fbpx Luis Alfaro at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival | HowlRound Theatre Commons

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.

More from the Residency

oregon shakespeare festival black text
Working From Home / Trabajando Desde Casa
Video

Working From Home / Trabajando Desde Casa

Five Migrant Artists Talk About Working & Writing in America & Ashland at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Sunday 29 September 2019
Ashland, Oregon

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival presents Working From Home / Trabajando Desde Casa: Five Migrant Artists Talk About Working & Writing in America & Ashland livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Sunday 29 September 2019 at 10 a.m. PDT (Portland, UTC-7) / 12 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 1 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4).

Festival Noon Conversation with Tiffany Ana López: “The Past is Always Present: Luis Alfaro as a Citizen Artist”
Video

Festival Noon Conversation with Tiffany Ana López: “The Past is Always Present: Luis Alfaro as a Citizen Artist”

Saturday 4 March 2017
Portland, OR, United States

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival presented “The Past is Always Present: Luis Alfaro as a Citizen Artist”, a Festival Noon Conversation with Tiffany Ana López livestreamed on the global, commons-based HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Saturday 4 March at 12 p.m. PST (Portland) / 2 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 3 p.m. EST (New York).

A Think and Drink Conversation with Héctor Tobar and Luis Alfaro
Video

A Think and Drink Conversation with Héctor Tobar and Luis Alfaro

Sunday 9 October 2016
Ashland, OR, United States

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival presented an Oregon Humanities Think and Drink conversation between Pulitzer Prize–winning author and journalist Héctor Tobar and OSF playwright-in-residence Luis Alfaro livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 9 October at 10:30 a.m. PDT (Portland) / 1:30 p.m. EDT (New York). In Twitter, follow @HowlRoundTV and use #howlround.

No Holds Barrio: Latina/o Theatre into the Future Panel at Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Video

No Holds Barrio: Latina/o Theatre into the Future Panel at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Saturday 26 October 2013
Ashland, OR, United States

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival presented a panel discussion No Holds Barrio: Latina/o Theatre into the Future livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 26 October 2013 at 4:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 6:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 7:30 p.m. EDT (New York) as part of the Latina/o Play Project. The event will be a frank talk about making art and creating inclusion for Latinos in the professional field.

four actors onstage
"We’ve Got to Protect Our Art"
Essay

"We’ve Got to Protect Our Art"

Celebrating the Artistic Journeys of Two Latino Playwrights

18 September 2019

Luis Alfaro and Herbert Sigüenza talk about their experience in the National Playwright Residency Program, learning about the inner workings of theatre companies, portraying Latinx people in a positive light, the importance of comedy, and more.

Why Luis Alfaro, Why Oregon Shakespeare Festival?
Essay

Why Luis Alfaro, Why Oregon Shakespeare Festival?

15 March 2016

Bill Rauch and Luis Alfaro talk about their connection to each other's work and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

MELT. DOWN.
Essay

MELT. DOWN.

25 November 2015

Playwright Luis Alfaro on mental health, his playwriting process, and Vicodin.

Carnaval 2015
Essay

Carnaval 2015

Day 3

26 July 2015

Luis Alfaro reports on the third day of Carnaval, and shares the note the community ended on—commitment and movement. 

Collage of theatre artists gathering and speaking at the From Scarcity to Abundance convening.
A Borderless Future
Essay

A Borderless Future

20 July 2014

In this first installment, Luis Alfaro reflects on his experience at the 2014 TCG National Conference: Crossing Borders.