I’m so excited about directing Sharr White’s Pictures from Home at Alley Theatre. It is a homecoming of sorts because we were involved with the early development of this play in our Alley All New Festival in 2020. Our audience was extremely enthusiastic about this play, especially its delightful sense of humor and its poignant picture of an adult son and his relationship with his aging parents.
We started planning to do the world premiere at the Alley as soon as the Festival ended. Then the pandemic happened and changed all those plans. Fortunately for the play, Pictures from Home was picked up by producer Jeffrey Richards and received a star-studded production on Broadway with Nathan Lane, Zoë Wannamaker, and Danny Burstein. Alley Managing Director Dean Gladden, General Manager Brandon Kahn, and I were all there for its opening night on Broadway. It was a magical evening and made us all proud to see a play from the Alley All New Festival having such a tremendous success.
Sharr wanted the Alley to be one of the first productions after its Broadway run and we are truly honored to have our audiences experience it fresh off its New York success. We are also really delighted that we still get to do the production we were planning before the pandemic which is unique and very different from the Broadway production.
We are excited to share it with you.
Rob Melrose
