
Students and Educators: $15 inclusive of all taxes and fees
Discounted pricing available for groups of 10 or more, contact us at info@threebonetheatre.com to learn more
WINNER- Jefferson Award for Best New Play
WINNER- Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Adaptation
WINNER- Los Angeles Ovation Award
NOMINEE- 2020 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation
Medea and Jason have escaped the worst. After a harrowing journey across the Mexican–American border, the couple has made it safely to the States, where they can work toward a better life for their family. While Jason is convinced the future looks bright, Medea fears a darker fate as they face the challenges of living without documentation.
With poetry, humor, and heart, Mojada is a bold new telling of a story as old as tragedy itself. Blending Euripides’ classic with Mexican folklore, MacArthur Genius Award-winning playwright Luis Alfaro examines the tragedy behind America’s immigration system and the destiny of one family caught in its grip. A stirring drama about love, immigration, and sacrifice, Mojada combines ancient storytelling with the most pressing issues facing our country today, following a young Mexican mother who gives up everything to bring her son to America, only to find America demands even more.
Mojada is published as part of The Greek Trilogy of Luis Alfaro. Based on Sophocles' Electra and Oedipus, and Euripides' Medea, Alfaro's Electricidad, Oedipus El Rey, and Mojada platform the concerns of the Chicano and wider Latino communities in Los Angeles and New York through ancient drama.
True to the original Greek tragedy, the play includes mature situations, violence, adultery, and the murder of a child as well as adult language in both English and Spanish. Mojada is recommended for adult audiences.
What People Are Saying
Praise from previous productions
time Out Chicago
“Playwright Luis Alfaro delivers another searing update of Greek drama… [MOJADA] really grabs you by the guts…”
the oregonian
“MOJADA beautifully fuses Greek myth with a modern immigration story…a beautiful and necessary reimagining.”
Oregon Arts Watch
"It is about as culturally relevant and timely as can be. There is talk of “walls” and of inventing truths and being elected president. Some of it is played for laughs, but it’s also deadly serious."
edge media
"A wrenching, gorgeous wonder of a play. Alfaro took the raw, brutal material of a Greek tragedy and created a potent, gripping play about real people that's full of surprising humor and magic realism."
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Meet the Artists
Luis Alfaro
Playwright
Luis Alfaro is a Chicano playwright known for his work in theater, performance, poetry, and journalism. Born and raised in the Pico-Union district of downtown Los Angeles, he also works as a director, curator, producer, educator, and community organizer. He is the first playwright-in-residence in the 83-year history of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the largest repertory company in the United States, serving for six seasons (2013-19) through the generous support of the Andrew S. Mellon Foundation. He was mentored by the founding artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Gordon Davidson, where he spent 10 years as associate producer, director of New Play Development, and co-director of the Latino Theatre Initiative. Alfaro studied playwriting under the influential Latina playwright, María Irene Fornés, and he is a professor at the University of Southern California. Alfaro is the recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” He is a recent Joyce Foundation Fellow and the only artist to have won two awards in the same year from the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays. He is featured in over 25 anthologies, has an award-winning spoken word CD, down town, and an Emmy-nominated PBS short film, Chicanismo. He is a member of New Dramatists in New York and an associate artist with Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago and Playwrights Arena in Los Angeles.
CarlosAlexis Cruz
Director
CarlosAlexis Cruz is the Producing Artistic Director of the Nouveau Sud Circus project; a circus for social change company in service of intercultural and cross cultural communications in the urban region of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The company is currently invested in La BESTIA, a circus take on the journey of central American immigrants touring in Chicago Summer 2023. Cruz’s Nouveau Sud was awarded a NEFA National Theatre Project Creation and Touring grant for Bestia. Other awards: Knight Foundation- Celebrate Charlotte Arts, Princess Grace Foundation 2017 Works in Progress Award for the development of Pícaro with the support of the Baryshnikov Arts Center in NYC and the 2014 Arts and Science Council’s McColl award for the development of new, socially-engaged work. With the latter the Nouveau Sud Circus project was developed.
Cruz is the Program Director for Master of Fine Arts program in Community-Centered Practices (Fall 2024) and the Associate Professor of Physical Theatre for the College of Arts + Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Learn More
Enlace- Connective Latinex Together
Community Partner
Enlace acts as a bridge between members, the Latino community, and the greater community of Charlotte-Mecklenburg to identify needs, create collaborations and promote unity among its members. Within Enlace, organizations target issues of importance that need immediate and long term attention in the Latino community.
Greeks in the Barrio: A Conversation with Luis Alfaro
Getty Museum
How are the ancient texts relevant for contemporary audiences experiencing these stories again, or possibly for the first time? What continues to make these stories resonate beyond their original context? Join award-winning playwright, poet, performer, and activist Luis Alfaro in conversation with Dr. Rosa Andújar, editor of The Greek Trilogy of Luis Alfaro, as they explore the making of contemporary theater based on ancient Greek classics.