THE ALLEY THEATRE
www.alleytheatre.org
Gregory Boyd, Artistic Director
PRESENT
COMMUNICATING DOORS
By Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Gregory Boyd
April 4 - 27, 2014
"I'm a
dominatrix!" exclaims Phoebe played by Julie Sharbutt. "It's
not violent, really. I don't like violence. Just a little bit of fun
and pain." The Alley Theatre’s
production of Communicating Doors runs
from April 4 – 27, 2014 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage. Photo by Mike
McCormick.
Alley Theatre Announces Cast and Creative Team for Alan Ayckbourn’s
Communicating Doors
April 4 through April 27, 2014 on Alley's Hubbard Stage
HOUSTON – Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Alan Ayckbourn’s science fiction comedy Communicating Doors. Eleven plays penned by Alan Ayckbourn have been produced by the Alley, including the American premiere of Henceforward, directed by Ayckbourn, in 1987 and House & Garden in 2002. Alan Ayckbourn has been inducted into the American Theatre’s Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts, became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.
Award-winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn returns to the Alley in this ingenious
comic tour de force where Back to the Future
meets Hitchcock. In 2024 Phoebe, a “private personal services consultant,” finds
herself with an elderly client in a posh hotel room – she opens the wrong door
and finds herself running for her life. Soon she is confronting her own past by
way of a woman named Ruella, and the two join forces to prevent a murder, while
Phoebe's gradual friendship with that remarkable woman changes the future for
both of them. Adult language. Sexual
Situations.
Communicating Doors
features Resident Company Members Jeffrey Bean as Reece, James Black as Julian,
Melissa Pritchett as Jessica and Todd Waite as Harold.
Communicating Doors also
features Alley favorite Josie de Guzman as Ruella (Alley’s
You Can’t Take it with You) and
Julie Sharbutt as Phoebe (Alley Debut).
Communicating Doors
features scenic design by Linda Buchanan and costume design by Judith Dolan.
Lighting design is by Michael Lincoln with sound design by Jill BC Du Boff and
projection design by Clint Allen.
Communicating Doors also features
Fight Director Rick Sordelet, Dialect Coach Pamela Prather, New
York casting by Alaine Alldaffer and Assistant Director Brandon Weinbrenner.
Communicating Doors, by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Gregory Boyd, begins performances Friday, April 4, 2014 opens officially Wednesday, April 9, 2014 and runs through April 27, 2014 on the Hubbard Stage.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Alan Ayckbourn
(Playwright) 2014 marks Alan’s 53rd year as a theatre director and his 55th as a
playwright. He has spent his life in theatre, rarely if ever tempted by
television or film, which perhaps explains why he continues to be so prolific.
To date he has written 78 plays and his work has been translated into over 35
languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won
countless awards.
Major successes include: Relatively Speaking,
How the Other Half Loves,
Absurd Person Singular,
Bedroom Farce,
A Chorus of Disapproval and The
Norman Conquests. In the past four
years, there have been revivals of Season's
Greetings and A Small Family
Business at the National Theatre and in the West End productions of
Absent Friends,
A Chorus of Disapproval and
Relatively Speaking. This year marks
the 50th anniversary of his first West End production,
Mr Whatnot.
In 2009, he retired as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph, where almost all
his plays have been and continue to be first staged. Holding the post for 37
years, he still feels that perhaps his greatest achievement was the
establishment of this company’s first permanent home when the two auditoria
complex fashioned from a former Odeon Cinema opened in 1996.
In recent years, he has been inducted into American Theatre’s Hall of Fame,
received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the
first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime
Achievement Awards. He was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.
www.alanayckbourn.net
"I'm like Faust. Sold my soul to the devil."
Reece
(Jeffrey
Bean) explains to Phoebe (Julie Sharbutt)
that all he wants is for her to sign this document. The Alley Theatre’s production of Communicating Doors runs
from April 4 – 27, 2014 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage. Photo by John
Everett.
