SOL 3:

Luís Alfaro

OEDIPUS EL REY

written by Luís Alfaro

directed by Chay Yew

with Juan Castano, Sandra Delgado, Julio Monge, Joel Perez, Brian Quijada, Reza Salazar, Juan Francisco Villa

scenic design: Riccardo Hernandez

lighting design: Lap Chi Chu

costume design: Anita Yavich

wig/makeup design: Leah Loukas

fight director: David Anzuelo

dialect coach: Ron Carlos

original music and sound design: Fabian Obispo

OEDIPUS EL REY

The Playwright:
Luís Alfaro

Luís Alfaro is a Chicano performance artist, writer, theater director, and social activist. 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 has also received recognition from: the PEN America/Laura Pels International Foundation Theater Award for a Master Dramatist; United States Artist Fellowship; Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship; Joyce Foundation Fellowship; Mellon Foundation Fellowship, and the Annenberg Artist-in-Residence for the city of Santa Monica; among others. He is the only playwright to have received two Kennedy Center ‘Fund for New American Play’ awards in the same year. Alfaro spent six seasons as the inaugural playwright-in-residence of the 90-year-old Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2013-2019); a member of the Playwright’s Ensemble at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre (2013-2020); a resident artist at the Mark Taper Forum (1995-2005); an inaugural member of the Latinx Playwrights ‘Circle of Imaginistas’ at the Los Angeles Theatre Center (2021); and has worked with the Ojai Playwrights Conference since 2002. His plays and performances include "Electricidad," "Oedipus El Rey," "Mojada," "Delano," "Body of Faith," "Straight as a Line," and have been seen at regional theatres throughout the United States, Latin America, Canada and Europe. Alfaro spent over two decades in the Los Angeles Poetry and Performance Art communities. He is an associate professor with tenure at the University of Southern California (USC). Previously, he taught at California Institute of the Arts (Cal-Arts), and in the Writers Program at UCLA Extension. He has an Emmy-nominated short film, Chicanismo (Best Experimental Film, San Antonio CineFestival, Best Short, CineAccion San Francisco) and an award-winning recording, down town, on SST/New Alliance Records (Best Spoken-Word Release, National Association of Independent Record Distributors).

The Play:
Oedipus El Rey

Set in South Central LA, "Oedipus El Rey" is an electrifying new take on the Greek tragedy, written by acclaimed playwright Luis Alfaro (Electricidad, Straight as a Line). Oedipus is reimagined as a troubled Latino whose dreams of controlling his own destiny soar above the barbed wire of the prison where he’s spent his life. But in a place where everyone is trapped—by desperation or fate, history or violence—no one man can change his story alone. Love, family and belief collide in this chilling, incredibly powerful new play that asks: what’s fate, and what’s just the system?

The Director:
Chay Yew

As a director, Chay Yew's New York credits include "Durango", "Ameriville and Low" (Public Theater); "A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick" (Playwrights Horizons); "The Architecture of Loss" (New York Theater Workshop); "My Mañana Comes" (Playwrights Realm); "The House of Bernarda Alba" (National Asian American Theatre Company); and "Last of the Suns" (Ma Yi Theatre Company). His regional credits include productions at Goodman Theater, Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Kennedy Center; Mark Taper Forum, American Conservatory Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Northlight Theater, Playmakers Rep, InterAct, Empty Space Theatre, Boise Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Cornerstone Theatre Company, Singapore Repertory Theatre, Boston Court, East West Players, Teatro Vista, amongst others. His opera credits include world premieres of Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang’s "Ainadamar" (coproduction with the Tanglewood Music Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic); and Rob Zuidam’s "Rage of d’Amours" (Tanglewood Music Center). A recipient of the Obie Award and DramaLogue Award for Direction, he is the Artistic Director of Victory Gardens.

The Partner:
The Public Theatre

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public Theater is the only theater in New York City that produces Shakespeare, the classics, musicals, contemporary and experimental pieces in equal measure. The Public continues the work of its visionary founder, Joe Papp, by acting as an advocate for the theater as an essential cultural force, and leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. Creating theater for one of the largest and most diverse audience bases for nearly 60 years, today the company engages audiences with a breadth of programming that includes, a robust annual season of new musicals and plays at its landmark home at Astor Place; it's beloved Free Shakespeare in the Central Park at the Delacorte Theater; it's Mobile Unit, which tours Shakespearean productions to venues throughout New York's five boroughs; The Public Forum, a series of insightful conversations centered around the themes sparked from the work onstage and around the globe; The Under The Radar Festival, an annual international festival of new work; Public Studio, connecting audiences with artists at the early stage of new work development; Joe's Pub, the best of live music and performance nightly; and Public Works, a major national and international initiative that seeks to engage communities in the creation of participatory theater. The Public is currently represented on Broadway and around the world by the Tony Award-winning American musical "Hamilton". The Public is the recipient of 59 Tonys, 168 Obies, 53 Drama Desks, 54 Lortels, 32 OCC Awards and 5 Pulitzer Prizes.

Highlights

2018 Drama Desk Award, Special Award, Juan Castano

2018 Drama Desk Nomination, Outstanding Fight Choreography, David Anzuelo

2018 Drama League Nomination, Outstanding Production of a Play

2018 Drama League Nomination, Distinguished Performance, Juan Castano

2018 Hewes Design Nomination, Scenic Design, Riccardo Hernandez

2018 Hewes Design Nomination, Notable Effects, Fabian Obispo

A Chicano Twist to a Classic Tragedy: Playwright Luis Alfaro's "Oedipus El Rey"

NBC News | November 1st, 2017

Gay Latino Playwright Luis Alfaro's New Take on Oedipus Is Set in a South Central Prison

Out | September 1st, 2017