BRUJA

Meet Playwright Luis Alfaro

Luis Alfaro is a critically acclaimed writer/performer who works in poetry, plays, short stories, performance and journalism. Chicano born and raised in the Pico-Union district of downtown Los Angeles, he is the recipient, among other awards, of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and an NEA/TCG residency grant. In 2002 he was awarded the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays twice, for his plays Electricidad and Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Electricidad received its world premiere at the Borderlands Theatre in Tucson, Ariz., and was subsequently produced at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and has an upcoming production at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. A highly anthologized writer, he is featured in the anthologies O Solo Homo (Grove Press), Twelve Shades Red (Graphically Speaking LTD) andParticular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers (MIT Press); Out of the Fringe: Contemporary Latina/o Theatre and Performance (TCG) and Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (TCG). He is a member of the New York playwrights’ organization, New Dramatists, and was a resident artist at the Mark Taper Forum, where he is also co-director of the Latino Theatre Initiative. He was a visiting artist at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where he created Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Piñata Woman and Other Super Hero Girls, Like Me, as part of the New Visions/New Voices youth theater program. Black Butterfly… is also performed as part of the Mark Taper Forum’s PLAY touring program. He has toured his performance work throughout the United States, England and Mexico. His short film, Chicanismo, was nominated for an Emmy award, won Best Experimental Film at the 1998 San Antonio CineFestival and was featured in San Francisco’s CineAcción ’98. A member of The Dramatists Guild, he is the winner of the 1998 National Hispanic Playwriting Competition and the 1997 Midwest PlayLabs for his play Straight As a Line which was seen in New York at Primary Stages, in Minneapolis at 3 Legged Race and in Los Angeles at Playwright’s Arena and had its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre. His play Bitter Homes and Gardenspremiered in Los Angeles at Playwrights Arena. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner was commissioned by South Coast Rep and was workshopped at the Public Theater. He teaches throughout Los Angeles including the University of Southern California and California Institute of the Arts.

Meet Director Loretta Greco

Loretta Greco⁺ is delighted to launch her fourth season at Magic Theatre with Claire Chafee’s Why We Have a Body. She concluded her third season in style by producing Taylor Mac’s five-hour fantasia The Lily’s Revenge. While at the Magic she has developed and produced the work of Lloyd Suh, Laura Shellhardt, John Kolvenbach, Luis Alfaro, Lydia Stryk, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Carter Lewis, Oni Faida Lampley Liz Duffy Adams, and Theresa Rebeck.  As a director, Ms Greco’s New York premieres include Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Story and the OBIE Award-winning Lackawanna Blues by Ruben Santiago Hudson at The Public Theater; Katherine Walat’s Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen and Karen Hartman’s Gum at Women’s Project; Emily Mann’s Meshugah at Naked Angels; Laura Cahill’s Mercy at The Vineyard Theatre and Nilo Cruz’s Two Sisters and a Piano at The Public Theater and A Park in Our House at New York Theatre Workshop.  Ms. Greco directed the national tour of Emily Mann’s Having Our Say as well as the play’s international premiere at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Regional credits include the critically acclaimed revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow and the West Coast premiere of David Harrower’s Blackbird at American Conservatory Theater; Romeo and Juliet at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as well as productions at La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Playmakers Repertory Company and The Cleveland Play House.  She has developed work with dozens of writers at Sundance, The O’Neill, New Harmony, New York Stage and Film, New Dramatists, The Public Theater, and South Coast Rep.

Prior to producing at the Magic, Ms. Greco served as Producing Artistic Director of NY’s Women’s Project, where she produced the world premiere of Diane Paulus and Deirdre Murray’s musical Best of Both Worlds as well as plays by Lynn Nottage, Karen Hartman, Caridad Svitch, Rinne Groff and Lisa D’Amour.  She also served as Resident Producer at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton where she conceived and launched their new play second stage initiative and produced the work of Athol Fugard, Emily Mann, Ntozake Shange, Jon Robin Baitz, Anna Deveare Smith, Doug Wright, Jane Anderson, Adrianne Kennedy, Nilo Cruz, and Joyce Carol Oates among others.
Ms. Greco received her MFA from Catholic University and is the recipient of two Drama League Fellowships and a Princess Grace Award.
⁺Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the union for stage directors and choreographers.

The Cast of Bruja
Pictured, left to right: Sean San Jose, Sabina Zuniga Varela, Wilma Bonet, Armando Rodriguez, and Carlos Aguirre.

