Overview
From the bleak recesses of the Civil War, a fictional soldier teams up with real-life Ada Lovelace. Together, they wrestle with the question: can humanity invent a machine that creates peace? Flavor profile of FUTURITY: Brechtian steampunk folk-rock theatre, with a side of vaudeville and science fiction. The musical bursts forth with science, philosophy, deeply accessible human stuff, all told through the lens of a playful and deeply imaginative narrative.
"How refreshing to meet a musical that has too much on its mind, rather than too little. FUTURITY can only help advance an art form that often seems unable to imagine itself a new future.”-Charles Isherwood, Critic's Pick, The New York Times
“Cesar Alvarez is changing the American musical theatre form, and the world.”-American Theatre
“Positively gasp-worthy. Those who like their theater messy and beautiful are liable to fall in love with FUTURITY.”-Theatermania**winner of the 2016 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical**
Plot
At its core, FUTURITY is about imagination. It asks us to consider the point of dreaming up the impossible inside of seemingly hopeless circumstances. Julian’s regiment wields instruments instead of guns, and the peace making machine that is unveiled at the end is a massive kinetic sculpture that creates an outpouring of collective sound. FUTURITY proposes that music and storytelling themselves are the machines that create peace.
CÉSAR/JULIAN - A young idealistic civil war soldier.
SAMMY/ADA LOVELACE - A brilliant, imaginative scientist and poet situated in upperclass Victorian England.
THE GENERAL - A Civil War general, weathered by years of war. The General must be a Black actor.
THE SERGEANT - An upright and strong-voiced soldier.
ERIC - The drummer, who reads the Entr'acte speech.
THE ENSEMBLE - An orchestra of musicians who also play soldiers and the Society of Scientists. 4-10+ actors.
The show is written for actor musicians, but can be performed with a band or pit orchestra.
4-13 musicians (optional: accordion, slide guitar, banjo, flute, strings, trombone, bass clarinet, saxes, trumpet)