‘THE ANCIENT THREAD INTO MODERN DRESS: Using the Greek Classics to Tell Contemporary Stories’

Theater director and MacArthur “genius” grant winner Luis Alfaro will deliver Princeton’s 2022-2023 Robert Fagles Lecture for Classics in the Contemporary Arts. Alfaro works in theater, performance, poetry and journalism, and is known for plays and performances including three adaptations of ancient Greek dramas: Mojada, a retelling of Medea set in Los Angeles, Oedipus El Rey, a Chicano retelling of Oedipus Rex, and Electricidad, based on Sophocles’ Electra.

In addition to the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Alfaro is a Joyce Foundation Fellow and has won numerous fellowships and grants for his wide-ranging work. His “Greek Trilogy” was gathered and published in 2020 by Bloomsbury, in a volume edited by Rosa Andújar, a graduate alumnus of Princeton.

Alfaro will deliver a lecture titled ‘The Ancient Thread into Modern Dress: Using the Greek Classics to Tell Contemporary Stories’ on Tuesday, 11th October at an event hosted by the Classics Department. Participants from the Princeton community will be able to attend in person or online. 

The recently established Fagles Lecture invites a distinguished writer or artist to Princeton, whose work engages with the Classics. During the visit, the guest gives a lecture and a class or reading, as well as meeting students and engaging in a public conversation with faculty members about their work. Support for this project has been provided in part by Princeton’s Departments of Classics and Comparative Literature, the Humanities Council, the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University Public Lectures Committee, Program in Humanistic Studies and the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies.