Director Michael Wilson (Dividing the Estate, Orphans' Home Cycle) will helm Ether Dome, which will launch the season Sept. 9-Oct. 9. The Alley describes the play as exploring "love, medicine, and the relationship between two of the greatest medical innovators in Western history, Horace Wells and his student, William Morton, who in 1847 discovered Ether as anesthesia, thereby opening the door to the enormous medical achievements of the 20th and 21st centuries, and challenging our understanding of God, pain, and what it means to be truly human."
Wilson will remain at the Alley to stage late playwright Horton Foote's final Broadway play Dividing the Estate, about a large Texas family facing an uncertain future, which will run Oct. 7-30. Wilson staged the world-premiere of the play Off-Broadway in 2007, which later transferred for a Tony-nominated Broadway run in 2008.
The Toxic Avenger, penned by Memphis authors Joe DiPietro (book and lyrics) and David Bryan (music and lyrics) will run Jan. 13-Feb. 12, 2012. Tony Award winner John Rando, who staged the campy sci-fi musical about a radioactive town hero Off-Broadway in 2009, will again direct.
Alley artistic director Gregory Boyd will direct Anton Chekhov's classic The Seagull Feb. 3-March 4, 2012, featuring James Black as Trigorin and Tony Award nominee Josie de Guzman as Arkadina.
John Logan's Tony Award-winning two-man drama Red will follow March 2-25, 2012, under the direction of Jackson Gay. The acclaimed play explores the relationship between impressionistic painter Mark Rothko and his protégé during his commission to paint murals for New York's Four Seasons Restaurant. Boyd will also stage Conor McPherson's drama The Seafarer, about a visit from a sinister stranger on Christmas Eve, April 6-29, 2012.
Scott Schwartz (Golda's Balcony, Mauritius) will return to the Alley to stage the premiere of Rebeck's black comedy What We're Up Against, about a female architect who hits the workplace glass ceiling, which will run May 4-June 3, 2012.
The final production will be Michael Frayn's popular onstage and off-stage farce Noises Off, which Boyd will helm, running May 25-June 24, 2012.
Annual holiday productions include A Christmas Carol (Nov. 18-Dec. 27, 2011) and David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries (Nov. 30-Dec. 31, 2011).
Tickets are available by visiting AlleyTheatre. The Alley Theatre is located at 615 Texas Avenue in Houston, TX.
