ALLEY THEATRE
Gregory Boyd, Artistic Director
Paul R. Tetreault, Managing Director
www.alleytheatre.org

ALLEY THEATRE 2001 - 2002 SEASON
CELEBRATES THE VERSATILITY
OF ITS REMARKABLE RESIDENT COMPANY OF ACTORS

Extraordinary Casting Intricacies of Yasmina Reza’s ART and Alan Ayckbourn’s Ambitious HOUSE and GARDEN Stretch the Imagination of Actor and Audience; Season Begins with Elizabeth Ashley in Tennessee Williams’ Masterwork, THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Houston, Texas - Alley Artistic Director Gregory Boyd has assembled a season sure to exercise the talents of the Theatre’s Resident Company of Actors and dazzle its patrons. This season, audiences will see six Alley Resident Company of Actors take on three roles - in a variety of combinations - in Yasmina Reza’s popular comedy ART.

Alley goers will also play a part in a rare staging of Alan Ayckbourn’s ingenious carousel of comedies, HOUSE and GARDEN, which utilizes both the Alley’s Large Stage and Neuhaus Arena Stage in simultaneous performances on the same night, with the same cast. And, to begin the season, Elizabeth Ashley creates the role of Amanda Wingfield in Hartford Stage Company’s highly lauded staging of Tennessee Williams’ THE GLASS MENAGERIE, directed by HSC Artistic Director, Michael Wilson. Tom Stoppard’s THE INVENTION OF LOVE, August Wilson’s Jitney, John Steinbeck’s OF MICE AND MEN and an Alley Encore of Ken Kesey’s ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST are other highlights of the Alley’s season.

Making a commitment to Mr. Boyd’s vision, Stanford Financial Group will serve as the Large Stage Season Sponsor for the fourth consecutive season. Baker & Hostetler, counselors at law, have again stepped up as the Neuhaus Arena Stage Season Sponsor.

The Alley Theatre’s 2001 - 2002 Season - which begins with ExxonMobil Summer Chills 2001 featuring THE WOMAN IN BLACK, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the novel by Susan Hill, July 20 through August 12, 2001 includes:

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THE GLASS MENAGERIE
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Michael Wilson
Large Stage
August 24 - September 22, 2001

Directed by Hartford Stage Artistic Director Michael Wilson (last season’s world premiere of THE CARPETBAGGER’S CHILDREN), this revival of one of the greatest plays of the American Theatre features Tony Award - winner Elizabeth Ashley as Amanda Wingfield, a faded Southern belle who lives on the memories of her gentleman callers and the desire to find happiness and good fortune for her children. Ashley has crafted a celebrated career that spans more than 40 years - with almost 30 of those years devoted to starring in plays by Tennessee Williams. She received the Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway production of Take Her, She’s Mine and received Tony nominations for her performances in Barefoot in the Park opposite Robert Redford and the notable 1974 revival of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. She has starred in the films Rancho Deluxe, 92 in the Shade, Coma, Happiness and played Freida Evans in the popular television series Evening Shade.

The cast also includes Robert Sella as Tom (Broadway’s Cabaret and Sideman, Alley’s Black Coffee) and Anne Dudek as Laura (Broadway’s Wrong Mountain).

Sponsored by BJ Services Company and Shell Oil Company Foundation, this production of The Glass Menagerie prompted The New York Times to rave, “It isn’t likely that a star has put a more individual spin than Ms. Ashley does on the fearsome character who Williams said induces love and pity as much as laughter.” Set against the backdrop of Depression - era St. Louis, The Glass Menagerie is Williams’ haunting and lyrical ode to his family, and was his first great success.

Scenic Designer Tony Straiges (Alley’s A Flea In Her Ear and Long Day’s Journey into Night), Tony Award - winning Costume Designer Judith Anne Dolan (Alley’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, As You Like it), Lighting Designer Howell Binkley (Alley’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Macbeth and The Civil War) and Composer / Sound Designer John Gromada (the world premiere of The Carpetbagger’s Children and original music for The Greeks) have created the fragile environment where this memory play takes place.

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In a creative leap to showcase the talents of the Alley’s Resident Company of Actors, Artistic Director Gregory Boyd has enlisted six Alley Resident Company Actors - James Black, K. Todd Freeman, Paul Hope, David Rainey, John Tyson, and Todd Waite - to embody the three amusing characters of Yasmina Reza’s dazzling comedy, ART. Directed by Kurt Beattie (Associate Artistic Director of A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle), this exhilarating plan promises spontaneous nights of comedy throughout the run of the show with many potential casting combinations.

