Alvara Saar Rios is an Associate Professor of Playwriting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he mentors aspiring theatremakers who hope to make a space for themselves.  He recently created New Dramaworks, a series geared at introducing undergraduates of various disciplines to the process of new play development.

Alvaro Saar Rios is a Texican playwright living in Chicago who creates experiences for multi-generational audiences.  His plays have been performed (professionally or by teatristas doing it out of pure love) in New York City, Mexico City, Hawaii, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and all over Texas. He has received playwriting commissions from various organizations, including Kennedy Center, Chicago Children’s Theatre, First Stage, Houston Grand Opera, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Alley Theatre, Purple Rose Theatre Company, Express Children’s Theatre, Milwaukee’s United Community Center, Houston Community College, and Zoological Society of Milwaukee. He is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and Playwright-In-Residence at Milwaukee’s First Stage.

His award-winning play Luchadora! is published by Dramatic Publishing Inc.   Other plays include On The Wings of a Mariposa, The Day the Music Came Back, and Piggsville, a quasi-adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He co-wrote the virtual musical Unmuted with composer Deborah Wicks La Puma.  He also wrote a stage adaptation of Matt de la Peña’s New York Times Best Seller Carmela Full of Wishes. Recently, Alvaro’s collection of short plays Musings of a Crazy Texican was published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide. He is currently adapting Pam Muñoz Ryan’s novel Esperanza Rising for the stage.