2011-12 Season

Spark

Alley Rep’s new series exploring the power of electricity and invention.

  • The Farnsworth Invention

    By Aaron Sorkin, Directed by Buffie Main

    A fast-paced play about two visionaries racing to create the most transformative invention of the 20th Century. The story sizzles with corporate espionage, family tragedy, financial disaster, and the thrill of discovery

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  • Voices from the Boise Hole

    By Evan Sesek, By Jason Haskins, Directed by Liberty Leeds Klautsch

    Alley Underground lights a new and unusual spark with a locally written show inspired by and dedicated to the people of Boise. Written by local playwrights Jason Haskins and Evan Sesek, and featuring live performances by ATOMIC MAMA and other local acts, this unique event promises laughter and provocative dialogue as four local, versatile actors play over 16 characters. From the ex-Bronco football player reliving his glory years to the friendly Library! security guard, the downtown Bro making a YouTube video to the kid who just made his first “Black friend”, these Voices From The Boise Hole will unearth the challenges and triumphs, the oddities and crippling banalities, of dwelling in what many call the “most livable” city in America — Boise, Idaho.

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  • Head

    By Oliver Russell Stoddard, Directed by Julia Bennett, Assistant director Kim Sherman-Labrum

    Alley New Works presents the world premiere of HEAD, a timely and affecting play about the consequences of a beheading in modern day Iraq. Stoddard has been working on the play for more than six years after he was inspired by a National Public Radio story about honor killings in Iraq. It has evolved into a story of two men–an Iraqi and the beheaded American contractor who haunts him. With the aid of a self-help group in the afterlife (including such famous behead-ees as Marie Antoinette, Goliath, and Mary Queen of Scots), Tommy, the headless American, is on a quest to reunite with his body, and Ahmed, the Iraqi who filmed his beheading, is the key to this reunion. It’s a riveting journey with dark comedy and drama exploring the clashes of worlds–both cultural and spiritual.

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  • In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)

    By Sarah Ruhl, Directed by Buffie Main

    Described as “insightful, fresh and funny” by The New York Times, Alley Repertory’s upcoming production of In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) is a beguiling play about love, longing, science and invention. Set during the dawn of the electrical age, a new medical device is developed to pacify “intense” women, but it produces a shockingly different result. While Dr. Givings innocently wonders about the success of this extraordinary device, his wife, Catherine, remains a bystander in her husband’s world– listening at the door from the next room and longing for connection.

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