‘Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles’ to Mark Launch of Three Bone Trilogy

Three Bone Theatre’s run of Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles kicks off this weekend, the first part of Luis Alfaro’s groundbreaking Greek trilogy that the company plans to put on over the next year, highlighting the Latinx community and local Latinx artists through theatre.

Funded by the company’s first National Endowment for the Arts grant, Three Bone plans to produce Mojada this month, Electricidad in August 2025 and Oedipus del Rey in May 2026. 

A modern twist on a classic Greek tragedy featuring an all Latinx cast, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles will run from Aug. 9-24 at The Arts Factory. The play centers Medea and her family, who find themselves in a completely foreign place after a long, turbulent journey of escaping unspeakable conditions in the only home they’ve ever known. 

With the foundational familiarity of the tragic tale by Euripides in current context, the contemporary adaptation by Luis Alfaro interweaves cultural experiences relevant to not only its setting in present-day Los Angeles but the Charlotte community. 

During a time when immigration is a hot-ticket item in the upcoming presidential election, the play tracks the family through their tumultuous pursuit of the so-called American Dream as they discover it looks different for everyone. 

Medea, uprooted from her homeland and burdened with years of repressed emotions, struggles to adapt to life as a young Mexican mother, a rape survivor and undocumented immigrant. She is pushed to navigate a new country and adopt unfamiliar ways of living to support those whom she loves most. 

According to Sonia Rosales McLeod, who plays Medea, the character ends up giving more of herself than she ever anticipated she had to — not only for the sake of love but for the sake of finding herself again. 

“[Medea] is in the middle of an identity crisis in a place where she has no identity,” Rosales McLeod explained. 

A Honduran-American woman and the child of an immigrant herself, Rosales McLeod said playing the role has required her to dive into a level of vulnerability that she had previously worked on in terms of identity — and fortunately so. 

With a deep understanding of the most intimate parts of her own identity, Rosales McLeod said she has become familiar with story lines that aren’t just about her immediate home and experience but are still relevant to the community around her.

She added that her greatest challenge in taking the Medea role had been identifying the moments when she can authentically convey empathy and insight into what it feels like to endure similar experiences. 

Playing the role with her own cultural perspective and a yearning to understand those of other members of her community, she draws on a mix of personal experiences, first-hand observations of others and imaginative exploration, considering how she would react if she were in Medea’s position. 

“It’s so human. Every single one of us is capable of being in that position, and we don’t know what we’d do until we’re faced with it,” Rosales McLeod said. 

She said she has enjoyed being able to speak through the character in a way that she doesn’t have the space to say in a normal setting.

“The depth of the pain and the emotion in this experience of identity being in a completely foreign place is something that everyone can relate to in some facet of their life,” Rosales McLeod said. 

Michelle Medina Villalon, who is directing the show alongside CarlosAlexis Cruz, said she was surprised to learn that the cast of the play was purely LatinX. 

She said working with a group of artists who are familiar with each other’s experiences of what it’s like to be brown in this country has given her a feeling of being suddenly complete; when she walks into the rehearsal room she does not have to leave parts of herself behind at the door, she explained. 

“There’s just so much joy in our space,” Medina Villalon said, “So much safety and comfort.” 

Medina Villalon said her greatest joys in theatre come from collaborating with different teams made up of all the necessary jobs, from actors to set designers and everyone in between, working together to create an entirely new production from the source material.

“You’re telling an entirely different story because you’ve changed the culture in which it takes place,” Medina Villalon said. 

Read more: UNC Charlotte’s First Latinx Play Investigates Migration and Community (2021)

In adapting Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, Medina Villalon emphasized the need to grasp the original story thoroughly in order to purposefully shape their own rendition, a process that involved sharing personal experiences between the case and recognizing how these experiences vary from one person to another.

“We walk into spaces and sometimes our experiences are not the same,” Medina Villalon said. 

She said she encourages all audience members to leave at the door any preconceived notions about immigration and Latinx people and culture and to see these people as human beings. 

“A lot of beautiful things are forged by fire, and this is one of them,” Medina Villalon said. “It’s going to be a beautiful piece and I can’t wait for people to come in and just absorb it.” 

Tiffany Bryant-Jackson, Three Bone Theatre’s education manager, will help with that. Her job goes beyond merely presenting the show but ensuring that its themes resonate with the audience long after they leave the theater. 

To accomplish this, she provides a discussion guide to patrons after the performance that features conversation starters as well as recommendations for books, movies and podcasts related to the show’s themes. 

Three Bone has also connected with community partner ENLACE, a Charlotte-based, nonprofit, Spanish-language news outlet that produces public service journalism about politics, immigration and community and state issues of, for and by Latino/Hispanic immigrants in North Carolina. 

ENLACE will have a presence at each showing of Three Bone’s run of Medea, with a goal of engaging members of Charlotte’s diverse Latinx communities and providing opportunities for cultural engagement with any local residents. 

“I want you to walk out and grab all of the brochures off that table so you know where to connect to next,” Bryant-Jackson said. 

“Theatre is a vessel of conversation where the audience is forced to listen because that is what they go there to do,” added Rosales McLeod. “Listen and watch.” 

Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles will show at The Arts Factory at West End Studios, located at 1545 W. Trade St., from Aug. 9-24 with shows on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase online at Three Bone Theatre’s website and at the door.