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Alvaro Saar Rios (born July 29) is a Mexican-American playwright from Houston, Texas. He is most known for his play Luchadora!, which was named as one of the 15 best plays in Milwaukee for 2014-2015. It also received the Distinguished Play Award by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and is Rios’ only published play. His plays have been performed in New York City, Hawaii, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Texas. He currently lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife Michelle Lopez-Rios.

Early Life/ Education
Alvaro Saar Rios was born in Houston Texas, on July 29. After high school, he joined the United States Army, until 1996 when he received an honorable discharge. He attended Houston Community College and University of Houston where he graduated in 2001 with a B.A. degree in Creative Writing. During his time at University of Houston, Rios took a playwriting class with the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee. In 2010, he graduated from Northwestern University, with an M.F.A. in Writing for the Stage and Screen. In his time at Northwestern, Rios co-wrote the pilot to "Prison Boat", a TV show comedy about "three dim witted brothers that get sent to jail for political corruption, and try to redeem themselves by spreading Democracy to prison."

Career
Rios wrote his first play, Magic Bone, in 1998 when a professor at Houston Community College payed him $200.00 to write a young audience play; he wrote the play in less than a week.

In 2004, Rios co-founded The Royal Mexican Players, an all Latino performance troupe, along with his wife in Houston. The Royal Mexican Players have since moved to Chicago.

After having previously worked with them, First Stage Children's Theatre in Wisconsin commissioned Rios to write Luchadora! a play inspired by the Chinese legend of Mulan "through the prism of Mexican culture and one family’s journey to Wisconsin". In 2017, Rios was announced as one of Chicago Dramatists' 7 resident playwrights. He also currently is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for Playwriting and Analysis.

Works

 * Magic Bone (1998)
 * The Crazy Mexican Show (2004) Produced with the Royal Mexican Players
 * A Trip Through the Mind of a 'Crazy' Mexican (2006) Produced with the Royal Mexican Players.
 * Bienvenidos a Milwaukee/Welcome to Milwaukee (2008)
 * One Hot Texican Summer (or the Summer I found out I was Mexican (2010)
 * Seguin: Unsung Texican Hero (2012) Commissioned by Alley Theatre, Houston, TX.
 * The Mole Hill Stories (2013)  A bilingual play adaptation of books written by nationally known children's author Lois Ehlert.  Commissioned by First Stage Children's Theatre
 * Luchadora! (2015)  Commissioned by First Stage Children's Theatre
 * The History of Mexicans in 10 Minutes (2017)
 * On The Wings of Mariposa (2019) Commissioned by First Stage Children's Theatre