The Elephant Man

THE ALLEY THEATRE
www.alleytheatre.org
Gregory Boyd, Artistic Director
Dean R. Gladden, Managing Director

PRESENT

THE ELEPHANT MAN

By Bernard Pomerance

Directed by Gregory Boyd

April 12 - May 5, 2013

Alley Theatre Announces Cast and Creative Team for The Elephant Man

- The Elephant Man Runs April 12 through May 5, 2013 on Hubbard Stage

HOUSTON, TX -Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Bernard Pomerance's The Elephant Man, a story about the strength of the human spirit, compassion and humanity. Called "enthralling and luminous" by The New York Times, The Elephant Man, directed by Gregory Boyd, runs April 12 through May 5, 2013 on the Hubbard Stage.

Tony Award-winning and Drama Desk winner, The Elephant Man, is based on the true story of the "elephant man," so-called because of his hideous deformity. Its powerful and moving story chronicles the life of John Merrick, detailing his desperate existence in a Victorian freak show to his days as the toast of London high society. Pomerance weaves Merrick's tale into a parable on beauty, innocence and human dignity. Suitable for most audiences; some mature subject matter and brief nudity.

In the tradition of this play, John Merrick's deformity is suggested without the aid of makeup or prosthetics. Boyd explains that "this creates a highly theatrical depiction of the character and is essential to illustrate one of the plays central themes, the contrast between one's inner innocence and beauty - and society's confinement and power. By using the deformity to separate the protagonist from those in his Victorian world, Pomerance constructs a brilliant examination of 'the other' in society."

Using his body and voice to convey Merrick's deformities, Resident Company Actor Jay Sullivan will take on this challenge, and build this character collaboratively with the Director, Movement Director Peter Lobdell and Dialect, Voice and Text Coach Pamela Prather.

The Elephant also features Resident Company Members Jeffrey Bean as Frederick Treves, James Belcher as Ross/Will/Bishop Walsham How, James Black as Man/Conductor/Snork, Elizabeth Bunch as Mrs. Kendal, Emily Neves as Pinhead/Nurse/Princess Alexandra, Melissa Pritchett as Pinhead/Miss Sandwich/Countess and Todd Waite as Carr Gomm/Belgian Policeman/London Policeman. Also featured are Ellen Dyer, Justin O'Brien, Rebekah Stevens, and Tristien Marcellous Winfree.

The Elephant Man features scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez and costume design by Fabio Toblini. Lighting design is by Christopher Akerlind with original music and sound design by John Gromada, projection design by Jeff Sugg. Jacey Little is dramaturg and Brandon Weinbrenner is Assistant Director.

The Elephant Man, by Bernard Pomerance and directed by Gregory Boyd, begins performances Friday, April 12, opens officially Wednesday, April 17, and runs through Sunday, May 5, 2013, on the Hubbard Stage.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Bernard Pomerance was born and raised in New York City and educated at the University of Chicago; he moved to London in 1968. His first play, High in Vietnam, Hot Damn was performed at the Interaction Almost Free Theatre in 1972 and directed by Roland Rees. Along with Rees and David Aukin, Bernard helped to found the theatre company FOCO NOVO in 1972. The name was taken from Pomerance's play of the same title, the company's inaugural production at the Oval House in 1972. Others include Someone Else is Still Someone at Bush Theatre in 1974, Melons at RSC in 1985-86 and an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's A Man's a Man at Hampstead Theatre in 1975. His best known play, The Elephant Man,premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 1977. It was performed in repertory at Britain's National Theatre and several times off and on Broadway. For The Elephant Man, Bernard Pomerance won a Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics' Award, an Obie Award, a Drama Desk Award, and the outer Critics' Circle Award. Of the many revivals worldwide this play has enjoyed, the most significant was presented by David Aukin/ACT Productions on Broadway in 2002.

Jay Sullivan as Merrick in the Alley Theatre’s production of The Elephant Man. The Elephant Man runs on the Alley’s Hubbard Stage April 12 – May 5, 2013. For more information visit www.alleytheatre.org. Photo by Jann Whaley.

