THE ALLEY THEATRE
www.alleytheatre.org
Gregory Boyd, Artistic Director
Dean R. Gladden, Managing Director
PRESENT
FREUD'S LAST SESSION
By Mark St. Germain
Directed by Tyler Marchant
January 24 - February 23, 2014
Alley Theatre Announces Cast and Creative Team for Mark St. Germain’s Freud’s Last Session
Freud’s Last Session Runs January 24 through February 23, 2014 on the Neuhaus Stage
HOUSTON – Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Freud’s Last Session. Tyler Marchant will direct. He also directed the World Premiere of Freud’s Last Session at Barrington Stage Company in Massachusetts where it became the longest-running show in the theatre’s history. The production then ran Off-Broadway for two years and 800 performances.
Freud’s Last Session centers on legendary psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud who invites a little-known professor C.S. Lewis (who later wrote the children's classic The Chronicles of Narnia), to his home in London. Lewis, expecting to be called on the carpet for satirizing Freud in a recent book, soon realizes Freud has a much more significant agenda. On the day England enters World War II, Freud and Lewis clash on the existence of God, love, sex, and the meaning of life. "The humor is plentiful" (The New York Times) in this "thrilling" (Variety) tête-à-tête. Recommended for general audiences.
Freud’s Last Session features Resident Company Members James Black as Sigmund Freud and Jay Sullivan as C.S. Lewis.
Freud’s Last Session features scenic design by Brian Prather and costume design by Judith Dolan. Lighting design is by Rui Rita with sound design by Beth Lake and dialect coach Stephen Gabis.
Freud’s Last Session, by Mark St. Germain, directed by Tyler Marchant, begins performances Friday, January 24 opens officially Wednesday, January 29, and runs through February 23, 2014 on the Neuhaus Stage.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Mark St. Germain (Playwright) has written the plays Camping with Henry and Tom, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award; Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap; Forgiving Typhoid Mary, one of Time Magazine’s “Year’s Ten Best”; Ears on a Beatle and The God Committee. With Randy Courts, he has written the musicals The Gifts of the Magi, Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller, winner of an AT&T “New Plays for the Nineties Award,” both produced at the Lamb’s Theatre Company, New York City. Jack’s Holiday was produced at Playwrights Horizons. Mark’s musical: Stand by Your Man, The Tammy Wynette Story was created for Nashville’s Ryman Theater and has toured nationally. He most recently co-wrote the libretto for Charles Strouse’s American Tragedy. Mark co-wrote the screenplay for Carroll Ballard’s Warner Brothers film, Duma. He most recently directed and co-produced the documentary My Dog, An Unconditional Love Story. My Dog features Richard Gere, Lynn Redgrave, and Glenn Close, among many others. It was shown on the Oprah Winfrey Network and a spinoff was filmed for A&E/BIO. Television credits include Writer and Creative Consultant for The Cosby Show, Life Stories, and Dick Wolf’s Crime and Punishment. Mark wrote the children’s book Three Cups, illustrated by April Willy. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists, where he was given the Joe A. Callaway Award, a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Writer’s Guild East, and a Board Member of the Barrington Stage Company. He was awarded the “New Voices in American Theatre” Award at the William Inge Theatre Festival.
ABOUT THE CAST
James Black (Sigmund Freud) 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 You Can’t Take It With You as Martin Vanderhof, The Hollow as Sir Henry Angkatell, Sherlock 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.
Jay Sullivan (C.S. Lewis) is an Alley Company Artist. Alley appearances include You Can’t Take It With You as Tony Kirby, The Hollow as Edward Angkatell, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club as Prince Nikita Starloff, The Elephant Man as Merrick, 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 Theater and Long Wharf Theatre; DogSeesGod as Matt/Pigpen at Soho Repertory Theater; Orestes: A Tragic Romp as Orestes at Folger Theatre and Two River Theater Company; Afternight Seating as James at Abingdon Theatre Company; 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. Graduate of Florida State University.
ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Tyler Marchant (Director) directed the World Premiere of Freud’s Last Session at Barrington Stage Company where it extended and became the longest-running show in the theatre’s history. The production subsequently made a commercial Off-Broadway transfer where it ran for two years and 800 performances. Tyler was nominated for a Joe A. Callaway Outstanding Director award for his work on the production. Tyler directed the Chicago and Los Angeles premieres of the play. Tyler has worked as a freelance Director and also served for over six years as the Associate Artistic Director at the Off-Broadway theatre Primary Stages in NYC from 2000-2006. His work on new plays led him to Primary Stages where he has worked with playwrights such as Terrence McNally, Horton and Daisy Foote, Stephen Belber, John Henry Redwood, A. R. Gurney, Lee Blessing, Michele Lowe, and many others. Tyler currently teaches Directing and Acting at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. Tyler received his MFA in Directing at the University of South Carolina and is a member of SDC.