ABOUT THE CAST
Jeffrey Bean
(Reece) is in
his 19th season as an Alley Company Artist and has appeared in over 100 Alley
productions since 1989. Recently he has appeared in the World Premiere of
Fool as King William,
A Christmas Carol as Ebenezer
Scrooge, You Can’t Take it With You
as Mr. De Pinna, The Elephant Man
as Frederick Treves,
Clybourne
Park
as Russ/Dan, Death of a Salesman
as Charley and November as
Charles Smith. Previous Alley highlights include
Amadeus as Salieri,
Boeing-Boeing as Robert, The
Farnsworth Invention as David Sarnoff,
Cyrano de Bergerac as Cyrano,
The Scene as Charlie,
Doubt as Father Flynn,
Subject to Fits as Prince Myshkin,
Much Ado About Nothing as
Benedick, The Pillowman as
Michal, Twelfth Night as Feste,
The Importance of Being Earnest
as Algernon, Billy Bishop Goes to War
as Billy Bishop, Gross Indecency
as Oscar Wilde, The Foreigner as
Charlie Baker and Stones in His Pockets
as Charlie Conlon, et al. Broadway credits include
Bells Are Ringing as Francis and
Amadeus as Kappelmeister Bonno. Film & Television credits
include Clinger, Law & Order, Law & Order:
SVU and All My Children.
He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts
and a Princess Grace Award winner. www.jeffreybean.com
James Black (Julian) is
proud to be celebrating his 27th consecutive season at the Alley Theatre where,
as an actor and occasional director, he has been involved in over 100
productions. Recent appearances include
Freud’s Last Session as Sigmund Freud,
You Can’t Take It With You as Martin
Vanderhof, The Hollow as Sir
Henry Angkatell, Sherlosk Holmes and the
Adventure of the Suicide Club as Mr. Richards/Mycroft Holmes,
The Elephant Man as Man/Conductor/Snork,
A Few Good Men as Capt. Matthew A.
Markinson, Black Coffee as
Hercule Poirot, Noises Off as
Lloyd Dallas, The Seafarer as
James “Sharky” Harkin, The Seagull
as Trigorin, Dividing the Estate
as Lewis Gordon, Pygmalion
as Colonel Pickering, Amadeus as
Count Orsini-Rosenberg, August: Osage County
as Steve Heidebrecht, Peter Pan
as Captain Hook/Mr. Darling, St.
Nicholas, Boeing-Boeing
as Bernard, Harvey as
Elwood P. Dowd, Mrs. Mannerly as
Jeffrey, and Our Town as Stage
Manager, among others. He has also directed
Clybourne
Park,
A Behanding in Spokane,
Doubt, Death on the
Nile,
Glengarry Glen Ross, Deathtrap, Dial “M” for Murder, Our Lady of 121st Street,
The Foreigner, Of Mice and Men
and
As Bees in Honey Drown. His film and
television credits include
Olympia, The
Man with the Perfect Swing, Houston: The Legend of Texas, Fire and Rain,
Challenger, Night Game,
and Killing in a Small Town. He
received a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut and a Drama Desk
nomination for Best Actor for Not About
Nightingales and a BackStage West Garland Award for his appearance
as Eddie Carbone in the Alley’s production of
A View from the Bridge.
"Just playing a little game, were you? Showing
him your little bag of tricks?"
Julian (James Black) questions Phoebe
(Julie Sharbutt)
in the Alley Theatre’s production of Communicating Doors
which runs April 4 – 27, 2014 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage. Photo by John
Everett.
Josie de Guzman (Ruella)
returns to the Alley having recently appeared as Penelope Sycamore in
You Can’t Take it with You, Lady
Angkatell in The Hollow, Club
Secretary in Sherlock Holmes and the
Adventure of the Suicide Club, Linda in
Death of a Salesman, Barbara Amory in
Black Coffee, Belinda Blair in
Noises Off, Arkadina in
The Seagull, Vera Claythorne in
And Then There Were None, Barbara
Fordham in August: Osage County,
Miss Casewell in The Mousetrap,
Berthe in Boeing-Boeing, Mrs.
Mannerly in Mrs. Mannerly, Mrs.
