Alley Theatre to Host First Annual Alley All New Festival in 2016

Artistic Director Gregory Boyd is pleased to announce the first annual Alley All New Festival, January 28 - February 7, 2016, featuring new plays by Karen Hartman, Boo Killebrew, NSangou Njikam (aka Glenn Gordon) and Lawrence Wright. All presentations are free and open to the public.

The Alley All New Festival will feature a combination of readings and workshops of six new plays. Playwrights will have the opportunity to work with a director and a company of actors to develop the play, while also offering audiences a first look at the work and insight into the playwriting process.

"It's not just the building that is new this season. The Alley All New Festival kick-offs what's to come as we deepen our commitment to playwrights and new writing" said Artistic Director Gregory Boyd. "I look forward to bringing our audiences into the play development process and to introducing Houston audiences to these fantastic writers during the festival."

Cleo, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lawrence Wright, is the story of the scandalous romance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, set during the filming of the disastrous 1963 movie "Cleopatra". This one day reading will feature actors performing the play at music stands. Acclaimed actor and director Bob Balaban will direct.

Workshop productions include: Miller, Mississippi, a new Southern Gothic tale by Boo Killebrew; Roz and Ray, an unconventional love story between the father of twin hemophiliac boys and the doctor who tries to save them, by Karen Hartman; and Syncing Ink, a semi-autobiographical hip-hop play by NSangou Njikam (aka Glenn Gordon). Each playwright will have 4-weeks to develop their plays with a focus on the creative process instead of the final product. Each workshop will culminate in fully-staged public performances featuring bare-bones design elements.

Additional opportunities for audiences to deepen their experience will include talkbacks with members of the artistic team following each performance, panel discussions, and multiple social opportunities for audiences, industry professionals and artists to engage.

The festival is one component of Alley All New, a major new work initiative that expands the Alley's commitment to the playwright and to produce more world premieres. The theatre has a strong history in working with playwrights and premiering their work including Theresa Rebeck (Fool), Kenneth Lin (Intelligence-Slave), Rajiv Joseph (Gruesome Playground Injuries and Monster at the Door) and Elizabeth Egloff (Ether Dome).

The Alley's formalized commitment to new work began in May 2015 with the appointment of Elizabeth Frankel as the Director of New Work. Frankel previously worked as Literary Manager at The Public Theatre in New York where she ran the Literary Department and the Emerging Writers Group. "I am thrilled to launch the inaugural Alley All New Festival with these plays. Together they represent the breadth, seriousness of intent and joyful theatricality of what playwrights are writing today" said Frankel.

Two additional playwrights and the full festival schedule will be announced later this fall.

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