Brian Prather (Scenic Design) is excited to make his debut with the Alley Theatre. Recent Off-Broadway designs include: A Christmas Carol, Becoming Dr. Ruth, The Memory Show, The Preacher and the Shrink, Freud’s Last Session, Nymph Errant, Iron Curtain, WTC View, The Burnt Part Boys, Fugitive Songs. International credits include Minyeo-neun Goerowo (South Korea). Regional credits include Goodspeed Musicals, Barrington Stage Co., Virginia Repertory Theatre, The Broad Stage, The Mercury Theater, Delaware Theatre Co., Shakespeare on the Sound, Hangar Theatre, TheaterWorks-Hartford , Florida Studio Theatre, and many others. He received a Jeff Equity Award in Chicago for Best Set Design.
Judith Dolan (Costume Design) has designed costumes for numerous Alley Theatre productions including 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. 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.
Rui Rita (Lighting Design) has designed Alley productions since 1996. His recent Alley credits include The Seafarer, Dividing the Estate, Pygmalion, The 39 Steps, Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood, Eurydice, A Christmas Carol, Cyrano de Bergerac, To Kill a Mockingbird, Sherlock Holmes, The Trip to Bountiful, The Invention of Love and Dinner with Friends, among others. On Broadway his designs include Trip to Bountiful, Present Laughter, Dividing the Estate, Old Acquaintance, Enchanted April and The Price. His Off-Broadway credits include the premieres of Horton Foote’s Old Friends and The Orphan’s Home Cycle for Signature Theatre Company; Big Bill, The Carpetbagger’s Children, Far East, and Ancestral Voices for Lincoln Center; Moonlight and Magnolias for Manhattan Theatre Club; Endpapers and Dinner with Friends both at Variety Arts Theatre; Dividing the Estate and The Day Emily Married at Primary Stages; revivals of Talley’s Folly and The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore recently at Roundabout Theatre Company; Crimes of the Heart at Second Stage Theatre; Antony and Cleopatra at New York Shakespeare Festival; and Piano Lesson at Signature Theatre Company. He has also designed productions at numerous regional theatres including the American Conservatory Theatre, Arena Stage, CenterStage, Ford’s Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Vancouver Opera, Westport Country Playhouse and Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Beth Lake (Sound Design) Off-Broadway credits include Freud’s Last Session in NYC, L.A., Chicago, and Regional; and Bronx Bombers (associate). NYC credits include Blue Window, Eurydice, Hot L Baltimore at The New School for Drama and Acting; Measure for Measure; Macbeth at Stella Adler Studio of Acting; Sakaram Binder at Columbia University; Bring a Weasel and A Pint of Your Own Blood at Brooklyn College; By Rights We Should Be Giants with Lunar Energy Productions. Resident Designer credits include Lunar Energy Productions. Regional credits include Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Bucks County Playhouse; TheaterWorks; South Coast Repertory; Geffen Playhouse; The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Education includes MFA from UC-Irvine.
Stephen Gabis (Dialect Coach) Alley Theatre credits include Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, The Seafarer, The 39 Steps, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Journey’s End. Select Broadway/Off-Broadway credits include Outside Mullingar, Winslow Boy, Loot, Fetch Clay, Make Man, Becoming Dr. Ruth, Juno And The Paycock, Lucky Guy, Macbeth, Once, Man And Boy, The Freedom Of The City, Tribes, The Book Of Mormon, Lombardi, Magic/Bird, A View From the Bridge, Lend Me Tenor, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Memphis, Brighton Beach Memoirs, The 39 Steps, The Farnsworth Invention, Shrek, Coram Boy, Faith Healer, Heartbreak House, The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, Doubt, Frozen, Port Authority, The North Pool, Look Back in Anger, Kin, Through a Glass Darkly and The Shags. Selected film/ television credits include Boardwalk Empire, Prime Suspect, Mildred Pierce, Across the Universe, Salt and The Notorious Bettie Page.
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
Freud’s Last Session is generously sponsored by Neuhaus Stage Season Sponsor Randall H. Jamail. The Alley Theatre is supported by the 2013-2014 season sponsor United Airlines, the official airline of the Alley Theatre.
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets to Freud’s Last Session start at $26. All tickets to Freud’s Last Session 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 PERFORMANCE
Sunday, January 26, 2014 @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.
TALKBACK
Tuesday, February 4, 2014 @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.
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