Gibbs in Our Town, Eleanor/Esme
in Rock ‘n’ Roll, Maggie Cutler
in The Man Who Came to Dinner,
Matilde in The Clean House, the
title role in Hapgood, as well
as After the Fall,
Twelfth Night,
Sherlock Holmes, And Then There Were None
and House &
Garden. She appeared as Mrs. Gibbs
in Hartford Stage’s production of Our Town.
Her Broadway career includes Tony nominations for
Guys and Dolls and West
Side Story, as well as creating roles in Nick and Nora, Runaways, and
Carmelina. She won the 2002 Connecticut Critics Award for
Anna in The King and I, and has
appeared extensively at the Public Theatre, where she created roles in Elizabeth
Swados’ Runaways, Lullaby and Goodnight
and The Haggadah, at
the Brooklyn Academy of Music in
Missionaries and Off-Broadway in
Tamara, Once Removed. Her
regional theatre appearances
include Hartford Stage in Diosa,
Great Lakes Theater in She Loves Me,
and The Denver Center in Man of La Mancha,
as well as such varied classical roles as Carmen, Viola, Varya, and Beatrice.
Her films include Exiles in
New York, FX,
and
FX2, while television appearances include
Miami Vice,
The Cosby Show, Third Watch, All My Children,
and Guiding Light. Her
recordings include Lullabies for Everyone and
Nanas Para Todos (both sold at cdbaby.com), as well as the
cast recordings of Guys and Dolls,
Carmelina, and
Runaways.
Melissa Pritchett
(Jessica) is an Alley Company Artist recently appearing in
You Can’t Take it With You as Essie,
The Hollow as Gerda Cristow,
Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide
Club as Mrs. Hudson/ Lucy O’Malley,
The Elephant Man as Pinhead/ Whore/
Miss Sandwich/ Countess, Death of a Salesman
as The Woman, Noises Off
as Brooke Ashton, Ether Dome
as Elizabeth Whitman Morton, Pygmalion
as Clara Eynsford-Hill, Amadeus
as Constanze Weber,
Boeing-Boeing as Gretchen,
Farnsworth Invention as Agnes,
Rock ‘n’ Roll as Gillian/Magda,
Eurydice as Little Stone, Cyrano
de Bergerac as Lise, Othello
as Bianca, Hitchcock Blonde
as Blonde, Much Ado About
Nothing as Ursula and The
Pillowman as Mother. Other theatre credits include
Beauty and the Beast,
Brigadoon at Theatre Under the Stars
and Footloose at Great Caruso
Dinner Theater. As a dancer, she was a principal dancer for Longview Ballet
Theatre. She has choreographed several shows for Bayou City Concert Musicals
including One Touch of Venus,
Finnian’s Rainbow and
Fiorello! She holds a BFA in Musical
Theatre from Sam Houston State University.
Julie Sharbutt (Phoebe)
is an actor, writer, and comedian based in her native New York. A graduate of
Vanderbilt University (BA) and NYU's Graduate Acting Program (MFA), theater
credits include The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park, New York Theater
Workshop, Red Bull Theater Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Georgia
Shakespeare Festival, Portland Stage and many others. She has studied and
performs improvisational and sketch comedy regularly at The Upright Citizens
Brigade Theater and Peoples Improv Theater. Television credits include a
recurring role as "Stacie" on The Good Wife
and Person of Interest. Feature
film credits include Moved, which she wrote and directed,
Maladies (SXSW 2013),
The Weekend,
The Last Day of August, and
True Story. Julie has appeared in many commercials and
webseries, volunteers with kids at New York's 52nd Street Project, and has
voiced characters in the popular Red Dead
Redemption video game. As a writer Julie has written a number of
comedy shows including Admazons
and the popular The Goods are Odd,
and her feature film Smart Girls
is currently in development with Beech Hill Films.
