FOR RELEASE
December 29, 2003

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Delicia Harvey, Public Relations Manager
Emily Schulze, Public Relations Associate
713/228-9341

Alley Theatre Mounts Suzan-Lori Parks' Highly Acclaimed
Topdog/Underdog

Topdog/Underdog Plays on the Alley's Neuhaus Stage
January 16 through February 15

HOUSTON, TX-The Alley Theatre produces the Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog as the first production of 2004 on its intimate Neuhaus Stage. A co-production with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Topdog/Underdog is directed by Steppenwolf Ensemble Member Amy Morton and features Alley Theatre Resident Company Actors David Rainey as Lincoln and K. Todd Freeman as Booth, two brothers whose complex and explosive relationship forms the center of the play. A potent drama about family, community, and the struggle to survive, Topdog/Underdog begins Friday, January 16, with opening night scheduled for Wednesday, January 21. The production continues through Sunday, February 15.

Topdog/Underdog is sponsored by Nina and Michael Zilkha. The production also benefits from a generous gift from Stanford Financial Group, the Alley Theatre's 2003-2004 Season Sponsor.

Lincoln and Booth are brothers, ironically named by their father. Lincoln sits in an arcade all day, dressed as his presidential namesake and suffering through countless mock "assassinations." His brother, Booth, huddles in their run-down apartment, practicing cards in hopes of becoming a great Three-Card Monte hustler, as his brother Lincoln was in his youth. This highly acclaimed drama is a jagged, poetic look at the endgame between two black brothers in America.

This play is for mature audiences.

Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is the recipient of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog and a 2001 MacArthur "genius" grant. Random House recently published her first novel, Getting Mother's Body. She is a playwright and a screenwriter whose plays include F---ing A, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1990 OBIE Award for Best New American Play), The America Play, Venus (1996 OBIE Award), and In the Blood (1999 Pulitzer Prize nomination). Parks is an alumna of New Dramatists, an Associate Artist at Yale Repertory Theatre and has received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, The W. Alton Jones Foundation, Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund for New American Plays and is a two-time playwriting fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts. She currently runs the Dramatic Writing Program at the California Institute for the Arts.

Director Amy Morton has directed many productions at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, including the recent production of We All Went Down to Amsterdam. Other directorial credits include Steppenwolf's Glengarry Glen Ross (Steppenwolf, Dublin and Toronto), The Weir, and Mizlansky/Zilinski or Schmucks. As an actress, her Steppenwolf credits include Homebody in Homebody/Kabul, The Time of Your Life, The Royal Family, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (also on Broadway), The Berlin Circle, Three Days of Rain, Space and A Streetcar Named Desire.

The design team for Topdog/Underdog includes scenic designer Loy Arcenas (scenic design for Steppenwolf's Nomathemba and Beauty Queen of Leenane), lighting designer Kevin Rigdon (Alley's Fully Committed and Stones in His Pockets, among others), costume designer Nan Cibula-Jenkins (Steppenwolf's Glengarry Glen Ross and Molly Sweeney) and sound designers Michael Bodeen and Rob Milburn (Alley's Sherlock Holmes).

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS

TALK TO THE ARTISTS
Alley patrons are invited to attend post-show TalkBacks with the cast of Topdog/Underdog and members of the artistic staff on Thursday, January 22 or Tuesday, January 27, immediately after the evening performances.

OPEN CAPTIONING
There will be an open-captioned performance of Topdog/Underdog at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 15, funded in part by the Texas Commission on the Arts.

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets to Topdog/Underdog can be purchased at www.alleytheatre.org, at the Alley Theatre Box Office, 615 Texas Avenue, or by calling 713/228-8421. Tickets to preview performances are $28; tickets to performances on or after the January 21 opening range from $40-$45. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets at a discounted rate by calling 713/228-9341, ext. 346.

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.