“Seem Like We All Outgrowing This Space” Rays of sun break through the Earth’s atmosphere
not-quite-public quality of daily life for the Rhodes
over Texas. Mingling with moisture carried in the
family and their Third Ward neighbors on July 2,
air from the Gulf of Mexico, these rays bare down,
1976, this play is—among other things —about
meeting few obstacles as they barrel towards an
seeing things clearly. It splits open those moments
alley between the shotgun-style rowhouses of
in life when you can no longer avoid seeing your
Houston’s Third Ward. They hit concrete, grass, and
children, your parents, your lovers, your friends,
a child’s open eyes. They ricochet and create a heat
and your place in the world as they really are,
so intense you can see the waves rippling at the end
laying bare the concurrent pain and beauty of
of the alley. They warm the pavement beneath the
such junctures. As what was once a capital of
child’s back, as she stares up at an airplane. They
Black Texan life is increasingly abandoned by
mix with the smoke rising from a carefully tended
the public and private sectors of a city proudly
charcoal grill. They nourish a seedling recently
proclaiming its unprecedented prosperity, the
planted in a flower box, and budling leaves poke
Black community members of the Third Ward’s
through the soil into a summer air carrying the fuzzy
rowhouses find themselves at crossroads both
radio sound of Aretha Franklin’s newest single,
personal and political. Each character must balance
“Something He Can Feel,” which has held its own at
their commitments to themselves and to their
the top of the Soul charts for the past few weeks.
community, their love for their home and their
Droplets from a watering can greet the plant, and
agony at feeling stuck there. What will this post-
its chlorophyl shines green. Things grow here. The
Vietnam, pre-Reagan era offer them? What do they
days may be brutally long, opportunities may be
owe the seeds they have carefully planted in the
increasingly fleeting as Houston’s “economic Golden
alley’s rare but precious soil? What do they owe the
Age” leaves its poor Black communities behind,
soil itself?
and the patterns of daily life may seem as stifling as the summer heat itself. But things grow here. And people nurture them.
Things grew in the Third Ward in 1976, and things grow there now, in 2023. Our play, which is presented to you at a state in its development not
comfort ifeoma katchy’s The Alley drops us
dissimilar to the summer budling, is inundated with
into a day both ordinary and life-changing for
heat: from the sun, from the flame of a barbecue,
its characters, and, in the playwright’s words,
from these characters’ passions. That heat will be
“historicizes a community that deserves to be
either destructive or generative. Or it could be both.
historicized.” Introducing the not-quite-private,
The Alley
—A.B. Orme, Production Dramaturg
Project Row Houses is a Houston non-profit dedicated to preserving and, where necessary, restoring the cultural history of the Third Ward’s row house district through community initiatives, neighborhood development, and arts programming. Learn more about the future of the Rhodes’ home at projectrowhouses.org.
LANGSTON HUGHES FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK | 2023–24 SEASON
NOVEMBER 6–10, 2023
Production
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE
Associate Safety Advisor
Steph Burke
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean Anne Erbe and Marcus Gardley, Co-Chairs, Playwriting
Associate Production Manager
Katie Chance
Technical Supervisor
Mara Bredovskis
Properties Manager
PRESENTS
Lilliana Gonzalez
The Alley
Charlie Lovejoy
By comfort ifeoma katchy
Omid Akbari Matthew Chong
Production Stage Manager Run Crew
Directed by Juliana Morales Carreño
Administration Associate Managing Director
Creative Team
A.J. Roy
Cast
Assistant Managing Director
in alphabetical order Production Dramaturg
A.B. Orme
Stage Manager
Chloe Xiaonan Liu Assistant Stage Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Claudette
Whitney Andrews Daddy
Malachi dré Beasley Tommy
Maxwell Brown
Ramona Li
Debra Ann/Mama
Chinna Palmer Richard
Marlon Alexander Vargas Bernadette
Lauren F. Walker
Michael
Houston, Texas.
The Alley is performed without an intermission.
Content Guidance: This play contains descriptions of domestic abuse. This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
We also acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our region and the enslaved African people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the business of Yale University as well as the economy of Connecticut and the United States. The Langston Hughes Festival of New Work productions are designed to be learning experiences that complement classroom work, providing a medium for students at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale to combine their individual talents and energies toward the staging of collaboratively created works. Your attendance meaningfully completes this process.
Management Assistants
Claudia Campos Victoria McNaughton Sarah Saifi House Manager
Maura Bozeman Production Photographer
Maza Rey
Malik James
Time/Setting: July 2, 1976. The alley between a row of shotgun houses in Third Ward,
Yale acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
David Geffen School of Drama productions are supported by the work of more than 200 faculty and staff members throughout the year.
THE BENJAMIN MORDECAI III PRODUCTION FUND, established by a graduate of the School, honors the memory of the Tony Award-winning producer who served as Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, 1982–1993, and as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management Program from 1993 until his death in 2005. The taking of photographs or the use of recording devices of any kind in the theater without the written permission of the management is prohibited.
