Arts & Culture
An ancient production for the here and now
Mojada is a modern adaptation of Euripides’s 5th-century rendition of the Greek myth of Medea, exploring the tragic end to Medea’s marriage after her husband betrays her.
Featuring an entirely student cast, the production will begin its run at the Theater Arts eXperimental Theater at UC Santa Cruz on May 22. It concludes on Sunday, May 31.
Playwright Luis Alfaro finished Mojada, a tale about immigration to the United States, more than a decade ago. But for many watchers of the play—and even to Alfaro himself—the story feels like it could have been written yesterday.
“When I first wrote it, I thought, ‘Okay, well, it’s of the moment,’” explains Alfaro. But today, he adds, “it keeps speaking to the now—we haven’t actually dealt with immigration policy in any real way.”
Mojada is a modern adaptation of Euripides’s 5th-century rendition of the Greek myth of Medea, exploring the tragic end to Medea’s marriage after her husband betrays her. Alfaro reimagined the story as an immigration tale originally set in the 2010s, centered on a family that has crossed into the country without documents. The title itself references a derogatory term for people who crossed the Rio Grande to enter the U.S., according to Alfaro.
As ICE raids and deportations make headlines across the United States, the play’s prescience was a significant factor in the production’s selection for the current season of the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Department of Performance, Play & Design.
“We’re always interested in asking the question: Why this theater now? Why does theater resonate for the moment that we’re in?” says Kinan Valdez, the production’s director and a professor of theater arts. “It felt like it was an appropriate conversation for our times.”
“These ancient pieces were written as a type of catharsis, and so perhaps this play might provide a type of catharsis for us in the here and now,” Valdez added.
Featuring an entirely student cast, the production will begin its run at the Theater Arts eXperimental Theater at UC Santa Cruz on May 22. It concludes on Sunday, May 31.
In addition to its strong relevance to the present day, the play aligns with the department’s recent emphasis on adaptations of classical theater. Euripides’ Medea is one of the most frequently performed Greek tragedies. In addition to references and a stylistic influence from the ancient Greek play, Alfaro’s adaptation includes nods to Mexican folklore and Aztec traditions.
The story extends from ancient history into the modern experiences of millions who cross into the United States on personal journeys and with strong convictions. Alfaro hopes the personal stories resonate. “Everybody undocumented comes to this country for a reason—nobody’s coming for a vacation,” he says. “Telling a story about someone like this also hopefully helps us think about how we might create an immigration policy that is deeply humanistic.”
Ultimately, though, Alfaro, a MacArthur fellow, designed the production to ask questions rather than offer prescriptive answers.
“My job is to present the problem in an artful, interesting way, and hopefully you will come to your own conclusion,” he says. “Hopefully, we do that together as an audience.”
Skylar Bransford-Valenzuela, who plays Medea, hopes the production will help open the audience’s eyes to the severity of the immigration crisis unfolding in the U.S. “This play grapples a lot with not feeling safe,” she says. “Now more than ever, I think we should be focusing on ensuring that Mexican immigrants and Chicanos and Mexican Americans can feel some kind of safety in the United States.”
Santa Cruz’s production takes place in Los Angeles, where ICE arrested hundreds of people in 2025. Previous productions of Mojada have also been set in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, all of which have their own large immigrant communities.
“I love the experience of doing that, because each location, it’s not just like you could change the name, you have to really incorporate the vibrancy, the rhythm, the culture of each community,” says Alfaro. While the production can be deeply rooted in place, it also grapples with the ideas of borders, and what lies beyond those artificial lines—”What does it mean to live in a world where you can walk freely?” Alfaro asks.
Alfaro’s own roots lie not far from Santa Cruz. His and Valdez’s relationship stretches back years, if not decades, to Delano, the San Joaquin Valley town where Alfaro and Valdez’s father—the well-known Chicano playwright Luis Valdez—grew up. Alfaro and Valdez have collaborated several times before, and they’re working on another project slated for the summer.
Art that cultivates conversations around social justice or cultural representation are core to Valdez’s career, as a member of El Teatro Campesino, a troupe founded by his father. Like Alfaro, he hopes the university production will spark reflection and invoke the compassion of attendees — “to remind everybody about the humanity of immigrants” — while also encouraging the student actors and production members to see a pathway to a life in theater.
“I never lose sight of the fact that this is an educational mission for us here to help bring these new artists to life, to inspire them, to promote them, to make them grow,” he says.