Before seeing Ride The Cyclone on May 7th join us for a special conversation with the Director, Leora Morris. She will share her amazing journey of seeing the show for the first time as a college student to becoming the Director for the Alliance’s current production. This is a free event. To RSVP email jon.carr@alliancetheatre.org.
7:00pm – 7:20pm
Delta Sky Lounge
Before Play: Becoming Nancy
September 17th 7:00pm – 7:20pm
Delta Sky360 Club
Before seeing Becoming Nancy on Sept 17th join us for a special conversation with the Creative Team. They will share insights into the creation of the show and it’s journey to New York. This is a free event. To RSVP email jon.carr@alliancetheatre.org.
Before Play: DARLIN’ CORY
September 12th 7:00pm – 7:20pm
Event Room, 2nd Floor
Before seeing DARLIN’ CORY on Sept 12th join us for a special conversation with creators Phillip DePoy (playwright) and Kristian Bush (Composer). They will share insights into the creation of the show. This is a free event for ticket holders of DARLIN’ CORY. No RSVP required.
Phillip DePoy
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Phillip DePoy (Playwright, Librettist & Co-Lyricist) is the author of 22 novels (the latest, SAMMY TWO SHOES, comes out in October 2021) and 45 plays. An internationally reviewed performance artist, he was writer in residence for the Georgia Council for the Arts and Composer in Residence for the Academy Theatre in the 1980s. In the 1990s he was the Artistic Director of Theatrical Outfit and composed music for 17 Alliance Theatre productions (Angels in America, The Seagull, Man for All Seasons, et al). Since then, he served as the director of several university theatre programs. He was awarded Georgia Author of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. Notable theatrical work includes the 1993 New York production of LAMB ON FIRE, the 2002 Edgar Award winning mystery play Easy, also in New York, and for the Alliance Theatre, the Suzi award-winning Edward Foote. His Appalachian Christmas Homecoming has been produced over 30 times nationally since 1994. Phillip DePoy also holds an undergraduate degree in English literature and folklore, and a graduate degree in performance art. His greatest achievement, however, is having been married to playwright Lee Nowell for over twenty-two years. |
Kristian Bush
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Kristian Bush (Composer, Co-Lyricist) is a Grammy Award-winning recording artist who has been leaving his mark on music for more than two decades. The singer, songwriter, producer and multi- instrumentalist started his career with the folk-rock duo Billy Pilgrim in the early 1990s. In 2004, he exploded onto the country music scene with Sugarland, surpassing sales of more than 22 million albums worldwide, achieving five No. 1 singles and winning numerous awards, including Grammys, AMAs, ACMs, CMT Music Awards and CMAs. In 2014, Bush made his solo debut with Top 20 hit “Trailer Hitch,” featured on his critically acclaimed album Southern Gravity, named the “feel-good album of the year” by Country Music Weekly and named one of the Top 10 country albums of 2015 by Rolling Stone. He recently wrote and performed “Forever Now,” the theme song to the TLC reality series “Say Yes to the Dress.” Troubadour was his first musical. |
Before Play: HANDS UP
October 10th 7:00pm – 7:20pm
Event Room, 2nd Floor
Before seeing HANDS UP on Oct. 10th join us for a special conversation with Directors Keith Arthur Bolden and Alexis K. Woodard of the Creative Team. They will share insights into the creation of the show. This is a free event, no RSVP required.
Keith Arthur Bolden
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Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Keith Arthur Bolden is a multi-talented artist who has been recently featured in some of the hottest shows on television. He has worked on both coasts, but calls Atlanta home. Keith Arthur is a professor of Theatre at the prestigious Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. He received his MFA in Acting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduation, he cut his teeth in every major acting market in the US, including: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis/St. Paul. He then set his sights on Atlanta, taking the city by storm and making major inroads with all of the notable casting directors in town. He is represented by Atlanta Models and Talent, but he is not hard to find…just turn on your TV… Keith is a husband and a father to 3 beautiful sons. |
Alexis K. Woodard
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Alexis K. Woodard is an Atlanta-based Director, proud Spelman College Alumna and current Spelman Leadership Fellow at the Alliance Theatre. Her Directing Credits include: Romeo + Juliet, Eurydice (Spelman College), Finished What We Started (Morehouse College), Hamlet (The Tiny Theatre Company), as well as assistant directing for the Suzi Award winning play, Hands of Color (Synchronicity Theatre), A Kids Play About Racism (Bay Area Children’s Theatre), and Associate Director for A Christmas Carol: The Live Radio Play, and Working (Alliance Theatre). Upcoming Credits include: Co-Director for Hands Up (Alliance Theatre), Director for Do You Love The Dark (Alliance Theatre), and Assistant Director for A Christmas Carol (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis). She has also worked backstage on several productions such as Holler If You Hear Me (True Colors Theatre) and Hospice + Pointing At The Moon (Alliance Theatre). Film Credits include: Hands Up Teasers (Co-Director) and When Morning Comes (Writer). |
In the Event Room, Second Floor, Memorial Arts Building
Before seeing A CHRISTMAS CAROL on Nov 21st join us for a special behind-the-scenes talk with Kendall Simpson (Composer, Adaptor). Ms. Simpson will share insights into the creation of this new production. This is a free event for ticket holders of A Christmas Carol. No RSVP required.