ABOUT THE CAST

Jeffrey Bean (Frederick Treves) is in his 18th season as an Alley Company Artist and has appeared in over 100 Alley productions since 1989. Recently he has appeared in A Few Good Men as Cmdr. Walter Stone, Clybourne Park as Russ/Dan, Death of a Salesman as Charley, November as Charles Smith, Black Coffee as Dr. Carelli, The Seagull as Sorin, Ether Dome as Dr. Charles Jackson, Amadeus as Salieri, August: Osage County as Bill Fordham, Peter Pan as Smee, Boeing-Boeing as Robert and The 39 Steps as Man #2. Previous Alley highlights include The Farnsworth Invention as David Sarnoff, Mauritius as Philip, 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, Journey's End as 2nd Lieutenant Trotter, The Pillowman as Michal, Hapgood as Ridley, Twelfth Night as Feste, The Importance of Being Earnest as Algernon, Billy Bishop Goes to War as Billy Bishop, Gross Indecency as Oscar Wilde, Arms & the Man as Bluntschli, The Crucible as Deputy Gov. Danforth, 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. Television credits include 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 Belcher (Ross/Will/Bishop Walsham How) is in his 24th season at the Alley Theatre. As an Alley Company Artist, he has appeared as Stanley in Death of a Salesman, Turkey Representative in November, Sir Claud Amory/Inspector Japp in Black Coffee, Shamreyev in The Seagull, Ether Dome, Baron Van Swieten in Amadeus, Charlie Aiken in August: Osage County, Cecco in Peter Pan, Major Metcalf in The Mousetrap, Fritz Engelhardt in Intelligence-Slave, Judge Omar Gaffney in Harvey, Joe Stoddard in Our Town, Leslie Gorrell in The Farnsworth Invention, Milan/Waiter in Rock 'n' Roll, Mr. Stanley in The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Rev. Samuel Gardner in Mrs. Warren's Profession, Ligniere and The Capuchin in Cyrano de Bergerac, Brabantio in Othello, Teddy Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace, Squire Trelawney/Bailiff/Job O'Brien in Treasure Island , Heck Tate in To Kill a Mockingbird, Lebedev in Subject to Fits, Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing, Sir Wilfred Robarts in Witness for the Prosecution, The Colonel in Journey's End, Dave Moss in Glengarry Glen Ross, Judge Hawthorne in The Crucible, Sir Claud Amory in Black Coffee, Captain Lesgate in Dial "M" for Murder, Victor in Our Lady of 121st Street, Antonio in Twelfth Night and Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (five seasons). He has a BFA in Drama Production from the University of Texas at Austin and a MFA in Directing from the University of Houston. In 1999, he received a BackStage West Garland Award for his role as Peter in the Alley's production of The Zoo Story.

James Black (Man/Conductor/Snork) is proud to be celebrating his 25th consecutive season at the Alley Theatre where as an actor and occasional director, he has been involved in over 100 productions. Recent appearances include 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, Our Town as Stage Manager, The Farnsworth Invention, Rock 'n' Roll as Max, The Man Who Came to Dinner as Sheridan Whiteside, A Christmas Carol as Mrs. Dilber/Jacob Marley, Cyrano de Bergerac as Le Bret, Othello as Iago, Arsenic and Old Lace as Jonathan Brewster, Treasure Island as Long John Silver, Hitchcock Blonde as Hitch, A Moon for the Misbegotten as James Tyrone Jr., Orson's Shadow as Olivier, Journey's End as Lieutenant Osborne, A Christmas Carol as Scrooge, The Crucible as Proctor, After the Fall as Quentin, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum as Marcus Lycus, Twelfth Night as Sir Toby Belch, Sherlock Holmes as Moriarty, Hamlet as Claudius, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as George, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest as McMurphy, How I Learned to Drive as Uncle Peck, A View From the Bridge as Eddie Carbone and Not About Nightingales as Butch O'Fallon, 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.

