The Alley's artistic director, Gregory Boyd, is eclectic and gutsy and sometimes simply wicked. But most of all, the man is smart. Since he was appointed head honcho at Houston's richest theater in late 1988, he has brought home a Tony and taken to Broadway a whole slew of shows that premiered at the Alley. Things were a bit quieter for the 1999-2000 season. But Boyd wasn't sitting up in his office resting on any laurels. He found a handful of terrific directors, actors and technicians, and created a stay-at-home season that was simply spectacular. He kicked things off with a mighty reworking of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, filling the stage with iron girders and shadowy darkness that stretched up into the rafters. He went on to put together a minimalist production of Margaret Edson's Wit, a show that sent its audiences home weeping copious tears in the Houston night. He even had the audacity to rewrite Shakespeare with a production of The Comedy of Errors that Boyd himself directed. Whether he's winning national awards, flying off to New York or sticking out the heat here at home, Boyd is always pushing his audiences to see the wild possibilities in life that only the theater can unveil.