Cesar Alvarez Continues to Reshape Musicals with World Premiere THE ELEMENTARY SPACETIME SHOW at 2016 Fringe
By: BWW News Desk Sep. 07, 2016
With this new work, a co-presentation between the University of the Arts and FringeArts, César Alvarez, a UArts faculty member, continues to challenge the musical form and explore new ways to produce musicals.
"It's just so exciting to see this piece come to life on stage with a vaudevillian excellence and an incredible cast, all in the context of the Fringe Festival which is founded on this idea of challenging convention and thinking about contemporary performance in new ways," said Alvarez.
This new musical of up-tempo, genre-bending songs provides a healthy dose of the absurd in the search for why to exist when you no longer want to. Directed by Andrew Neisler, The Elementary Spacetime Show follows a young girl who attempts suicide and wakes up trapped in a cosmic vaudevillian game show that she must win in order to enter the void of death. But the more Alameda wants to die, the harder she has to work-winning means she must confront avatars of scientific truth, ostentatious musical numbers, elaborate dance sequences and acquaint herself with the enigmatic laws of the universe.
"Musicals provide a unique platform to explore difficult topics. Elementary Spacetime became a non-judgmental space to explore an incredibly touchy and complicated topic - suicide and depression. With elements of the absurd and humor, the darkness became easier to explore," Alvarez continued.
During the Polyphone festival at UArts in 2015, The Elementary Spacetime Show was performed in a concert-style, off-book setting while Alvarez and Neisler continued to mold the work. When this professional show premieres at the ArtsBank at the University of the Arts, 26 current UArts students will be part of the cast of 31 performers.
"This process has allowed me to ask 'What if universities not only developed these new musicals that challenge the musical form, but produced them?'" said Alvarez. "The subject matter of this show lends itself so perfectly to working with students and the talented young actors at UArts have provided the ideal testing ground for fully exploring this new work. It is only natural that these students would be part of the premiere," continued Alvarez.
The Elementary Spacetime Show was developed with support from the Ars Nova Uncharted Group, Polyphone festival at the University of the Arts, and an Ensemble Studio Theater/Sloan commission.
César Alvarez is a New York-based composer, lyricist and writer. César's musical Futurity received the 2016 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and four other Lortel nominations, and he was the recipient of the 2016 Jonathan Larson Grant. Alvarez is a visiting associate professor of theater at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and the artistic director of Polyphone, a festival of the emerging musical at the university.
Currently celebrating its 140th Anniversary year, the University of the Arts is one of the nation's only universities dedicated solely to educating students in the visual and performing arts, design and writing. UArts is a leader in educating creative individuals through an innovative, flexible, rigorous and well-rounded curriculum that prepares students to be the creative leaders of tomorrow, whether in a specific artistic discipline or by applying their arts education to virtually any career. The alumni of the University are leading some of the Philadelphia region's most important cultural institutions and positively impacting the creative economy nationally. With nearly 1,900 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs on its campus in the heart of Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts, UArts students collaborate across disciplines and benefit from being in one of the nation's most culturally vibrant cities.
The Fringe Festival, presented by FringeArts, is a 17-day, city-wide celebration of innovation and creativity in contemporary performance. Each September, the Festival explodes into every nook and cranny in neighborhoods across Philadelphia with more than 1,000 artistically daring performances, including national and international performances curated by FringeArts, and works that are produced by independent artists and promoted by FringeArts. The party continues late night, every night, with music, food and drink at FringeArts' center on the Delaware River waterfront. This vast assemblage of curated and self-produced innovators offers an unparalleled opportunity to see a cross section of the world's greatest experimenters at one time, in one city.
IF YOU GO:
The Elementary Spacetime Show
Music, Book and Lyrics by César Alvarez
Directed by Andrew Neisler
Co-presented by the University of the Arts and FringeArts
Tickets: fringearts.com/event/elementary-spacetime-show-15
Percussion: Eric Farber
Guitar/Bass Clarinet/Flute: Eamon Goodman
Saxophone/Synth: Terran Scott
Keyboard: Ellen Winter Choreographers: Sonya Tayeh and Ben Hobbs
Music Director: César Alvarez
Set Designer: Carolyn Mraz
Percussion Designer: Eric Farber
Lighting Designer: Masha Tsimring
Costume Designer: Tilly Grimes
Sound Designer: Larry Fowler
Props Designer: Natalie Reichman
Dramaturgy: Nell Bang-Jensen Associate Music Director: Ellen Winter
Score Supervisor/Assistant Music Director: Jaime Jarrett
Additional Vocal Arrangements: Madeline Smith
Orchestrations: Cesar Alvarez, Freddy Epstein, Eric Farber, Eamon Goodman and Ellen Winter
Technical Director: Matthew Groeneveld
Producer: Meghan Walsh
Stage Manager: Brianna Reedy
Box Office Manager: Jennifer Jaynes
Master Electrician: Troy Martin O'Shia
Assistant Choreographer: Alison Ingelstrom
Assitant Stage Manager: Jackie Leibowitz
Assistant Director: Cami Pileggi
Assistant Lighting Designer: Dalton Whiting
Assistant Costume Designer: Gina Colacci
Assistant Sound Designer: Larry Barnes
Assistant Technical Director: Joey Redfearn
Production Assistant: Madison Youngblood
Photo by Eric Wolfe *The Actor appears through the courtesy of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
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