Todd Waite (Harold) is
in his 13th season as an Alley Company Artist. Most recently seen in
The Santaland Diaries as Crumpet,
You Can’t Take It With You as Paul Sycamore,
The Hollow as Gudgeon, and
Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide
Club as Sherlock Holmes. He has appeared in over 60 productions
including five Christmas seasons of the one-man show,
The Santaland Diaries. Other shows
include Noises Off as Frederick
Fellowes, Pygmalion as Henry
Higgins, Sherlock Holmes as
Sherlock Holmes, Rock ‘n’ Roll
as Jan, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?
as Martin, Arsenic and Old Lace
as Mortimer Brewster, Hapgood
as Kerner, Deathtrap as
Sydney, Art as Ivan,
Stones in His Pockets as Jake,
The Devil’s Disciple as Burgoyne,
The Mousetrap as Christopher Wren
and The 39 Steps as Richard
Hannay. Previously, Mr. Waite spent six seasons with the Shaw Festival Theatre,
played Enjolras in the Canadian premiere of
Les Miserables and guest-starred on all major U.S. and Canadian
networks. Awards include the Critic’s Choice Award for
Intimate Exchanges at Dallas Theater
Center and a Best Actor nomination for his performance in the world premiere of
The Coronation Voyage. He has
directed several Canadian premieres and was the resident director for Cirque du
Soleil’s ‘O’ in Las Vegas. A
recipient of the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship for master actor/teachers, Mr. Waite
holds an MFA in Directing, and is an adjunct professor for the University of
Houston’s Graduate Program in Theatre Education. His private students attend
Juilliard, Yale, The Royal Scottish Academy, The Stella Adler School, as well as
Stage Door Theater, Interlochen and Houston’s High School for the Performing and
Visual Arts.
Julie Sharbutt as Phoebe
and James Black as
Julian
in the Alley Theatre’s production of Communicating Doors
which runs April 4 – 27, 2014 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage. Photo by John
Everett.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Gregory Boyd (Artistic
Director) is celebrating his 24th Season as Artistic Director of the Alley.
During his tenure the Alley has risen in national and international prominence,
winning the Special Tony Award and experiencing record growth in its Houston
audiences, while also transferring its productions to major European Festivals
(including two in one season at the Venice Biennale), Broadway, and on tour to
40 American cities. Boyd’s addition of artistic associates has enhanced the
Alley’s visibility and reputation worldwide; while his commitment to
maintaining a resident company of actors has made the Alley unique among
American theatre companies. At the Alley, Mr. Boyd has produced over 100 new
productions of the widest ranging repertoire in the country, among them the
premieres of Not About Nightingales
by Tennessee Williams (Alley, London, Broadway),
Jekyll & Hyde, (Alley, National
Tour, Broadway), The Civil War
(which he also co-authored), Shakespeare’s Roman Plays (with Vanessa and Corin
Redgrave); Robert Wilson’s productions of
Hamlet, When We Dead Awaken and
Danton’s Death (with Richard Thomas); Ellen Burstyn in O’Neill’s
Long Day’s Journey Into Night and
Tony Kushner’s Angels in America
Parts 1 & 2 (both directed by Michael Wilson), premieres by Keith Reddin
(Synergy); Eve Ensler
(Lemonade); and Alley Artistic
Associates Edward Albee (The Play About the
Baby), Horton Foote (The
Carpetbagger’s Children), Ken Ludwig
(The Gershwins’ An American in Paris, Leading
Ladies) and Frank Wildhorn
(Jekyll & Hyde, Wonderland and
The Civil War). At the Alley, he has appeared as an actor in
Danton’s Death (Tom Paine) and
Cyrano de Bergerac (Cyrano) and
directed over 40 productions including:
Seagull, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Eurydice, Cyrano de Bergerac, Treasure Island, Subject
to Fits, Hitchcock Blonde, Hapgood, The Pillowman, Jekyll & Hyde, Three Sisters,
In the Jungle of Cities, After the Fall, The Greeks, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest, Macbeth, As You Like It, and
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Directing projects outside the
Alley have included Our Town at
Hartford Stage (Hal Holbrook), Coward’s
Design for Living at Williamstown (Marisa Tomei, Campbell Scott,
Steven Weber), Stoppard’s Travesties
at Long Wharf (Sam Waterston, Tom Hewitt) and the premiere of Pulitzer
Prize winner Robert Schenkkan’s Lewis and
Clark Reach the Euphrates at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
This season, he will direct the Premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s
Fool and
Communicating Doors.Boyd has served
as Panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts, the Texas Commission on the
Arts and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts. He has taught on the faculties
of Carnegie-Mellon, Williams College, the University of Houston, and the
University of North Carolina, where he headed the Professional Theatre Training
Program. He was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is
a Distinguished Alumnus, and at Carnegie-Mellon.
