Sherlock Holmes and The Crucifer of Blood

CREATIVE TEAM

GREGORY BOYD Director: GREGORY BOYD became the artistic director of the Alley Theatre in 1989. During his tenure, the Alley has risen in national and international prominence, winning the Special Tony Award and experiencing record growth in its Houston audiences, while also transferring its productions to major European Festivals (including two in one season at the Venice Biennale), Broadway and on tour to 40 American cities. Boyd's addition of artistic associates such as Edward Albee, Robert Wilson, Frank Wildhorn, and Vanessa and Corin Redgrave, has enhanced the Alley's visibility and reputation worldwide; while his commitment to maintaining a resident company of actors has made the Alley unique among American theater companies.

At the Alley, Mr. Boyd has produced over 100 new productions of the widest ranging repertoire in the country. His Alley premieres have been nominated for eight Tony Awards -among them the premieres of Not About Nightingales by Tennessee Williams (Alley, London, Broadway), Jekyll & Hyde, (Alley, National Tour, Broadway), The Civil War (which he also co-authored). New Alley productions have included: Shakespeare’s Roman Plays (with Vanessa and Corin Redgrave); Robert Wilson’s productions of Hamlet, When We Dead Awaken and Danton's Death (with Richard Thomas); Ellen Burstyn in O’Neill’s Long Day's Journey Into Night and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America Parts 1 & 2 (both directed by Michael Wilson), premieres by Keith Reddin (Synergy); Eve Ensler (Lemonade): and Alley Artistic Associates Edward Albee (The Play About the Baby), Horton Foote (The Carpetbagger's Children), Ken Ludwig (The Gershwins' An American in Paris, Leading Ladies) and Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde, Svengali, and Boyd’s collaborator on The Civil War, a musical theatre production that premiered at the Alley before going on to Broadway and two national tours). In addition, Boyd directed the recordings of “The Civil War” and “Jekyll & Hyde” for Atlantic Records.

At the Alley, he has appeared as an actor in Danton's Death (Tom Paine) and Cyrano de Bergerac (Cyrano) and directed over forty productions including: Treasure Island, Subject to Fits, Hitchcock Blonde, Hapgood, The Pillowman, Jekyll & Hyde, Three Sisters, In the Jungle of Cities, After the Fall, The Greeks, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Macbeth, As You Like It, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This season, he directed Cyrano de Bergerac, Eurydice and Rock ‘n’ Roll.

His recent directing projects outside the Alley have included Our Town at Hartford Stage (Hal Holbrook), Coward’s Design for Living at Williamstown (Marisa Tomei, Campbell Scott, Steven Weber), Stoppard’s Travesties at Long Wharf (Sam Waterston, Tom Hewitt) and the premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan’s Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Boyd has served as Panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts. He has taught on the faculties of Carnegie-Mellon, Williams College, the University of Houston and the University of North Carolina, where he headed the Professional Theatre Training Program. He was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is a Distinguished Alumnus, and at Carnegie-Mellon.

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KEVIN RIGDON (Scenic Design) is an Associate Director for Design for the Alley Theatre. For the Alley, he has created scenic and lighting designs for more than 50 productions, including Secret Order, The Unexpected Guest, Underneath the Lintel, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Scene, Death on the Nile, The Clean House, Subject to Fits, Orson’s Shadow, The Pillowman, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Crucible, After the Fall, Life X 3, Topdog/Underdog, Proof, The Greeks, Twelfth Night, In the Jungle of Cities, among many others. He has designed the Broadway productions of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, The Old Neighborhood, Buried Child, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Song of JacobZulu, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Grapes of Wrath, Our Town, Speed-the-Plow, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Caretaker, and Ghetto. His Off-Broadway credits include Oleanna, Distant Fire, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, Orphans, Balm in Gilead, And a Nightingale Sang…, Edmond, and True West. His designs have been seen in the London productions of Waiting for Godot, You Never Can Tell, American Buffalo, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Speed-the-Plow, The Grapes of Wrath, and Orphans. He has designed more than 110 productions for Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and has designed for organizations including The Peter Hall Company, The Kennedy Center, American Repertory Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, The Center Theatre Group, The Festival of Sydney, and The Cameri Theatre of Tel-Aviv, among others. He is the recipient of two Tony Award nominations, two American Theatre Wing Design awards, and seven Joseph Jefferson awards among many others. Kevin teaches scenic and lighting design at the University of Houston.