Reza’s international comedy sensation chronicles the hilarious events surrounding the purchase of a contemporary painting for a huge amount of money. Marc hates it and can’t believe Serge could possibly want such a work. Yvan attempts, unsuccessfully to placate both sides in what has become one of the wittiest contemporary comedies.

Reza’s clever comedy ran for over a year a the Comedie des Champs - Elysees in Paris and has already garnered the Moliere Award for Best Play, Olivier Award for Best Comedy, Evening Standard Award for Best New Comedy, as well as a Tony and New York Critics Award for Best Play. “A remarkable wise, witty and intelligent comedy - ART has touched a universal nerve,” wrote The New York Times.

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Providing warm holiday merriment for adults and children alike, the Alley’s chilling rendition of Charles Dickens’ “ghostly little book” reminds audiences of Dickens’ timeless theme of redemption. “The holiday season acts a catalyst to bring people back together and bring compassion back in their lives,” said Alley Resident Company Actor James Belcher, who played Scrooge last season. “A CHRISTMAS CAROL has been able to convey a human emotion and feeling that everyone recognizes. Isn’t that genius!”

The touching story of A Christmas Carol, where the miserly old Scrooge goes from “Bah, Humbug!” to “Merry Christmas!,” is a well - known tale that has become part of our holiday folklore. From youngsters to the young at heart, audiences laugh with delight and scream with fright throughout Dickens’ entertaining story of Scrooge, Tiny Tim and the spirtis of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

Adapted and originally directed by Stephen Rayne, this ambitious physical production - with a cast of more than 30 - incorporates projections and other contemporary techniques to create the nightmarish dream world that Dickens originally described in 1843. The 2001 production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS is presented by Conoco and sponsored byLyondell Chemical Company.

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From the internationally acclaimed author of SEVEN GUITARS and MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, among others, JITNEY is August Wilson’s examination of 1970’s Pittsburgh. Part of Wilson’s decade - by - decade exploration of African - American life in the 20th century, JITNEY was Wilson’s first play and was noted for the fidelity with which it portrayed black urban speech and life.

Wilson’s play takes a deep look at one community’s attempts to hold onto their way of life in the face of threats to tear down the taxi dispatch office that has served as the neighborhood’s longtime gathering spot. Jonathan Wilson, who also directed the Alley’s production of Seven Guitars, will direct.

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OF MICE AND MEN
by John Steinbeck
Directed by James Black
Neuhaus Arena Stage
January 18 - February 17, 2002 (press opening January 23, 2002)

Steinbeck’s story is an American classic, an examination of the true nature of friendship in an unfriendly world. Set in rural 1930’s California, OF MICE AND MEN mythologizes an America struggling to reinvent itself.

This production will be directed by Alley Resident Company Actor / Associate Director James Black and will be the first in the newly restored Neuhaus Arena Stage.

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AN ALLEY ENCORE

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST

By Dale Wasserman, Adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey
Directed by Gregory Boyd
Large Stage
February 22 - March 23, 2002 (press opening February 27, 2002)

Counterculture icon Ken Kesey’s thrilling 1962 satire of mentla health institutions., government institutions and all institutions questions the distinctions made by society between sanity and insanity, freedom and responsibility. In this American celebration of rebelliousness, Alley Resident Company Actors James Black and Annalee Jefferies reprise their roles as McMurphy6 and Nurse Ratched.

Gregory Boyd directed ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST in 1992 as his debut on the Alley’s Neuhaus Arena Stage. This season, Boyd returns to direct this Alley audience favorite, mounting it on the theatre’s Large Stage.

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HOUSE and GARDEN are two linked plays performed simultaneously in the Alley’s two theatres, by the same cast. Each play can be seen singly, and in any order, but undoubtedly you’ll want to see both sides of the story! HOUSE and GARDEN were huge hits at the Royal National Theatre in London last season. The Alley’s two - theatre complex is ideally suited for the mounting of this extraordinary theatrical treat. A character will walk off the set of HOUSE on the Large Stage, negotiate the backstage maze of corridors and stairscases and appear, with only seconds to spare, on the set of GARDEN in the Neuhaus Arena. And the traffic flows both ways!

