Houston may be miles from Dallas, but the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy was a shot heard around world. The controversy that resulted from the investigation into the president's murder is the subject of Keith Reddin's new drama Frame 312, playing Oct. 25-Nov. 24 on the Alley Theatre's renovated Neuhaus Stage.

The title comes from a controversial frame of the Zapruder film of the assassination, the one right before the first bullet impacts with President Kennedy's head. In the play, a former Life Magazine secretary, the only living witness who has seen the entire, unadulterated Zapruder film, must decide if, forty years later, she's ready to tell her family what she knows.

Reddin's play Synergy had its world premiere at the Alley. His other works include Life During Wartime, Rum and Coke and an adaptation of Bulgakov's Black Snow.

Tony Award winner Carlin Glynn stars as the secretary Lynette. She won her Tony and Olivier for originating the role of the Madame in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

James Black (Not About Nightingales) is featured as Graham. Also in the cast are Jeffrey Bean (Tom, Roy and Agent Barry, Jenny Maguire (Stephanie), Elizbeth Bunch (Lynette in the '60's) and Stephanie Kurtzuba (Margie, Marie and Doris). The Alley Theatre is located at 615 Texas Avenue. For reservations, call (713) 228-8421 or (800) 259-ALLE. The Alley Theatre is on the web at http://www.alleytheatre.com.

— By Christine Ehren