Broadway's Judith Ivey and Alley Theatre company member James Black (Not About Nightingales) will read short stories by Texas authors for the Houston theatre's annual "Texas Bound" program June 5.

Ivey, most recently on the Great White Way in the thriller Voices in the Dark, is a two-time Tony Award winner, Hurlyburly and Streaming. She was Emmy nominated for 1999's "What the Deaf Man Heard." Other theatre credits include Bedroom Farce, Piaf, Precious Sons, Blithe Spirit, Park Your Car in Harvard Yard and Moonshot (Obie Award).

Black played Butch Fallon in the London, Alley and Broadway productions of Not About Nightingales. In his 11th season with the Alley, he has portrayed a wide variety of characters, from Roy Cohn in Angels in America, Buzz Hauser in Love! Valour! Compassion!, the title role in Macbeth, Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot in Black Coffee and multiple roles in Mere Mortals. He directed the Alley's current production of As Bees in Honey Drown.

They are joined by Alley Company member James Feltch, currently performing in the Alley's The Real Thing.

The pieces the actors will be reading are "The Bundlelays" by C.W. Smith (Ivey), "Precious Door" by William Goyen (Black) and "Wild Turkey" by Ray Isle (Feltch). Goyen's "Collected Stories" was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1977. For more information, contact the Alley box office at (713) 228-9341 ext. 350. The Alley Theatre is located at 615 Texas Avenue.

-- By Christine Ehren