Elizabeth Bunch (Mrs. Kendal) has appeared in more than 30 shows at the Alley Theatre since 2002 and recently served as Assistant Director for The Seafarer and Amadeus. Performances include Bev/Kathy in Clybourne Park, Clarice Bernstein in November, Elizabeth Wells in Ether Dome, Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, Karen in August: Osage County, Wendy in Peter Pan, Boeing-Boeing, Harvey, The 39 Steps, Our Town, The Farnsworth Invention, Mauritius, Cyrano de Bergerac, Othello, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Scene, Doubt, Death on the Nile, Treasure Island, Steel Magnolias, Proof and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York theatre credits include The Voice of the Turtle produced by The Keen Company and The Mint Theater, The Water Children at Playwright Horizons, Museum with The Keen Company, The Light Outside with Bat Theater Company, and New World Rhapsody, The Motel Plays, and The Hospital Plays at HB Playwrights Foundation. Other theatre includes Little Foxes at The Denver Center, A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Guthrie Theater, Goosebumps a national tour produced by Feld Entertainment. Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Viola in Twelfth Night, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Isabella in Measure for Measure, Big Love and Arcadia with Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble. Television appearances include Law & Order: SVU. Elizabeth is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Ellen Dyer (Pinhead/Nurse) has previously been seen at the Alley Theatre in Dividing the Estate as Irene, Death of a Salesman as Jenny, The Seagull, Our Town and A Christmas Carol. Credits at Main Street Theater include Urinetown as Soupy Sue, The Secret Garden, Good Night Moon as Bunny, Ramona Quimby as Ramona, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie as Mouse, Go Dog Go and A Year with Frog and Toad. Credits also include Nicholas & Alexander as Anastasia at Stuart Ostrow’s musical lab and Adventures of Pinocchio as Punch Judy at UH Children’s Theatre Festival. Film credits include Tick, Tick, Bang Productions and The Cutting Room as Edit. She has a BA from the University of Houston.

Emily Neves (Pinhead/Nurse/Princess) is returning for her fourth season as an Alley Company Artist. She was last seen at the Alley in A Few Good Men as Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway, Clybourne Park as Betsy/Lindsey, A Christmas Carol as Fred's Wife/Belle, Death of a Salesman as Miss Forsythe, Amadeus, August: Osage County as Jean Fordham, Peter Pan as Michael/Jane, A Behanding in Spokane as Marilyn, Boeing-Boeing as Gloria, Harvey as Ruth Kelly, R.N., Our Town as Rebecca Gibbs, The Farnsworth Invention as Pem, Rock 'n' Roll as Esme/Alice, The Man Who Came to Dinner as June, Cyrano de Bergerac as Prostitute/Musician/Sister Claire and understudied the role of Janis Joplin as speaking in Love, Janis. Other theatre credits include The Emperor's New Clothes as Princess Liane with The Houston Children's Theatre Festival. Film credits include Starship Troopers: Invasion as Trig, MagCrew as Addison and Apart as young Julie Gates. She is a voice artist with Seraphim Studios and Funimation Entertainment, most notably appearing in Grave of the Fireflies, Halo Legends as Spartan in "The Babysitter", Angel Beats as Angel, and Clannad as Kotomi. She recently graduated cum laude from the BFA Pre-Professional Apprenticeship Program at Texas State University. While at Texas State, Emily performed at the 2012 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Washington, D.C. as part of a national finalist team in the Irene Ryan acting competition. Emily is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.

Melissa Pritchett (Pinhead/Miss Sandwich/Countess) is an Alley Company Artist recently appearing in 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 the Great Caruso. As a dancer, she was a principal dancer for Longview Ballet Theatre. She has choreographed several shows for Bayou City Musicals including One Touch Venus, Finnian's Rainbow and Fiorello! She holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Sam Houston State University.

Rebekah Stevens (Nurse/Pinhead/Lady) is proud to be returning to the Alley Theatre. Recent credits include Death of a Salesman as Letta, the world premiere of Ether Dome, The Seagull and A Christmas Carol at theAlley Theatre; the regional premiere of Next to Normal as Natalie, and Life Could be a Dream as Lois at Stages Rep; as well as reasons to be pretty as Carly and The Little Dog Laughed as Ellen at TLH. Rebekah is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado with a BA in Musical Theatre. She is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.

