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César Alvarez

American composer, lyricist and playwright From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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César Alvarez (born 1980) is an American composer, lyricist and playwright.[1][2] César is best known for the musical FUTURITY which they wrote with their band The Lisps. FUTURITY won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical in 2016.[3]

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Alvarez is an assistant professor of music at Dartmouth College.[4]

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Early life

César J. Alvarez was born to a Cuban father and a Euro-American mother[5] in Greensboro, NC.[6] They were named for César Cauce and James Waller, who were both victims of the Greensboro Massacre.[7]

Alvarez attended Interlochen Arts Academy[8] and Oberlin Conservatory.[9] They received an MFA from Bard College.[1]

Alvarez uses they/them pronouns [10]

Career

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Alvarez spent the early years of their career performing with The Lisps. The Lisps released 4 albums between 2006 and 2012."[11][12][13]

In 2008, Alvarez conceived of the Civil War-era science fictional musical FUTURITY as their master's thesis at Bard.[14] In 2009, The Lisps first performed FUTURITY at the now defunct New York City venue, The Zipper Factory.[15][16][17] FUTURITY world premiered as part of the American Repertory Theater's 2011/12 season under the direction of Sarah Benson[18] co-commissioned by Walker Art Center.[19] FUTURITY went on to an Off-Broadway premiere co-produced by Soho Rep and Ars Nova in 2015.[20] That production won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and received 4 other Lortel nominations.[3]

In 2013 Alvarez composed original music with The Lisps for The Foundry Theater's production of Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan starring Taylor Mac.[21] Alvarez and The Lisps received a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play.[22]

In 2014 Alvarez composed original music for the World Premiere production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's play An Octoroon. They received another Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play.[23]

Alvarez also composed music for Soho Rep's site specific work Washeteria,[24] Theatre for a New Audience's production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth,[25] and the documentary A Woman Like Me.[26]

Alvarez's other musicals include The Universe is a Small Hat,[27] The Elementary Spacetime Show[28][29] and NOISE.[30]

Alvarez was an Artist-in-Residence at The University of the Arts where they served as Founding Artistic Director of Polyphone, a festival of new musicals for five years.[31][32][33]

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Awards

References

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