Linda Buchanan (Scenic
Design) has designed hundreds of stage productions at regional theatres
throughout the country and abroad. She has received the Merritt Award for
Design and Collaboration, Jefferson Awards for Scene Design for
House at Goodman
Theatre, Black Snow at Goodman
Theatre, and I Hate Hamlet
at The Royal George Theatre, and a Helen Hayes Award for
Dancing at Lughnasa
at Arena Stage. Recent design work includes
A Christmas Carol at Syracuse Stage,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at
Indiana Repertory Theatre, and Richard III
at Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Great Lakes Theater. Notable past projects
include the American Premiere of House
and Garden at the Goodman, the
musical adaptation of
Wings at Goodman Theatre and NY
Public Theater, and the
premiere production of
Marvin’s Room and 10 subsequent
regional productions, and commercial productions in New York and London.
Buchanan has been the Resident Designer at Court Theatre in Chicago, and Design
Director of R.D. Design Associates, where her work included the State of
Illinois Center dedication ceremony and over 100 environments for corporate
theatre and special events. Buchanan is Associate Dean for Curricular
Development at The Theatre School at DePaul University, where she is also Head
of the Scene Design program. Her work has been published in
Interior Design, Contract,
Exhibit Builder, American
Theatre and TCI
(Theatre Crafts International), and ED
(Entertainment Design).
"So, what's it like being a prostitute? Is it fun?" Ruella (Josie de Guzman)
asks Phoebe (Julie Sharbutt)
in the Alley Theatre’s production of Communicating Doors
which runs April 4 – 27, 2014 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage. Photo by John
Everett.
Judith Dolan (Costume
Design) has designed costumes for numerous Alley Theatre productions, including Fool,
Freud’s Last Session, You Can’t Take it with You, The Seafarer, Harvey, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Arsenic
and Old Lace, Leading Ladies,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The
Glass Menagerie, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Macbeth and As
You Like It. Her work extends beyond theatre to opera, film and
television. Dolan is a Tony Award-winner for
Candide who also earned a Lucille
Lortelle Award for The Petrified Prince and
two Drama Desk nominations. She designed the Broadway production of LoveMusik,
with music by Kurt Weill, as well as Parade and Hollywood
Arms by Carol Burnett and Carrie Hamilton. Other credits include Lewis
and Clark Reach the Euphrates and Travesties,
both directed by Gregory Boyd and the current
The Winter's Tale at the Old Globe,
directed by Barry Edelstein. Opera designs include Idomeneo for
Wolf Trap Opera Company and Christholf Von Dohnanyi’s The
Magic Flute for The Cleveland Orchestra. Dolan has designed for a
number of other companies, including Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, Theatre Clwyd in
Wales, Brooklyn Academy of Music, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, Goodman
Theatre, Houston Grand Opera and the Old Globe Theatre. She has a Ph.D. in
Directing and Design from Stanford University and is Professor in the Department
of Theater and Dance at the University of California, San Diego. She is the
recipient of the 2014 League of Professional Theatre Women's Ruth Morley Design
Award.
