Feb 14 - May 1st, I’m working in a musical called Futurity playing the organ and dobro.  It was conceived by my friend from high school, César Alvarez, and put together with his band the Lisps. 

The American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA and Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis are putting the show up.  Its been one of the most fun things I’ve done - its inspiring to work with the Lisps, a cast of 17 actors total, and maybe about 50 or 60 people all together.  Directors, light and sound people, choreographers, dozens of others all amazing at what the do. 

FUTURITY is an original indie-rock musical by Brooklyn-band The Lisps. A theatrically staged song cycle, FUTURITY tells the story of a Union soldier in the Civil War who is an aspiring inventor. The work fuses traditional Americana, found text, experimental music, and The Lisps’ own brand of quirky co-ed pop.

FUTURITY chronicles the experiences of young Julian Munro, an aspiring inventor and science fiction visionary in 1864 who spends his days breaking up Confederate railroad tracks as a grunt in the Union army. Julian copes with the destruction and monotony around him by imagining a far-fetched science fiction future. Guided by his brilliant mentor, the famous metaphysician Ada Lovelace, Julian weaves an epic fantasy that folds a utopian, high-tech future back into the dark reality of war. Though a long distance collaboration Julian and Ada attempt to devise an omnipotent steam-powered artificial intelligence destined to end war and all of humanity’s attendant miseries. The music in FUTURITY melds traditional Americana, Brechtian choral elements and contemporary indie-rock, resulting in a unique and compelling portrait of war, human imagination, and technological hubris.

Directed by Sarah Benson
Music by César Alvarez with The Lisps
Lyrics by César Alvarez
Book by Molly Rice and César Alvarez