Exclusive: Rubén Flores Performs ‘Mandela’ From César Alvarez’s New Musical The Potluck

In 1979, during a protest in Greensboro, North Carolina, the KKK and the American Nazi Party shot and killed five demonstrators in what has since become known as the Greensboro Massacre. Two of the people murdered were Cesar Cauce, a Cuban immigrant and union organizer, and James Waller, a pediatrician and president of the local textile workers union. The murderers were later acquitted. 

Composer César James Alvarez was named after Cauce and Waller, a tribute from Alvarez’s parents to their deceased friends. That heritage, and what it meant then and now, forms the backbone of Alvarez’s new musical, The Potluck—currently playing a critically acclaimed and extended run, produced by Soho Rep and INTAR Theatre, through August 9.

In the exclusive video above, see Rubén Flores perform “Mandela,” a moving song from the show’s second act which sees Alvarez’s father singing a song for the deceased Cauce.

Alvarez admits that when they were commissioned to write The Potluck, they couldn’t figure out how to write it—they had sent the production company six ideas for musicals, not thinking that someone would actually say yes to a Greensboro Massacre musical.

The writer’s block is something they dramatize in the musical itself. Said Alvarez: “The realization of writing The Potluck was that I didn’t only have to address the Greensboro Massacre through the historical fact, but I could approach it through a spiritual conversation. Through that conversation, I found new understandings about how to locate myself in relationship to the revolutionary practice of my parents’ fallen comrades. In the musical, I asked my dad what he would say if he had the chance to talk to his friend, Cesar Cauce, who was murdered 40 years ago. This song [‘Mandela’] is his response.”

The musical, which can be characterized as a seance of sorts—the five killed at Greensboro appear as ghosts to the César on the stage (played by Anthony Alfaro). In imagining what a conversation between the five and those still living would look like, Alvarez has been surprised about how it’s resonated with audiences today, people who are also wondering how to live in a world still filled with injustice—when the dream of equal rights still feels far away.

“This show documents the true story of a spiritual recovery that happened through a creative process,” says Alvarez. “What’s been astonishing to see, now that the piece is in production, is how the survivor community, and the many people who were impacted by the Greensboro Massacre, have come together to experience the medicine of the work. I’ve also seen how it has impacted audiences with no connection to the Massacre but who are in similar struggle with the question: How can I turn the most painful thing in my life into something that does some good?”

Considering the positive response to The Potluck, including Lin-Manuel Miranda calling it “the most joyous and sumptuous new thing I’ve seen this year,” Alvarez has succeeded.