CULVER CITY, Calif. — Playwright Luis Alfaro spends a lot of time sitting at his computer, but his surroundings constantly change.

Prior to the pandemic, Alfaro would write in coffee shops and cafés. When those shut down, he worried about what being shut in his home would do to his creative process. And then, an idea occurred to him.

“I started to think the pandemic pause, as we call it, is really a pandemic possibility,” he said.

Alfaro grabbed a folding table, his computer, and some coffee and ventured out, setting up his makeshift workspace anywhere and making himself right at home, with a colorful tablecloth, coffee, and even some decorative touches.

“Usually I go to an empty lot,” he said. “I set up, and it’s my living room for the day. No one is around me. It’s perfectly safe.”

Parking lots outside closed businesses, parks, and green spaces — anywhere that Alfaro can feel the pulse of the city around him.

"Any place that is empty or safe feels like it’s my home," he said. "And this is L.A., so you can make anywhere your home, right?"

In fact, L.A. is his home. The MacArthur fellow grew up in Pico Union, and the City of Angels infuses his work. Among his plays is a trilogy of Greek tragedies which he reimagined, setting them in his hometown and in his mother tongue: Electricidad is a retelling of Electra, Oedipus becomes Oedipus El Rey, and Medea is Mojada.

"We are Chicano," he said. "We have a foot on each side of the border. We use a mix of mostly English with Spanish words that should never be translated, right? And that [is] what makes the poetry of our language so important.”

Each of the three plays delves into issues that are very much part of the current conversation: the undocumented immigrant experience, the prison system and recidivisms, and gang violence.

“Electra destroys herself, she destroys her family, and she destroys her community in her desire to get revenge,” said Alfaro. “Is that not talking about gang culture today?”

Normally produced individually, Center Theatre Group recently recorded the entire trilogy for their new Digital Stage, presented in partnership with the Getty. The plays have been produced individually around the world, but according to CTG, “this will be the first time the entire trilogy of Chicanx adaptations will be read together.”

The readings were filmed under strict COVID-19 conditions at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. Facility manager Max Oken went through the World Health Organization’s pandemic training and has continued to keep up with the constantly evolving recommendations.

He’s working out of a massive handbook called "Finding Our Center," a 130-page document detailing many of the same safety protocols adopted by the film industry.

“I’m just very, very happy that we’re working safely together and we’re finding ways to make art happen again,” Oken said.  “It was wonderful to interact with my theater family again. It was definitely heartwarming and exciting to finally put all the things we’ve been planning for months into action.”

Alfaro is happy, too, even though he’s had to go through nearly a dozen COVID-19 tests during this process. The plays may be tragic, but recording them in an actual theater is just the opposite.

“I think we’re keeping some hope alive, right?” he said. “We’re a long, ancient tradition, and one pandemic [is] not going to take us out.”

There is still a long road ahead, but Alfaro mentioned some advice to artists struggling to stay creative: “This is a moment to find your table. Make your table. Make your chair and find those sort of beautiful places in the city.”

All three plays in the "The Greek Trilogy of Luis Alfaro" are available to stream for free here through January 20.