The 2016 Jonathan Larson Grants for emerging musical theatre writers went to César Alvarez (book, music and lyrics), Nikko Benson (music and lyrics), Carson Kreitzer (book and lyrics) and Sam Salmond (book, music and lyrics). The four grants were presented in a ceremony March 21.

“The Jonathan Larson Grants give us the opportunity each year to support exciting new theater makers and invest in the changing landscape of the American musical, one writer at a time,” said Heather Hitchens, president of the American Theatre Wing, which administers the grants. There are no strings attached to the grants, which are given to emerging composers, lyricists and book writers, to help to continue Larson’s dream of "infusing musical theatre with a contemporary, joyful, urban vitality," according to a Wing statement.

Alvarez has written music for Futurity, An Octoroon, The Foundry Theater's Good Person of Szechwan and The Universe is a Small Hat.

Benson's projects include Nikola Tesla Drops The Beat. His songs have been featured at cabaret venues around the city.

Kreitzer is a 2015/16 McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, and her current projects include Capital Crime!, a commission for the Guthrie Theatre, and Lempicka, a new musical with composer Matt Gould.

Salmond is writing music and lyrics for an adaptation of Eighty-Sixed, the novel by humorist and AIDS activist David Feinberg.

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See César Alvarez, Nikko Benson, Carson Kreitzer and Sam Salmond Receive the 2016 Jonathan Larson Grant

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