americanrepertorytheater.org 2011/2012 SEASON FUTURITY:


A MUSICAL BY THE LISPS MAR. 16 - APR. 15, 2012


In this world premiere, Civil War, sci-fi musical, the Union soldier Julian Munro and the brilliant Ada Lovelace transcend time to invent an omnipotent steam-powered brain.


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


A MACHINE THAT CREATES PEACE


CÉSAR ALVAREZ, LEAD SINGER OF THE LISPS, DESCRIBES THE MAKING OF FUTURITY.


FUTURITY: A Musical by the Lisps is a musical about a fictional Civil War soldier, Julian Munro, attempting to invent a steam- powered artificial intelligence. He realizes early on that he has neither the resources, nor the technical knowledge, to build his “Steam Brain,” so he reaches out to Lord Byron’s daughter Ada Lovelace, a famous English mathematician. They begin a correspondence over letters that leads both to become embroiled by an idea: if this machine could become intelligent enough, it could solve all of humanity’s problems. Obviously, the biggest problem that Julian is facing at that time is the Civil War, so he


and Ada set forth to invent a machine that will create peace.


The piece is a musical meditation on imagination and technology. It explores the extent to which human beings create our own destruction (and also our own salvation) through our imagination. We constantly invent newer and crazier ways to kill one another, yet we also are inventing different ways of becoming connected. Looking at the current Computer Revolution through the eyes of those living in the 1860s—and, like Ada, beginning to realize the possibilities of computational technology—has been a lot of fun.


I started writing FUTURITY in 2007. In the last four years, technology has already changed so much. What the world saw in 2011 with the Arab Spring is a chain-reaction of democratic revolutions, a lot of which were made possible by the connectivity of the Internet. Social networks sometimes prevent us from getting out of our house and making real connections; but in another way, they allow us to be exponentially more aware of one another. I guess I’m a “techno-optimist,” but I feel like the plethora of information and connectivity


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Wild Swans


FUTURITY


Woody Sez


STEAM BRAIN. PHOTO: SAM HOUGH


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