Michael Lincoln
(Lighting Design) has designed numerous Alley productions including
The Hollow,
Black Coffee, Boeing Boeing, And Then There Were None, A Streetcar Named
Desire, The Mousetrap, Hydriotaphia, Deathtrap, Proof, Our Lady of 121st
Street, Jitney, Synergy, Closer, and Slavs! among others. Michael’s career spans over 30 years
and 300 productions. His Broadway credits include
Copenhagen,
Skylight,
and
More To Love and associate designs for
Guys and Dolls, Six Degrees of Separation, City
of
Angels,
and Anything Goes. Michael’s
many Off-Broadway designs include People Be
Heard, Mr. Goldwyn, The Bubbly Black Girl..., If Love Were All, Defying Gravity,
Bunny Bunny and Swingtime
Canteen. He has designed for resident companies around the country
with long associations at Indiana Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Los
Angeles Ballet, The Santa Fe Opera, and Studio Theatre DC. Awards: L.A. Drama
Critics’ Circle and Drama Logue. Michael also currently heads the Ohio
University Theater Division. www.michaellincoln.net
Julie Sharbutt as Phoebe
and Josie de Guzman as Ruella
in the Alley Theatre’s production of Communicating Doors
which runs April 4 – 27, 2014 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage. Photo by John
Everett.
Jill BC Du Boff (Sound
Design) Alley Theatre credits include
Othello, Much
Ado
About
Nothing,
Gruesome Playground
Injuries,
The Monster At The Door,
The Seafarer, Black Coffee,
A Few Good Men and
The Hollow. Broadway credits include
Picnic,
Wit, Other
Desert
Cities, Good People, The Constant Wife, The Good Body
and
Bill Maher: Victory... Off-Broadway
credits include Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic Theater
Club, Vineyard Theatre, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, The Public, Second
Stage Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Women’s Project Theater, New Georges,
The Flea Theater, Cherry Lane Theatre, Signature Theatre Company, Clubbed Thumb
(Affiliate Artist) and Penguin Rep Theatre. Regional credits include Bay Street
Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Westport Country Playhouse,
Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Stage
and Film, Humana Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Atlantic Theatre
Festival. Radio credits include Studio 360, Naked Radio and RadioLab. Nominations
include Drama Desk and Henry Hewes awards. Awards include Ruth Morley Design
Award, Obie for Sustained Excellence and Lilly Award.
She is an
Adjunct Professor at Sarah Lawrence College.
Clint Allen
(Projection
Design) Recent credits include The Laramie
Project at Ford’s Theatre, Fly
at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis,
Sherlock Holmes and the Suicide Club
at Alley Theatre, Associate
Designer for The Elephant Man
and The Mountaintop at Alley
Theatre. Other regional projection credits include Ford’s Theatre production of
Fly;
The Farnsworth Invention,
Rock and Roll, Underneath the
Lintel at Alley Theatre; and the world premiere of
The Heavens are Hung in Black at
Ford’s Theatre. Other credits include Faith
Healer and Good Thief
at Stark Naked Theatre Company, Houston Shakespeare Festival’s
Hamlet and
Comedy of Errors, Ford’s Theatre’s
2013 Gala, world premiere of
Now This at University of Houston,
Among the Thugs at Horse Head
Theatre Company, Almost Maine,
Reckless at Brave Dog Players
and Hollywood to Broadway in
Shanghai China. Member of USA829.
Alaine Alldaffer, CSA
(New York Casting) is the Casting Director for Playwrights Horizons and works
with Lisa Donadio, who is the Associate Casting Director. Credits include
Clybourne
Park
and
Grey Gardens
on Broadway and Playwrights Horizons, Circle
Mirror Transformation which won an Artios Award,
Present Laughter which won an Artios
Award with Victor Garber for Huntington Theatre Company and Roundabout Theatre
Company. TV credits include The Knights of
Prosperity for ABC. Assoc. credits include
Ed for NBC and
Monk for USA. Theatres include
Women’s Project Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Soho Repertory Theater, Berkeley
Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre Company and Arena
Stage in D.C. Festivals include Williamstown Theatre Festival and Humana
Festival.