Carlos Aguirre (Creon) has been performing in the Bay Area for over 13 years. He most recently appeared in Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s Day of Absence and Strange Angels Theater’s Hunter’s Point. Carlos has also appeared in Magic Theatre’s 2011 production of The Lily’s Revenge, and the 2010 world premiere of Oedipus el Rey. He also appears regularly at Intersection for the Arts with world-renowned theatre company Campo Santo. Most recently in the 2009 world premiere of Fuku Americanus based on the Pulitzer Prize winning The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, in which he composed/compiled the entire musical soundtrack and the March 2007 production of A Place to Stand from the writings of Jimmy Santiago Baca and Ntozake Shange as well as The Hybrid Project (where he developed his original sonic and spoken word verse adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart). Carlos shares his experience by teaching at various schools and at risk environments throughout the Bay Area. He is also currently working with WORD FOR WORD as well as STAGEWRITE, which are two local literacy-through-theatre programs.

Wilma Bonet* (Vieja) is delighted to be back at Magic. Recently, she performed in Almost Nothing and Day of Absence at The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Lydia at Marin Theatre Company, El Otro at Thick Description and Too Big to Fail with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. She has performed at the Mark Taper Forum in Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad and at the Denver Center Theatre Company in September Shoes. Ms. Bonet was a collective member of the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe for 7 years and toured with the company internationally. She has appeared at San Jose Repertory, San Jose Stage Company, American Conservatory Theater, Campo Santo, California Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Company, Dallas Theater Center and El Teatro Campesino. Her one-person play Good Grief Lolita toured the Bay Area and has been published in Puro Teatro: A Latina Anthology. Film and television credits: What Dreams May Come, 8MM, Underwraps, Jack, Radio Flyer, and Nash Bridges. Awards: Marion Ross Award for Good Grief Lolita, Bay Area Critics Award and a Drama-logue Award for outstanding performance (SFMT), the Goodman Award for performance in Mere Mortals at MTC and in Hotel Angulo at Campo Santo

Armando Rodriguez* (Aegeus) is honored to be back at Magic Theatre working again with Loretta Greco and Luis Alfaro where he was last seen in Oedipus el Rey. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Mr. Rodriguez received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, and moved to NYC residing there for nine years before moving to San Francisco. Armando’s credits include: Paper Doll at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, working with F. Murray Abraham and Marlo Thomas, What a Little Moonlight Can Do at Theatre 22, and Flack at Raw Space. Armando can be last seen in a cameo appearance in the film Beyond Redemption, shot in the hills of Petaluma. Armando would also like to thank his family and friends for their everlasting support. Beware of the Bruja.

Sean San Jose* (Jason) has worked for the past many years for Intersection for the Arts and is one of the co-founders of resident theatre company Campo Santo. After meeting Luis Alfaro with Luis Saguar more than a dozen years ago, he is honored to finally get to perform in one of his works. Sean is thankful to work with Loretta Greco for the first time.

Sabina Zuniga Varela* (Medea) is thrilled to be working at Magic Theatre. A native New Mexican, Ms. Zuniga Varela won the 2007 New Mexico Hispano Entertainer’s Association: Female Performer of the Year for her roles in Magdalena Cantata (Dolores Magdalena) and Still Life (Frida Kahlo) at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. A 2011 graduate of the University of Southern California MFA program, she had the pleasure of being directed by Kate Burton in Three Sisters (Masha), David Bridel in Forget My Name (Giselle/Nina), and Andrew J. Robinson in Twefth Night (Feste/Antonio). She is honored to have worked at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Sueno (Rosaura) and in the title role of Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad. Most recently she was seen in Tanya Saracho’s adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, El Nogalar (Dunia), at The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles. She would like to thank her family, friends and Matt, and a very special thanks to the talented Cast of Bruja, the brilliant Loretta Greco and the lovely Luis Alfaro. Sabina is a proud member of the Actor’s Equity Association. www.sabinazunigavarela.com

Julie Haber* (Stage Manager) has served as stage manager at theatres around the country, including: The Alley Theatre; Intiman Theatre; Seattle Rep; Seattle’s 5th Avenue (ASM); Berkeley Rep; Magic Theatre (Jesus In India, Goldfish); MainStreet Theatre; American Conservatory Theater (10 productions during her three-year tenure as Administrative Stage Manager); Dallas Theater Center; Laguna Playhouse; Long Wharf; Old Globe; La Jolla Playhouse; Guthrie Theater and Yale Rep. She was Company Stage Manager at South Coast Rep for 20 years, stage managing over 70 productions and overseeing the stage management department. She has also stage managed two operas: Don Juan in Prague (in Prague and at BAM), and Guest from the Future (Bard SummerScape). She received her MFA from Yale School of Drama and has taught stage management at UC Irvine (where she received her BA), UC San Diego, Cal Arts, and Yale School of Drama.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.