NOVEMBER 6–10, 2023
Production
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE
Associate Safety Advisor
Steph Burke
James Bundy, Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean Florie Seery, Associate Dean Chantal Rodriguez, Associate Dean Carla L. Jackson, Assistant Dean Anne Erbe and Marcus Gardley, Co-Chairs, Playwriting
Associate Production Manager
Katie Chance
Technical Supervisor
Mara Bredovskis
Properties Manager
PRESENTS
Lilliana Gonzalez
The Alley
Charlie Lovejoy
By comfort ifeoma katchy
Omid Akbari Matthew Chong
Production Stage Manager Run Crew
Directed by Juliana Morales Carreño
Administration Associate Managing Director
Creative Team
A.J. Roy
Cast
Assistant Managing Director
in alphabetical order Production Dramaturg
A.B. Orme
Stage Manager
Chloe Xiaonan Liu Assistant Stage Manager
Rosemary Lisa Jones
Claudette
Whitney Andrews Daddy
Malachi dré Beasley Tommy
Maxwell Brown
Ramona Li
Debra Ann/Mama
Chinna Palmer Richard
Marlon Alexander Vargas Bernadette
Lauren F. Walker
Michael
Houston, Texas.
The Alley is performed without an intermission.
Content Guidance: This play contains descriptions of domestic abuse. This production is supported by The Benjamin Mordecai III Production Fund.
We also acknowledge the legacy of slavery in our region and the enslaved African people whose labor was exploited for generations to help establish the business of Yale University as well as the economy of Connecticut and the United States. The Langston Hughes Festival of New Work productions are designed to be learning experiences that complement classroom work, providing a medium for students at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale to combine their individual talents and energies toward the staging of collaboratively created works. Your attendance meaningfully completes this process.
Management Assistants
Claudia Campos Victoria McNaughton Sarah Saifi House Manager
Maura Bozeman Production Photographer
Maza Rey
Malik James
Time/Setting: July 2, 1976. The alley between a row of shotgun houses in Third Ward,
Yale acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
David Geffen School of Drama productions are supported by the work of more than 200 faculty and staff members throughout the year.
THE BENJAMIN MORDECAI III PRODUCTION FUND, established by a graduate of the School, honors the memory of the Tony Award-winning producer who served as Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, 1982–1993, and as Associate Dean and Chair of the Theater Management Program from 1993 until his death in 2005. The taking of photographs or the use of recording devices of any kind in the theater without the written permission of the management is prohibited.
“Seem Like We All Outgrowing This Space” Rays of sun break through the Earth’s atmosphere
not-quite-public quality of daily life for the Rhodes
over Texas. Mingling with moisture carried in the
family and their Third Ward neighbors on July 2,
air from the Gulf of Mexico, these rays bare down,
1976, this play is—among other things —about
meeting few obstacles as they barrel towards an
seeing things clearly. It splits open those moments
alley between the shotgun-style rowhouses of
in life when you can no longer avoid seeing your
Houston’s Third Ward. They hit concrete, grass, and
children, your parents, your lovers, your friends,
a child’s open eyes. They ricochet and create a heat
and your place in the world as they really are,
so intense you can see the waves rippling at the end
laying bare the concurrent pain and beauty of
of the alley. They warm the pavement beneath the
such junctures. As what was once a capital of
child’s back, as she stares up at an airplane. They
Black Texan life is increasingly abandoned by
mix with the smoke rising from a carefully tended
the public and private sectors of a city proudly
charcoal grill. They nourish a seedling recently
proclaiming its unprecedented prosperity, the
planted in a flower box, and budling leaves poke
Black community members of the Third Ward’s
through the soil into a summer air carrying the fuzzy
rowhouses find themselves at crossroads both
radio sound of Aretha Franklin’s newest single,
personal and political. Each character must balance
“Something He Can Feel,” which has held its own at
their commitments to themselves and to their
the top of the Soul charts for the past few weeks.
community, their love for their home and their
Droplets from a watering can greet the plant, and
agony at feeling stuck there. What will this post-
its chlorophyl shines green. Things grow here. The
Vietnam, pre-Reagan era offer them? What do they
days may be brutally long, opportunities may be
owe the seeds they have carefully planted in the
increasingly fleeting as Houston’s “economic Golden
alley’s rare but precious soil? What do they owe the
Age” leaves its poor Black communities behind,
soil itself?
and the patterns of daily life may seem as stifling as the summer heat itself. But things grow here. And people nurture them.
Things grew in the Third Ward in 1976, and things grow there now, in 2023. Our play, which is presented to you at a state in its development not
comfort ifeoma katchy’s The Alley drops us
dissimilar to the summer budling, is inundated with
into a day both ordinary and life-changing for
heat: from the sun, from the flame of a barbecue,
its characters, and, in the playwright’s words,
from these characters’ passions. That heat will be
“historicizes a community that deserves to be
either destructive or generative. Or it could be both.
historicized.” Introducing the not-quite-private,
The Alley
—A.B. Orme, Production Dramaturg
Project Row Houses is a Houston non-profit dedicated to preserving and, where necessary, restoring the cultural history of the Third Ward’s row house district through community initiatives, neighborhood development, and arts programming. Learn more about the future of the Rhodes’ home at projectrowhouses.org.
LANGSTON HUGHES FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK | 2023–24 SEASON