Kendall Simpson composes music for theater, dance, film and the concert stage. The majority of his theatrical work has been with the Alliance Theatre, where he has collaborated with renowned directors such as Lynne Meadow, Kimberly Senior, Judith Ivey, Laura Kepley, and many others. His compositions have also been showcased at other theaters, including Baltimore’s Center Stage, Theatrical Outfit, and Theater Emory. An award-winning composer, his music has been honored with three Suzi Bass Awards. Kendall currently serves as music director for the dance department at Emory University, where he works as composer and accompanist. He has written and arranged dance pieces for Emory Dance Company with choreographers Greg Catellier, George Staib and Sarah Hillmer, among many others. Kendall’s work has also been featured on the concert stage, with compositions performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Dekalb Symphony Orchestra and the Vega String Quartet.
Join us at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 30, for a brief pre-show discussion with members of the creative team for DREAM HOU$E. Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Sun. February 13th 7pm-7:20pm, prior to 7:30 performance
Event Room, 2nd Floor // Woodruff Arts Center
Join us for a brief pre-show discussion with members of the creative team for TONI STONE. Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required. Get tickets for the Feb. 13, 7:30 p.m. performance of TONI STONE.
Sunday, May 29, 7:00 – 7:20pm, prior to 7:30 performance
Event Room, 2nd Floor // Woodruff Arts Center
Join us for a brief pre-show discussion with Kenny Leon, Tony Award-winning director of TRADING PLACES.
Before Play discussions are free for ticket holders. No RSVP required.
Get tickets for the May 29th, 7:30pm performance of TRADING PLACES.
Kenny Leon is a Tony and Obie Award-winning; Emmy-nominated; Broadway and Television director. Most recently, he directed Lifetime’s Emmy-nominated Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia. Currently on Netflix, Kenny directed Amend: The Fight for America, a six-part docuseries hosted by Will Smith. Last year, he directed the Tony Award–winning Broadway premiere of Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, A Soldier’s Play starring Blair Underwood and David Alan Grier at Roundabout Theatre Company for which he also received a nomination for Best Director. He also directed the acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte/Shakespeare in the Park. His Broadway credits include the recent production of A Soldier’s Play, American Son starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale which was also adapted for Netflix, the revival of Children of a Lesser God, the Tupac musical Holler If Ya Hear Me, A Raisin in the Sun starring Denzel Washington (Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Best Revival of a Play), The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, Stick Fly produced by Alicia Keys, August Wilson’s Fences (which garnered ten Tony nominations and won three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play), Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, as well as A Raisin in the Sun starring Sean “Diddy” Combs, Phylicia Rashad, and Audra McDonald. He also directed Smart People and The Underlying Chris for Second Stage. Leon’s television work includes “Hairspray Live!”, and “The Wiz Live!” on NBC. He recently released his memoir Take You Wherever You Go. He is the recipient of the 2016 Mr. Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing and the 2010 Award for Excellence in Directing from the Drama League. Mr. Leon serves on the board of New York’s Public Theater and is Artistic Director Emeritus of Atlanta’s Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. He is currently serving as Senior Resident Director at Roundabout Theatre Company.
Prior to co-founding True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre, where he produced the premieres of Disney’s Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky and Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other directorial credits include Alicia Keys World Tour, Toni Morrison’s opera Margaret Garner, the world premiere of Flashdance The Musical, and the complete August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center. Leon is a sought-after motivational speaker that has done acting and theatre workshops at universities and corporate offices around the country, South Africa and Ireland. He has directed in the UK, and extensively throughout the US, including Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Boston’s Huntington Theatre, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group and New York’s Public Theatre. Leon is a graduate of Clark Atlanta and is an honorary Ph.D. recipient of Clark Atlanta and Roosevelt Universities and has served as the Denzel Washington Chair at Fordham University.