Pamela Prather (Dialect
Coach) is delighted to
return to the Alley Theatre after coaching Venus in Fur, You Can't Take it with You, The Hollow, The Elephant Man,
Death of A Salesman, Black Coffee, Noises Off, Boeing-Boeing, The
Gershwins’ An American in Paris, Othello and The
Lieutenant of Inishmore. She has also coached productions for Yale
Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Primary Stages in NYC, Underwood Theater in
NYC, The Play Company in NYC, The Edge Theatre Company in NYC, New York
Classical Theatre, St. Ann’s Warehouse DUMBO, Dance Theater Workshop in NYC and
Hamptons Shakespeare Festival. Pamela has taught voice, speech and dialects at
Yale School of Drama, NYU and UCLA and is currently an Assistant Professor of
Theatre at Purchase College, State University of New York. She received her MFA
in Acting from UCLA and is certified in Fitzmaurice Voicework®, Laughter Yoga
and Prana Yoga. Pamela is the founder of “LaughingVoice” www.pamelaprather.com
Rick Sordelet (Fight
Director) Broadway credits include 60 Broadway shows such as
The Lion King,
Beauty and the Beast, The
Scottsboro Boys, and the National Tours of
Beauty and the Beast, and
Les Miz. International credits
include 54 First Class productions worldwide including Ben
Hur Live in Rome and a European Tour. Opera credits include
Cyrano starring Placido Domingo at
The Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House and Teatro alla Scalla in Milan,
Don Carlo directed by Nicholas
Hytner at The Metropolitan Opera, and Heart
of the Soldier a new opera at San Francisco Opera. Regional credits
include hundreds and hundreds of shows all over the USA. Film credits include
The Game Plan starring Dwayne
“The Rock” Johnson and Dan in Real Life
starring Steve Carell, and Juliet Binoche. Television credits
include Stunt Coordinator for Guiding Light
for 12 years and One Life to
Live. Instructor at Yale School of Drama and HB Studios.
Affiliations include Board member for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.
Awards include Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence from the Lucille
Lortel Off-Broadway League, Jeff Award for Best Fight Direction for
Romeo and Juliet at Chicago
Shakespeare Theater.
Brandon Weinbrenner
(Assistant Director) is pleased to be working on his eighth show at the Alley as
Assistant Director, having previously worked on
Fool,
Other Desert Cities,
You Can’t Take It With
You,
The Hollow,
Sherlock Holmes and the
Adventure of the Suicide Club,
The Elephant
Man, and A Few Good Men.
Brandon made his Alley Theatre directing debut with David Ives’
Venus in Fur earlier this season.
Past theatrical credits include serving as the Bret C.Harte Directing Fellow at
Berkeley Rep, producing the 2013 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in his hometown
of Dallas, Texas, and acting in productions at the Guthrie Theater, The
Children’s Theatre Co., Illusion Theater, WaterTower Theatre, and Undermain
Theatre. Brandon is a graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater
BFA Acting Training Program.
Todd Waite as Harold and Julie Sharbutt as Phoebe in
the Alley Theatre’s production of Communicating Doors
which runs April 4 – 27, 2014 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage. Photo by John
Everett.
ABOUT THE ALLEY THEATRE
The Alley
Theatre is a nationally recognized Theatre Company based in Houston, Texas. The
Alley was founded in 1947 and is one of the few US companies with a commitment
to resident artists. Under the direction of Artistic Director Gregory Boyd and
Managing Director Dean R. Gladden, the Alley creates a wide-ranging repertoire
of innovative productions of classics, neglected modern plays, and new works in
its 11 production season. The Alley has brought its productions to Broadway,
Off-Broadway, London, 40 American cities, to Berlin, Paris, and St. Petersburg,
as well as to major European festivals (including two in one season at the
Venice Biennale). A recipient of the Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional
Theatre, the Alley has premiered plays by Edward Albee, Horton Foote, Robert
Wilson, Rajiv Joseph. Kenneth Lin, Eve Ensler, Keith Reddin, and Herbert
Siguenza, as well as creating the premieres of the musicals Jekyll
& Hyde, The Civil War, and
Wonderland. Other notable collaborations include The
Roman Plays (with Vanessa Redgrave),
Hydriotaphia (by Tony Kushner), and Danton's
Death. The Alley’s productions are built and rehearsed in the Alley
Theatre Center for Theatre Production – a 75,000-square-foot facility adjacent
to the theatres themselves and are performed on the 824-seat Hubbard Stage and
the 310-seat Neuhaus Stage. The Alley continues to provide its audiences with
thought-provoking, diverse and transformative theatre.
www.alleytheatre.org
SPONSORS
Communicating Doors is
generously sponsored by Lead Sponsors Chevron and Schlumberger and Supporting
Sponsors PwC and Rand Group. The Alley Theatre is supported by the 2013-2014
season sponsor United Airlines, the official airline of the Alley Theatre.
