Luis Alfaro at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Playwright
Luis Alfaro is a Chicano writer known for his poetry, short stories, journalism and multi-faceted work in theatre. Born and raised in the Pico/Union barrio of downtown Los Angeles, Alfaro is the first playwright-in-residence at the storied eighty-year old Oregon Shakespeare Festival through the generosity of the Andrew S. Mellon Foundation. 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. He is also a recent Joyce Foundation Fellow. Alfaro spent ten years at the Mark Taper Forum as Associate Producer, Director of New Play Development and Co-Director of the Latino Theatre Initiative. His plays include Mojada (Getty Villa); Delano (Magic Theatre); Electricidad (Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre, 30 productions); down town (Institute of Contemporary Art, London; XTeresa Performance Space, Mexico City); Oedipus El Rey (Magic Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Boston Court, Victory Gardens Theatre, San Diego Repertory, 18 productions); Body of Faith (Cornerstone Theater Company); Straight as a Line (Primary Stages; Edinburgh Festival, Scotland; Goodman Theatre; National Theatre of Romania); Bitter Homes and Gardens (Playwrights Arena); Ladybird (La Jolla Playhouse); Black Butterfly (Smithsonian Museum, The Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum) and Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage). He received the Pen Center Award for Drama for Body of Faith. His work is featured in more than twenty-five anthologies, has an award-winning spoken word CD (down town) and his short film Chicanismo was nominated for an Emmy. Luis is an Associate Professor with tenure at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts. Previously he taught at California Institute of the Arts and the UCLA Extension Writers Program. Luis is an associate artist at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, the Magic Theatre in San Francisco and Playwrights Arena in Los Angeles.
Theatre
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a not-for-profit professional theater founded in 1935. Our season runs from February through early November, and we have three theaters: our two indoor stages, the Angus Bowmer Theatre and the Thomas Theatre, and our flagship outdoor Elizabethan Stage, which opens in early June and runs through mid-October. We offer eleven different plays that include four by Shakespeare and seven by other classic writers, as well as modern and contemporary work and world premieres. View, edit or add to their profile on the New Play Map.