Why I’m Excited About the Alley All New Festival

I am so happy that we’re finally getting the chance to bring Lisa D’Amour’s work to the Alley! I’ve been a fan of her for years, and I knew it was only a matter of time once she became the Distinguished Professor of Playwriting at the University of Houston. After a trip to the Alley’s yearly writers retreat in Ucross Wyoming, and many conversations, we’ve finally landed on The Smoker as a first collaboration. It’s a prescient story about a flawed man in our modern world, told through an unvarnished yet empathetic lens. The first time I read the play, I couldn’t help but envision Resident Acting Company member Chris Hutchison in the title role. This is one of my favorite aspects of the Alley All New Festival — bringing together artists that we love!

I love plot twists, and here’s a clever one: last winter, the Alley premiered December: a love years in the making, the story of a romance sparked by an undergraduate poetry course. For this year’s festival, the playwright behind that wonderfully gentle production returns with a dystopian thriller about the politics of medicine and survival. Marisela Treviño Orta has glided with confidence across different genres throughout her career, consistently finding new ways to blend her voice with evolving questions about the past and present. In Womb 2.0, Orta takes us to a sleek fertility clinic and delivers a parable about who the future itself belongs to. Womb 2.0 riveted me to the page and set my mind racing with fascination. I can’t wait to see its thorny premise brought to life by our talented team!

Dating apps and shows are taking over our screens and have been for a while. The struggle of the dating scene is something everyone can relate to. Our days are like clockwork. We get up, go to work, come home, cook dinner, go to sleep…repeat. Where are we supposed to fit in going out and actually meeting someone? Then we are expected to find time investing in getting to know a person and be hopeful for a first date and successful dates to follow. 9 times out of 10, the successful dates to follow do not happen! Chisa has written a show that again provides us with harsh reality and humor. This play is like none other. I am excited to share Bliss’s whirlwind dating show experience with this unforgettable pack of contenders fighting for her attention. I think everyone will find a past relatable situationship in one of these optimistic daters.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Marx Brothers since I was a young man.  Even today when I watch their movies, I’m struck by how fresh and funny their comedy is. For decades, Mark Bedard and John Tufts have been carrying the Marx-esque farcical torch. I’ve loved going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to watch their latest slapstick comedy. Pair this with my love of Agatha Christie and my first show at the Alley, The Murder on the Orient Express and you can imagine my excitement at exploring another murder on a train: this time full of belly laughs. I can’t wait to share this work with Alley audiences. I think it is a perfect fit!

Thrilling, romantic, funny, Gothic, spine-tingling– I love a good adjective. Moreover, I love that all of these can be said of Katie Forgette’s The Body Snatcher. Using Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story of the same name as the inspiration, Katie digs (pun intended) into the rapid medical advancements of the late 1800s and the great lengths required to achieve them. On the surface, the play centers on a Victorian doctor trying to save his dying daughter as she is just beginning to experience the joy of falling in love. Already satisfyingly dramatic, the play’s underbelly doesn’t shy away from the gruesome graverobbing often used a solution to a medical, or a paternal, problem. I love the Gothic maximalism of The Body Snatcher, and I am tickled that audiences can enjoy it during the spookiest month of the year!