BLAIR GULLEDGE (Costume Design). Blair’s costume design credits include The Santaland Diaries and Underneath the Lintel at the Alley Theatre, the new work Brave No World written by Laurie Brooks as a Kenan Fellow for The John F. Kennedy Center; Comedy of Errors for the Illuminations Summer series in Manteo, North Carolina; Breaking the Code with the University of Colorado and A Christmas Carol with Casper College. She has assisted the costume design process for numerous shows at the Alley including The Gershwins’ An American in Paris, Cyrano DeBergerac, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Arsenic and Old Lace and many more productions. Blair has also assisted in costume design at The Santa Fe Opera with Paul Brown, and Goodspeed Musicals with Michael Krass. She has been a costume crafts journeyman and apprentice scene manager with The Santa Fe Opera and served as crafts head for The Chautauqua Opera and North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. Blair’s work outside of costuming has been published in The Decorated Page. She has a MFA in Costume Design from The North Carolina School of the Arts and is currently a resident costume design assistant for The Alley Theatre.

RUI RITA (Lighting Design) has designed Alley productions for the past eleven years. His recent Alley credits include Eurydice, A Christmas Carol, Cyrano de Bergerac, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wait Until Dark, Black Comedy, Bad Dates, Sherlock Holmes, The Trip to Bountiful, The Invention of Love, The Carpetbagger’s Children, A Christmas Carol and Dinner with Friends, among others. On Broadway he has designed Dividing the Estate, Old Acquaintance, Enchanted April, The Price, and A Thousand Clowns. His Off-Broadway credits include the premieres of Big Bill, The Carpetbagger’s Children, Far East, and Ancestral Voices (all for Lincoln Center Theatre), Moonlight and Magnolias (for Manhattan Theatre Club), Engaged (for TFANA), Endpapers and Dinner with Friends (both at Variety Arts Theatre), Dividing the Estate and The Day Emily Married (Primary Stages) as well as productions of Crimes of the Heart (Second Stage) and Antony and Cleopatra (New York Shakespeare Festival). He has also designed productions at numerous regional theatres including the American Conservatory Theatre, CenterStage, Ford’s Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Kennedy Center, Vancouver Opera and The Williamstown Theatre Festival.

PIERRE DUPREE (Sound Design) previously designed The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Santaland Diaries and Secret Order at the Alley Theatre. He has designed Fences, Diva, It’s A Wonderful Life, Side By Side By Sondheim, Vincent In Brixton and Star Quality at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, CA. Recent work also includes Vatican II: What the Hell Happened (various cities), Alice in Wonderland (KCRW radio play), and Marie and Bruce (Open Fist Theater). Associate Sound Designs include Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Alley Theatre), Matter of Honor (Pasadena Playhouse), Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple (The Geffen Playhouse), Flower Drum Song (Mark Taper Forum), and Haven: A New Musical (Gindi Auditorium, University of Judaism). He holds a M.F.A. in sound design from CalArts. Pierre is the Sound Supervisor at the Alley Theatre.

LAUREN HALVORSEN (Dramaturg) joined the Alley Theatre in 2008 as Literary Associate. This season, she dramaturged The Farnsworth Invention and The Man Who Came to Dinner. Prior to this she was the Company Manager/Assistant to the Artistic Director at City Theatre Company in Pittsburgh. Lauren has worked in the literary offices of the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Wilma Theater, and the WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory, where she is also an Artistic Associate. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.

ELIZABETH M. BERTHER (Stage Manager) Her first production at the Alley Theatre was Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women early in 1995. Since, she has stage managed over 50 productions here, the latest being Rock ‘n’ Roll.

TERRY CRANSHAW (Stage Manager) Alley credits include Mauritius; Eurydice; The Gershwins’ An American in Paris; Love, Janis; Doubt; Treasure Island; Hitchcock Blonde; A Christmas Carol; The Pillowman; Steel Magnolias; Bad Dates; Our Lady of 121st Street and numerous other Alley productions. Her additional credits include 42nd Street (European tour), Jekyll & Hyde (directed by Gregory Boyd), and Mame (national tour). Cranshaw has worked with Houston’s Theater Under The Stars (36 productions), and many regional theatres including the Cleveland Play House, The Shakespeare (Washington DC), The Ordway (St. Paul), The Fifth Avenue Theatre (Seattle). She was Production Stage Manager for the NFL Alumni Player of the Year Awards for Superbowl XXXVIII.

REBECCA R.D. HAMLIN (Assistant Stage Manager, July 28 – August 16) has been with the Alley Theatre since 1999, most recently as Assistant Stage Manager for The Farnsworth Invention, Mauritius, The Man Who Came to Dinner; A Christmas Carol and Cyrano de Bergerac. As a Production Assistant for the last 3 years she has contributed to such productions as The Gershwins’ An American In Paris, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Arsenic and Old Lace, Treasure Island, Much Ado About Nothing, Tryst and The Pillowman. She has also served as Stage Manager for the Alley Theatre’s Houston Young Playwright Exchange (HYPE) in the summers of 2005 and 2006 and at Houston’s Main Street Theatre. This is Becky’s first season as an Equity Stage Manager.