César Alvarez (born 1980) is an American composer, lyricist and playwright. César is best known for the musical ''FUTURITY'' which they wrote with their band

The Lisps The Lisps was an American, New York-based indie rock band. The group formed in The South Bronx in 2005 fronted by César Alvarez and Sammy Tunis. The band consists of four members playing guitars, melodicas, found percussion, drum set, and male/fe ...

. ''FUTURITY'' won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical in 2016. Alvarez is an Assistant Professor of Music at Dartmouth College.

Early life

Alvarez was born to a Cuban father and a Euro-American mother in Greensboro, NC. They were named for César Cauce and James Waller, who were both victims of the Greensboro Massacre. Alvarez attended Interlochen Arts Academy and

Oberlin Conservatory The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory in Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States. It is one of t ...

. They received an MFA from Bard College. Alvarez uses they/them pronouns

Career

Alvarez spent the early years of their career performing with

. The Lisps released 4 albums between 2006 and 2012." In 2008, Alvarez conceived of the Civil War-era science fictional musical ''FUTURITY'' as their master's thesis at Bard. In 2009, The Lisps first performed ''FUTURITY'' at the now defunct New York City venue, The Zipper Factory. ''FUTURITY'' world premiered as part of the American Repertory Theater's 2011/12 season under the direction of

Sarah Benson Sarah Benson is a British director of avant-garde theatre productions based in New York. As a Director of the Soho Rep, a lower Manhattan-based theatre company with an "audacious taste in plays", she is notable for her "commitment to adventurous ...

co-commissioned by Walker Art Center. ''FUTURITY'' went on to an

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

premiere co-produced by Soho Rep and Ars Nova in 2015. That production won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and received 4 other Lortel nominations. In 2013 Alvarez composed original music with The Lisps for The Foundry Theater's production of

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

The Good Person of Szechwan ''The Good Person of Szechwan'' (german: Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, first translated less literally as ''The Good Man of Setzuan'') is a play written by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau ...

starring

Taylor Mac Taylor Mac Bowyer (born August 24, 1973) is an American actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, and singer-songwriter active mainly in New York City. In 2017, Mac was the recipient of a "Genius Grant" from the John D. and Cath ...

. Alvarez and The Lisps received a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play. In 2014 Alvarez composed original music for the World Premiere production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's play

An Octoroon ''An Octoroon'' is a play written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. It is an adaptation of Dion Boucicault's ''The Octoroon'', which premiered in 1859. Jacobs-Jenkins reframes Boucicault's play using its original characters and plot, speaking much of ...

. They received another Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play. Alvarez also composed music for Soho Rep's site specific work ''Washeteria'',

Theatre for a New Audience The Theatre for a New Audience (TFANA) is a non-profit theater in New York City focused on producing Shakespeare and other classic dramas. Its off-Broadway productions have toured in the U.S. and internationally. History Theatre for a New Audienc ...

's production of Thornton Wilder's '' The Skin of Our Teeth'', and the documentary '' A Woman Like Me''. Alvarez's other musicals include ''The Universe is a Small Hat'', ''The Elementary Spacetime Show'' and ''NOISE''. Alvarez was an Artist-in-Residence at

The University of the Arts The University of the Arts (UArts) is a private art university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia. Dating back to the 1870s, it is one of the oldest schools of art o ...

where they served as Founding Artistic Director of Polyphone, a festival of new musicals for five years.

Awards

* 2016 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical (FUTURITY) * 2016 Jonathan Larson Award recipient * 2016 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical (FUTURITY) * 2022

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

recipient for Drama & Performance Art

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Cesar Living people Bard College alumni Oberlin Conservatory of Music alumni University of the Arts (Philadelphia) faculty American musical theatre composers American male composers 1980 births