“You will have a good time if you see only one of these plays, but you will gain far more insight into both the (many) characters and Ayckbourn’s astonishing ingenuity if you see both. The fiendish difficulty of the challenge he has set himself seems to have spurred him to some of his finest and deepest comedy. Hilarity, as so often in his work, is combined with moments of deep feeling,” wrote The Daily Telegraph.

HOUSE, Large Stage
April 12, 2002 - May 12, 2002 (public opening April 17, 2002)
Up in the house, Teddy has dreams of a bright future as the new local member of Parliament. The only thing barring his path, is an urgent need to clean up his private life before the Prime Minister’s special envoy arrives.

GARDEN, Neuhaus Arena Stage
April 12 - May 12, 2002 (public opening April 17, 2002)
Down in the garden, frenzied preparations are underway for the annual village carnival. Will the young maypole dancers pull it off? Will the French film star arrive on time? Is there someone sinister hiding in the bushes? And what exactly does go on in the fortune teller’s booth?

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THE INVENTION OF LOVE

By Tom Stoppard
Neuhaus Arena Stage
Directed by Gregory Boyd
May 24, 2001 - June 23, 2002 (press opening May 29, 2002)

From the author of recent Alley favorites Travesties and The Real Thing, comes the critically acclaimed THE INVENTION OF LOVE. A fantastical look at the life of A. E. Housman, renowned classical scholar and one of England’s favorite poets, THE INVENTION OF LOVE is rich with Stoppard’s characteristic celebration of romance and language.

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ALLEY THEATRE’S 2001 - 2002 SEASON
CELEBRATES THE VERSATILITY
OF ITS REMARKABLE RESIDENT COMPANY OF ACTORS

In a season that celebrates the Alley Resident company, it seems fitting that Mr. Boyd would grow the compay, a missiong that he actively began last season and will continue for the upcoming years. K. Todd Freeman, Tony - nominated actor of The Song of Jacob Zulu, Steppenwolf ensemble member and a founder of the Drama Dept., will join the Alley Resident Company of Actors this season.

The Alley also continues its involvement in the community by offering a number of new programs - many of them FREE of charge - to the public. The Alley’s teen drama program, Theatre High, a weekly workshop of young thespians held at 7 p m. every Tuesday at the Alley, will produce a number of public performances this year, including a collection of original short plays at Miller Outdoor Theater at 11 a.m. Friday, September 21, 2001. Late summer brings the return of the Alley’s Houston Young Playwrights Exchange, better known as HYPE, August 10 and 11, 2001 at High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

The 2001 - 2002 season also includes the return to local schools of the Alley’s Living History Series, which includes John & Juan, a bilingual production about the shared history of Mexico and Texas, that will play in September, 2001 for Hispanic Heritage Month and in May, and Barbara Jordan: Texas Treasure, a new play for children - commissioned by the Alley Theatre - about the life of the distinguished Texas Congresswoman and legendary orator. Additionally, ENRON has renewed its support as lead sponsor of a major project surrounding the production, including teacher training in a new public speaking curriculum for middle schools, a speech competition for middle school - age girls, and an essay contest for all Houston - area seventh graders in Ms. Jordan’s honor.

Fall 2001 brings the continuation of the exciting alliance between the Alley and the University of Houston School of Theatre. This collaboration will turn out a transcendent new adaptation of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK by Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett, newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman. This production once again partners the Alley’s Resident Company of Actors and artistic staff with School of Theatre students, faculty and staff.

TICKET INFORMATION

Season subscriptions start as low as $98 and may be purchased by calling 713-228-8421, or in person at the Alley Theatre Box Office, 615 Texas Avenue.

Single Tickets to the 2001 - 2002 Season go on sale October 1, 2001. All single tickets will be available online at www.alleytheatre.org or by phone at 713-228-8421. Single tickets range in price from $25 - $50. Groups of 10 persons or more can purchase tickets at a discounted rate by calling the group sales department at 713-228-9341, ext. 346.

Spanish translated performances are available the first Sunday after the opening date of each Large Stage production. “Pay - What - You Can” performances, pre- and post-show discussions, American Sign Languge interpretation, open captioning and audio description are offered for select performances. Please call 713-228-8421 for more information.

All plays are subject to change.