NMSU Theater Explores Immigration Through Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles - LasCruces.com

Please note: The opening weekend of this show has been postponed by a weekend “due to unforeseen circumstances.” Mojada: A Media In Los Angeles will now open on Friday, February 25, 2022.

The NMSU Theatre Department’s production of Mojada: A Medea In Los Angeles, opens this weekend for a two-weekend run at the ASNMSU Center for the Arts, February 18 – 27, 2022. Mojada, a derogatory term for immigrants who cross the border from Mexico into the United States, retells the classic Greek tragedy of Medea, from the perspective of a young couple who are in search of a better life for their family.

Medea and Jason have escaped the worst. Or have they? After a harrowing journey across the U.S.-Mexico border, the couple have made it safely to the States. While Jason is convinced the future looks bright, Medea fears a darker fate as they face the challenges of living without documentation. Traumatized by the flight from her homeland, she clings to Nahuatl ritual, sewing from home while Jason ventures out for work. But freedom comes with its price, and that price could be the undoing of them all.

Written by Luis Alfaro, a Chicano writer known for his work in poetry, theater, short stories, performance and journalism, Mojada is a blending of Euripides’ classic Greek tragedy with Mexican folklore as it explores the tragedy behind America’s immigration system and the destiny of one family caught in its grip. Part of Alfaro’s award-winning trilogy of plays – Electricidad, Oedipus El Rey, and Mojada – it transplants themes of the ancient Greek tragedies into the 21st century, giving voice to concerns of the Chicanx and wider Latinx communities.

“The Greeks are so primal,” Alfaro said in a New York Times interview, “They get to the essence: why we hurt each other, this inability to forgive.”

Mojada is directed by Theatre department associate professor Larissa Lury. “In popular culture, it’s the tragic end of Medea that folks tend to remember and reference,” Lury said in an interview with the Las Cruces Bulletin. “Sometimes we forget how much it is a story of a couple who have become foreigners and cannot return to their homeland.”

Cast in roles for Mojada are Elia Vasquez as Medea and Omar Moreno as Jason, with Dominque Gomez, Bianca Castro, Ashley Amanda, and Santiago Garzon in supporting roles.

Dates and times are Fridays, February 18 & 25 and Saturdays, February 19 & 26, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, February 27, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 adults, $16 seniors, $12 students, and $8 under 18. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit the website, or call 575-646-4515.

Posted by LasCruces.com

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