Jay Sullivan (Merrick) is an Alley Company Artist. Alley appearances include A Few Good Men as Cpl. Howard, Clybourne Park as Jim/Tom/Kenneth, A Christmas Carol as Fred/Scrooge at 21, Death of a Salesman as Happy, Black Coffee as Richard Amory, Red as Ken, Peter Pan as Peter, Our Town as George Gibbs and Eurydice as Orpheus. Jay recently made his Broadway debut in Jerusalem as Lee. Other theatre credits include Durango as Red Angel/Bob at The Public Theatre and Longwharf, DogSeesGod as Matt/Pigpen at Soho Repertory Theatre, Orestes: A Tragic Romp as Orestes at The Folger and Two River Theatre, Afternight Seating as James at Abingdon Theatre, and The Bilbao Effect as Grole Andacht at The Center for Architecture, as well as The History Boys as Dakin and Rock 'n' Roll as Stephen at The Studio Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing as Claudio produced by As Written Productions, and Romeo and Juliet as Benvolio at Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Film and television credits include The Good Wife, Law & Order SVU and The Unidentified. Jay is a Graduate of Florida State University.

Todd Waite (Carr Gomm/Belgian Policeman/London Policeman) is in his 12th season as an Alley Company Artist. Most recently seen in A Few Good Men as Capt. Isaac Whitaker, Death of a Salesman as Uncle Ben, and November as Archer Brown, 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 renowned Shaw Festival, 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 a BFA in Acting and an MFA in Directing, and is currently an adjunct professor for both the University of Houston's Graduate Program in Theatre Education and BFA Theatre Program. His private students attend Juilliard, Yale, The Royal Scottish Academy, The Stella Adler School, as well as Stage Door, Interlochen, and Houston's High School for the Performing Arts.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Gregory Boyd (Director) 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. His Alley premieres have been nominated for eight Tony Awards - 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). New Alley productions have included: 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 Boyd's collaborator on The Civil War, a musical theatre production that premiered at the Alley before going onto Broadway and two national tours). In addition, Boyd directed the recordings of "The Civil War" and "Jekyll & Hyde" for Atlantic Records. 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: 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. This season, he will direct The Seagull, Noises Off, and The Seafarer. His recent 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. 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.

Riccardo Hernandez (Scenic Designer) Broadway credits include The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess,which won the 2012 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival; The People in the Picture at Studio 54; Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change, also with Royal National Theater London, which won a 2007 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and a 2006 London's Evening Standard Award for Best Musical; TopDog/UnderDog, which won the 2002 Pulitzer Award Best Play, also at Royal Court, London; Elaine Stritch at Liberty, also West End's Old Vic and National Tour; Parade with Hal Prince director, which received Tony and Drama Desk Nominations; Bells Are Ringing, Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, also National Tours and Japan; and The Tempest. Recent credits include The Dead at Abbey Theater, Dublin; Il Postino sets and costumesat Los Angeles Opera, Theatre du Chatelet Paris, Theater an der Wien, and PBS Telecast; Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail at Opera de Nice, France; Sweeney Todd at Opera Theater of Saint Louis; The Lost Highway sets and costumes with Diane Paulus director, at London's English National Opera and Young Vic; La Mouette at Cour D'Honneur, Avignon Festival; Jan Karski, Mon Nom Est Fiction at Opera Theatre, Avignon Festiva; Abigail's Party at Oslo National Theater; Philip Glass' Appomatox with Robert Woodruff director, San Francisco Opera; Over 20 productions at New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater: The America Play, One Flea Spare, Stuff Happens, Mother Courage starring Meryl Streep, BAM, Lincoln Center, Atlantic Theater including collaborations with film director Ethan Cohen, Second Stage, NYTW, MTC, MCC, Playwrights Horizons, etc. Regional credits include American Repertory Theater, collaborations with Diane Paulus, Ron Daniels, Robert Woodruff, Janos Szasz, Arthur Nauzyciel and Robert Brustein; Guthrie; Goodman; Taper; La Jolla; Steppenwolf; McCarter, etc. Opera credits include Don Giovanni with Diane Paulus director, at Chicago Opera; Charles Wuorinen's Haroun with Mark Lamos director, New York City Opera; Amistad with George C. Wolfe director, Lyric Opera of Chicago; Houston Grand Opera, FGO, Santa Fe Opera, Gotham Opera NYC, etc. Other credits include Festival Automne Paris, Orleans CDN France, Det Norske Teatret Oslo Norway, and MXAT at Moscow Art Theater. Upcoming productions include Il Tabarro/I Pagliacci for Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Il Postino for Teatro Real de Madrid, directed by Ron Daniels, and La Traviata for Lyric Opera of Chicago, directed by Arin Arbus. Honors include a Princess Grace Statue Award. He is a Princeton University Lecturer and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Fabio Toblini (Costume Design) Alley Theatre credits include Misalliance, The Comedy of Errors, The Invention of Love, Sherlock Holmes, Much Ado about Nothing, and Subject to Fits . Other theatre credits include productions at Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, The Old Globe Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, American Players Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Ford's Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, Studio Theatre, UD Resident Ensemble Players. Opera credits include St. Louis Opera, Santa Fe Opera (Upcoming) Wexford Opera Festival (Ireland), Nationale Reisopera (NL), Landestheater (AU), Gotham Chamber Opera, Portland Opera and St. Louis Opera. Off-Broadway credits include the world premieres of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Batboy the Musical, Freckleface Strawberry and Charles Busch's The Divine Sister. Musical USA tours include The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Jesus Christ Superstar, Fame, and Godspell. Ballet credits include Ib Andersen's Diversions and The Nutcracker played every year at Ballet Arizona and a production of HMS Pinafore at the Guthrie Theatre, which was nationally broadcast on PBS last year. Awards include the Irene Sharaff Young Master 2008 and a Lucille Lortel Nomination in 2001. Fabio was awarded this year with the Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Bell, Book and Candle and The Tempest, both at Hartford Stage. Portfolio: www.fabiotoblini.com

