Houston, Tx - The Alley Theatre welcomes in its spring season with Alan Ayckbourn's extraordinary new pair of "linked" comedies, House and Garden. The two full - length plays are performed simultaneously by the same cast in the Alley's two adjacent theaters at every performance. The Alley's Large Stage is the home of House, and Garden blooms downstairs in the beautifully restored Neuhaus Arena Stage. Preview performances of both House and Garden begin Friday, April 12, 2002, with the opening on Wednesday, April 17, 2002. Both House and Garden run through Sunday, May 12, 2002.

House is co - sponsored by Boeing and The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, along with the Stanford Financial Group, the Alley's 2001 - 2002 Large Stage Season Sponsor. Support for Garden comes from The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts and Baker & Hostetler LLP, the Alley's 2001 - 2002 Neuhaus Arena Stage Season Sponsor.

Ayckbourn's ingenious construction of House and Garden requires that the same cast of 13 actors perform both plays in both theaters simultaneously, running from an exit on the Large Stage to an entrance in the Arena Stage. Part of the fun for the audience is the awareness that the other play is being performed on the other stage at the Alley, and that the actors we see entering or exiting have just rushed backstage, up and down stairs, from an exit or an entrance in the other play.

Each play is a complete and satisfying experience in itself, but audiences who want to appreciate the full depth of Ayckbourn's theatrical accomplishment should see both plays. It does not matter which play is seen first, though audience members may argue over their favorite order.

For fans of Ayckbourn, the comic terrain is familiar - romantic angst in the English middle class. And the approach and ingenuity is classic Ayckbourn too. Always fascinated by the possibilities of manipulating stage time and stage space, Ayckbourn plays with both in House and Garden, making the audience aware that every exit is an entrance somewhere else, and that the roles we play in life grow and diminish depending on whose watching us, and when and where.

Both HOUSE (on the Alley's Large Stage) and GARDEN (in the Arena) take palce on a country estate some 200 miles from London, on a Saturday in August. HOUSE is set in the living room of the Platt family, through whose French windows we catch a glimpse of the garden outside. And GARDEN, as might be expected, is set in the garden itself, outside the house.

Teddy Platt's family has occupied the house for generations. Teddy (Resident Company Actor James Black) oversees the slipping family business but devotes most of his energies to being a philandering womanizer. Teddy is currently involved with his neighbor Joanna (Kimberly King), wife of his best friend Giles (Resident Company Actor Todd Waite). In response, Teddy's wife Trish (Resident Company Actor Elizabeth Heflin) has obliterated her husband from her consciousness and presents not to see or hear him.

This Saturday is a special day - for two reasons. First, it is the day of the annual village fete, or fair, traditionally held on the lawns of the Platt's garden. This year, the celebrity guest is the somewhat - unknown Lucille Cadeau, a French film actress (Josie de Guzman in her Alley debut). Second, Teddy's school chum Gavin Ryng - Mayne (Resident Company Actor Paul Hope), the novelist and political insider, is coming for a special talk that could lead to a change in Teddy's fortunes - if Teddy can clean up his act in time. Besides the Platts and their neighbors, Ayckbourn offers a range of troubled couples and eccentric characters who interrelate throughout the day and night for better and worse, mostly, and comically, for worse.

Alan Ayckbourn, artistic director for the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough England, was born in London in 1939. He has written over 60 plays, including Absurd Person Singular, Taking Steps, How the Other Half Loves, Way Upstream, Henceforward, and Season's Greetings - all produced by the Alley, sometimes under the author's direction - and Bedroom Farce, Woman in Mind and the recent Broadway musical By Jeeves.

Stephen Rayne (the Alley's A Christmas Carol, Closer) directs a cast for HOUSE and GARDEN that includes most of the Alley Resident Company including James Belcher (Barry Love), Bettye Fitzpatrick (Izzie Truce), James Black (Teddy Platt), Elizabeth Heflin (Trish Platt), Charles Krohn (Warn Coucher), Paul Hope (Gavin Ryng - Mayne), Ty Mayberry (Jake Mace) and Todd Waite (Giles Mace). Returning to the Alley are Kimberly King (A Flea in Her Ear) as Joanna, Jennifer Cherry (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) as Sally Platt, Shelley Calene - Black (Of Mice and Men) as Pearl and Sarah Prikryl (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) as Fran Briggs. Making her Alley debut is Josie de Guzman (Broadway's Guys and Dolls, West Side Story and Runaways) as Lucille Cadeau.

The design team for HOUSE and GARDEN includes Scenic Designer Linda Buchanan, Costume Designer Mara Blumenfeld, Associate Costume Designer Andrea Lauer (Alley's The Woman in Black), Lighting Designer Chris Parry (Tony nomination for Alley's Not About Nightingales, Alley's Art and A Midsummer Night's Dream) and Associate Sound Designer Phil Cassidy (Alley's The Zoo Story and The American Dream).



SPECIAL PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS

PAY - WHAT - YOU - CAN
The Alley Theatre continues its efforts to make the theatre accessible to patrons who may not otherwise be able to attend performances for financial reasons by offering three PAY - WHAT - YOU - CAN performances of House at 8:00pm Friday, April 12, 2002, 7:30pm Sunday, April 14, 2002; and 7:30pm Tuesday, April 16, 2002. (Available for select seats, limit two per person - cash or check only - with a $2 minimum for each ticket. Available in - person, the day of the performance only.)

TALK TO THE ARTISTS
Alley patrons are invited to attend a post - show Talk Back with the cast of HOUSE and GARDEN and members of the artistic staff on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 on the Alley Large Stage after the evening performances.

CAPTIONING
There will be two open - captioned performances of HOUSE AT 2:30pm and 7:30pm on Sunday, May 5, 2002. Open - captioned performances of GARDEN will be at 2:30pm and 7:30pm on Sunday May 12, 2002. Funded in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts.

TICKET INFORMATION
Single tickets to HOUSE and GARDEN may be purchased at www.alleytheatre.org, at the Alley Theatre Box Office, 615 Texas Avenue Houston, Texas, or by calling 713-228-8421. Tickets to HOUSE are $20 - $40 for preview performances and $20 - $50 after the April 17, 2002 opening. Groups of 10 or more may purchase tickets at a discounted rate by calling 713-228-9341, ext. 346.

Single ticket buyers can save $10 when they purchase a full - price ticket to HOUSE and a full - price ticket to GARDEN at the same time. This offer is good at time of purchase only and may be arranged through the Alley box office, 713-228-8421.

The Alley Theatre is funded in part by the City of Houston and the Texas Commission on the Arts through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County.