Hudes Returns To Alliance Theater With 26 MILES, Opens 3/25

Celebrated American author and playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes returns to the ALLIANCE THEATRE in March, bringing with her a tender and funny new play about family. A finalist in the National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Program, 26 Miles takes audiences on a road trip with a teenage daughter and her mother in an '83 Buick Regal. Along the way, they discover plenty about themselves, their relationship and what family really means. ALLIANCE THEATRE Associate Artistic Director Kent Gash is thrilled to direct this remarkable and very humorous World Premiere presented in association with the National New Play Network on the intimate and decidedly underground Hertz Stage. Opening Night is Wed., Mar. 25, at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office by calling 404.733.5000 or online at www.alliancetheatre.org.

In 26 Miles, a gifted, 15-year-old writer (Olivia) is caught between her father and a clingy stepmother and is desperate to find her place in life and the love and attention she missed out on as a child. Olivia contacts her estranged Cuban mother Beatriz (her multi-ethnic parents separated years earlier), and together they defy the custody arrangement, striking out on a spontaneous trip across the country to Wyoming in search of Olivia's romantic ideal of the American West.

Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Quiara Alegría Hudes has Puerto Rican and Jewish heritage. The Alliance produced her play Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue in 2006-months before its Pulitzer Prize nomination was announced. In the spring of 2008, Hudes' musical In the Heights transferred to Broadway, where it was awarded the 2008 Tony Award® for Best Musical and nominated for Best Book of a Musical. She holds a B.A. in Music Composition from Yale University, an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Brown University and is the recipient of a Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship.

The four-member cast features Atlanta actors Jason MacDonald and Bethany Anne Lind. Out-of-town actors include the return to the Alliance of New Yorker Triney Sandoval (Day of the Kings) and the debut of Socorro Santiago. (Biographical information on cast and creative team members may be found in the attached fact sheet.)

Members of the artistic team that will bring this new play to life on the Hertz Stage are the ALLIANCE THEATRE's Kat Conley, set designer; the ALLIANCE THEATRE's English Benning, costume designer; William H. Grant, III, lighting designer; the ALLIANCE THEATRE's Clay Benning, sound designer; Adam Larsen, projection designer; and Celise Kalke, dramaturg.

Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Mar. 20 - Apr. 12, 2009 on the Hertz Stage. There will not be a matinee performance on Saturday, Mar. 21.

Opening/Media Night is Mar. 25 at 8 p.m. The Sunday, Apr. 5 show at 2:30 p.m. will be Audio Described for the visually impaired.

Tickets are $25 and $30 and are available at the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office by calling 404.733.5000 or online at www.alliancetheatre.org. Discount rates for groups of 10 or more are available by calling 404.733.4690. Discount rates are also available for members of the military, seniors and students. The ALLIANCE THEATRE is located at the Woodruff Arts Center, corner of Peachtree and 15th Street, in Midtown Atlanta.

Do More: Send Us Your Vacation Photos!

All members of the Atlanta community are invited to submit copies of their vacation photos-especially mother/daughter vacation photos-to the Alliance to support the World Premiere production of 26 Miles. The photos will be part of a slide show/digital scrapbook that will be shown to audiences before the play begins. We ask that submissions be digital and sent to Patrick McColery at patrick.mccolery@woodruffcenter.org by Monday, March 9, 2009.

26 Miles is part of the Turner Series on the Hertz Stage.

Additional Sponsors: 26 Miles is sponsored by Delta Air Lines - Official Airline of the ALLIANCE THEATRE; Marriott Residence Inn - Official Hotel of the ALLIANCE THEATRE; and The Home Depot - Set Construction Sponsor of the ALLIANCE THEATRE.

Production of 26 Miles is made possible with grants from the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, the Fulton County Arts Council, the Georgia Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Now in its 40th season, Atlanta's nationally acclaimed ALLIANCE THEATRE, recipient of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award®, is the leading professional resident theatre of the Southeast, creating the powerful experience of shared theatre for diverse people on two stages for youth and adult audiences. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Susan V. Booth and Managing Director Thomas Pechar, the ALLIANCE THEATRE is a national theatre with a local address, reaching out annually to almost 200,000 patrons and members of the community. Known for its high artistic standards and national role in creating significant theatrical works, the Alliance launched three Tony Award-winning hits to Broadway: Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. And, in a rare event for a regional theatre, it originated the national tour of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The theatre has premiered 60 works including adaptations of Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky. Further evidence of the Alliance's commitment to new work is found in its nationally recognized Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, a cutting-edge program introducing student playwrights to professional networks while producing the world premiere of the winning student's work. The ALLIANCE THEATRE also offers extensive education and outreach programs such as the Institute for Educators and the Collision Project for high school students. The Alliance continuously brings Atlanta the finest talent and finest art-proving once again that the Alliance is where great theatre lives. 404.733.4650 or www.alliancetheatre.org