TICKET
INFORMATION
Tickets to
Communicating Doors start at $26. All tickets to
Communicating Doors are
available for purchase at alleytheatre.org, at the Alley Theatre Box Office, 615
Texas Avenue, or by calling 713.220.5700. Groups of 10 or more can receive
special concierge services and select discounts by calling 713.220.5700 and
asking for the group sales department.
$10 TIX
Saturday, April 5, 2014
The Alley Theatre continues its efforts to make the theatre affordable to
patrons. Partnering with other social non-profit organizations, the Alley seeks
to generate in-kind donations and reward patrons with $10 Tix for select
performances. The $10 Tix are available in person only on Saturday, April 5, and
are limited to two tickets per person. With your donation, you can purchase two
$10 tickets for Sunday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. or
Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. Donate and purchase in person at the Box Office
(615 Texas Ave.) on Saturday, April 5 only. Limited availability. The $10 Tix
partner for Comunicating Doors is to be determined.
CAPTIONED
AND AUDIO DESCRIBED PERFORMANCE
Sunday, April 6, 2014 at
2:30 p.m.
The Alley
Theatre offers access services for our deaf or hard of hearing and
sight-impaired patrons. Audio Description is provided for each Hubbard Stage
production and Open Captioning is offered for every Hubbard Stage and Neuhaus
Stage production. To ensure that your seats will accommodate your needs, please
call the box office 713.220.5700 when ordering tickets to this performance.
Discounted tickets are available for groups of 10 or more.
INTERACT
Thursday, April
10, 2014 at
6:00 p.m.
Grab your
group and join us for InterACT, the Alley Theatre’s newest pre-show mixer for
groups of 10 or more. Interact and network with members of other theatre-loving
groups while enjoying music, complimentary cocktails and appetizers provided by
Frankie P. Mandola's Catering and Damian's Cucina Italiana. This pre-curtain
event is FREE with a group purchase of 10 or more tickets to the 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 10 performance of Communicating
Doors. Group Leaders can contact the Group Sales Department at
713.315.3346 or email groupsales@alleytheatre.org to inquire about group rates,
seat availability, easy payment options and flexible payment due dates. The
Group Sales Department is open from 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.
InterACT is a great way to mix and mingle prior to seeing the performance.
Harold the hotel's house detective tries to arrest
Phoebe the prostitute as Ruella,
Reece's second wife looks on.
The Alley Theatre’s production of
Communicating Doors runs
from April 4 – 27, 2014 on the Alley's Hubbard Stage. Photo by John
Everett.
TALKBACK
Tuesday, April 15,
2014 at 7:30 p.m.
Members of
the cast return to the stage following the performance to take questions from
the audience. TalkBacks are led by a member of the Alley Artistic Staff.
ACTOUT
Thursday, April 17,
2014 6:00 – 7:15 p.m.
Join the
hottest GLBT theatre event in town! ActOUT is in its fifth season with a variety
of events and productions that will once again have Houston’s GLBT community
talking. Patrons enjoy fabulous pre-performance mixers with music, socializing,
complimentary cocktails and appetizers. The place to see and be seen, ActOUT is
sure to be a great night on the town. This pre-curtain event is FREE with your
ticket to the Thursday, April 17, 7:30 p.m. performance of
Comunicating Doors. To buy a
ticket, required for this event, use the promo code: ACTOUT. Purchase online
or by calling the Box Office anytime at 713.220.5700, then enter 1. For more
information, please email Shelley Finley or call 713.228.9341 ext. 556.
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