This whimsical tale of romance, tragedy, and comedy will take center stage in familiar places for Alley audiences. Set in Texas, this magical tale will be seen through the imaginative eyes of a young, Houstonian child. This play is a sweeping story of wrath and redemption and of lost and then found love. The Resident Acting Company will join together to tell Shakespeare’s beloved fable of hard-won joy and the promise of renewal.

Age Recommendation: Age 12 and up

Content considerations: 
This unique production shows an adult world through a child's eyes - complete with misogyny, classism, and injustice. Staging makes Shakespeare's sophisticated language more accessible, but don't be shy about prepping yourself beforehand. A little plot summary goes a long way. 
Fair warning: Watch out for bears.

It’s 1975. Saigon has fallen. He lost his wife. She lost her fiancé. But now in America, a strange new land of cowboys, hippies, and bikers, these two Vietnamese refugees just might find each other. Remixing history and culture into a funny and energetic fantasia, playwright Qui Nguyen creates a contemporary twist on the boy meets girl story that The New York Times hails as “a raucous, immensely moving comedy.” Using his irreverent, infectious style, Nguyen takes audiences on a hilariously rip-roaring ride across 1970s America with a hot soundtrack that serves up hip-hop, sass, and revolution.  

Age Recommendation: Age 14 and up

Content considerations: 
Qui Nguyen sidesteps language and cultural barriers by using the voice of his own generation, which includes hip hop, slang, and significant profanity. This comedic odyssey explores love and loss in the context of 1970s America, including an irreverent and frank take on violence, drug use, and sexual relationships.

A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas is a family-friendly re-telling of Charles Dickens’ classic story, which follows Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey with the three ghostly spirits who visit him on Christmas Eve.  A Christmas Carol instills a powerful message about redemption and the spirit of the holiday season. 

Age Recommendation: Age 6 and up

Relevant Themes/Topics: Redemption, Meaning of Christmas, Social justice

Directed by Austin, Texas-based KJ Sanchez and starring “Sesame Street’s” Emilio Delgado, Quixote Nuevo by celebrated playwright Octavio Solis is an inspiring reimagining of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Set in a fictional modern-day Texas border town, Quixote and his recruited sidekick embark on an adventure in search of long-lost love. Infused with imagination, Tejano music, and true Texas soul, Quixote Nuevo shows the challenges of living in this modern world all the while in pursuit of a lost dream. The play is a co-production with Hartford Stage and Huntington Theater Company. 

Age Recommendation: Age 14 and up

Content Considerations:
The adventures of Quixote Nuevo include bouts of combat, boozy patrons, and a few choice words en Español. While the audience is led through the imagination of Quixote, a number of people he comes across do not share his vision. He is mocked with various assaults that are verbal, physical, and sexual in nature.

From the Texas playwright of the world premiere Alley hit Cleo. Pulitzer Prize winner Lawrence Wright, author of God Save Texas and The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, offers a behind-the-scenes look at a historical moment whose legacy continues to resonate 41 years later. In the tumultuous 1970s, Middle East peace seemed nearly as impossible as it does today. Yet during 13 days in 1978, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, with the powerful help of U.S. President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter, hammered out an agreement that inspired the entire world. Wright’s play is filled with humor, insights, and a view towards hope. 

Age Recommendation: Age 14 and up

Content considerations:
Playwright Lawrence Wright crafts a thoughtful and carefully researched portrayal of these historical figures mired in high-stakes negotiations, which occasionally give rise to some mild language. This includes disparaging comments about Arab and Jewish people - comments which reflect and further cement Sadat and Begin's views of the other as a true and intransigent enemy. 

Based on George Orwell’s futuristic novel, 1984 brings us the story of Winston Smith and a stark vision of a world in which freedom of action, word, and thought are controlled by Big Brother. As the story of Winston’s fight for individual identity unfolds, the vision grows increasingly terrifying as the world it depicts grows uncomfortably familiar. How far are we from realizing Orwell’s nightmare? Are we already there? Can there be more than one truth, more than one set of facts? A ferocious and provocative adaptation of one of the most prescient works of literature of the last century. 

Age Recommendation: Age 14 and up

Content considerations: 
Winston's story plays out in unblinking re-enactments by his captors. This gives life to some explicit details found in the Orwellian classic, such as Julia's love of foul language, the sexual nature of the couple's forbidden affair, and the violent torture of the totalitarian Party.

An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man. So begins Dead Man’s Cell Phone, a wildly imaginative comedy by Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House). An off the wall play about the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world.  

Age Recommendation: Age 14 and up

Content considerations:
The characters in this surrealist journey reach through the lonely void to connect with one another- sometimes with a call, sometimes with a lie, and sometimes with a confession about sexual fantasies. There is a fight in an airport, and some shady business dealings, but nothing is scarier than Mrs. Gottlieb's cooking.