Christopher Akerlind (Lighting Design) returns to the Alley Theatre having recently designed Amadeus, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Seven Guitars, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Young Man from Atlanta. He has designed over 600 productions at theatre and opera companies across the country and around the world. Broadway credits include The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess which received a Tony nomination, End of the Rainbow, Superior Donuts, Top Girls, 110 In The Shade which received a Tony nomination, Talk Radio, Shining City, Awake and Sing which received a Tony nomination, Well, Rabbit Hole, A Touch of the Poet, In My Life, The Light in the Piazza which received Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and Tony awards, Reckless, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Seven Guitars which received a Tony nomination and The Piano Lesson , among others. His extensive credits in opera include productions at the Bordeaux, Boston Lyric, Dallas, Glimmerglass, Hamburg, Houston, Lyric Opera Chicago, Metropolitan, Minnesota, New York City, Nissei, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Wexford Festival, and Washington National Operas, as well as over 40 productions for Opera Theater of Saint Louis where he was Resident Lighting Designer for 12 years. He is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design, the Chicago area's Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration, and numerous nominations for the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Tony Awards among many others.

John Gromada (Original Music and Sound Design) is a composer and sound designer for theatre, film, television and dance. Best known for his theatre music for plays, he has written scores and designed sound for many critically acclaimed, award-winning Broadway productions including The Best Man, Clybourne Park, The Columnist, Seminar, Next Fall, Proof, A Bronx Tale, Rabbit Hole, Twelve Angry Men, Sight Unseen, Prelude to a Kiss, A Few Good Men, among others. His many Off-Broadway and regional theatre scores are distinctive for their blend of original music and abstract sound design and have been a part of productions at leading theatres in the U.S. and abroad. His recent work includes scores for the Shakespeare in the Park production of Measure for Measure and the acclaimed production of the Horton Foote's The Orphans' Home Cycle at the Signature Theatre. Recordings of both scores are now available on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere. His theme and score for the new Granada USA televisions series, The Interrogators can be heard on the Biography Channel. John is the recipient of the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Obie, Henry Hewes, Drama-Logue, EDDY, and Connecticut Critics Circle awards, and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and Meet the Composer.

Jeff Sugg (Projection Design) is a Brooklyn-based designer and technical advisor. He has worked with many renowned companies and artists including Laurie Anderson, The Collapsable Giraffe, Richard Foreman, The Wooster Group and Cynthia Hopkins for whom he co-designed her Accidental Trilogy with Jim Findlay. More recently he designed sets, lights, and video for her newest piece, This Clement World. Some notable theatre projection designs, on and Off-Broadway, include Bring it On: The Musical, 33 Variations, Tribes, Compulsion, Book of Grace, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island (with Jim), and The Truth: A Tragedy. Jeff also works outside of New York. He has won a Bessie, a Lortel, an Obie, two Hewes Awards and had one Drama Desk nomination.

Peter Lobdell (Movement Director) is a senior resident artist in the Department of Theater and Dance at Amherst College. He directed mime and movement for the Broadway and National Touring companies of Equus. He has worked on 10 productions of Equus, most recently at the Stratford Festival in Ontario and at the Alley Theatre. He coached movement for the Broadway company of The Elephant Man . He has directed for Circle Rep Lab and the Music Theater Performing Group in New York. He has created and performed 50 theatre works presented at Dance Theatre Workshop, La Mama ETC, the Cubiculo, the Long Wharf Theater, Pepsico's Summerfare, the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, Yale Repertory Theater, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center among other venues. His work was presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, HOT in The Hague, Netherlands, the 9th Annual Festival of Marionettes in Ascona, Switzerland, and at T2 in Tokyo, Japan. He directed the mime and movement for the Alley Theatre's Our Town in the fall of 2009.

Pamela Prather (Dialect, Voice and Text Coach) is thrilled to return the Alley Theatre after coaching Death of a Salesman, Black Coffee, Noises Off, Boeing-Boeing, The Gershwins' An American in Paris, Othello and The Lieutenant of Inishmore . Other credits include Hartford Stage Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, Primary Stages, Underwood Theatre, The Play Company, The Edge Theatre Co., New York Classical Theatre, St. Ann's Warehouse DUMBO, Dance Theatre Workshop and Hampton's Shakespeare Festival. Pamela is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre at SUNY Purchase College and has taught at Yale School of Drama, NYU and UCLA. She received her MFA in Acting from UCLA and is certified in Fitzmaurice Voicework®, Laughter Yoga and Prana Yoga. Pamela is the founder of "Laughing Voice" www.pamelaprather.com

Jacey Little (Dramarturg) is the Associate Literary Manager and Dramaturg for the Alley Theatre. Before joining the Alley in 2011, Jacey worked as a freelance dramaturg for the Houston Shakespeare Festival, The Landing Theatre Company and Mildred's Umbrella Theatre Company. Her Alley credits include Assistant Director and Dramaturg for Death of a Salesman and The Seagull and Dramaturg for The Mountaintop, Red, The Seafarer and What We're Up Against. Jacey received her BFA from the University of Oklahoma and is currently completing her MA thesis at the University of Houston.

(Left to Right) Jeffrey Bean as Treves and Elizabeth Bunch as Mrs. Kendal in the Alley Theatre’s production of The Elephant Man. The Elephant Man runs on the Alley’s Hubbard Stage April 12 – May 5, 2013. For more information visit www.alleytheatre.org. Photo by Jann Whaley.

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. alleytheatre.org

SPONSORS

The Elephant Man is generously sponsored by Supporting Sponsors KPMG LLP and Thompson & Knight LLP. The Alley Theatre is supported by the 2012-2013 season sponsor United Airlines, the official airline of the Alley Theatre.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets to The Elephant Man start at $26. All tickets to The Elephant Man 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.

CAPTIONED AND AUDIO DESCRIBED PERFORMANCE

Sunday, April 14, 2013 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.

BARRIO DOGS $10 TIX

Sunday, April 14, 2013

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 Sunday, April 14 and are limited to two tickets per person. With your donation, you can purchase two $10 tickets for Sunday,April 14 at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. or Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. Donate and purchase in person at the box office (615 Texas Ave.) on Sunday, April 14 only. Limited availability The $10 Tix partner for The Elephant Man is Barrio Dogs. The date to donate and purchase is Sunday, April 14. Bring unopened/unexpired canned dog and cat food to the box office starting at 11 A.M.

TALKBACK

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 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 25, 2013 from 6:00 - 7:15 p.m.

Houston's premiere theatre group for gay and lesbian theatre fans and their friends celebrates the Alley Theatre's production of The Elephant Man. This pre-curtain event is complimentary with your ticket to the Thursday, April 25, 7:30 p.m. performance of The Elephant Man. To buy a ticket, required for this event, use the promo code: ACTOUT. Purchase online at www.alleytheatre.org or call the box office at 713.220.5700.

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