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click to enlarge

An inaugural year rehearsal in 2016.

Photo by John Everett

One play takes another look at Huck Finn's trip down the Mississippi on a raft. Another has a baker happily making a wedding cake until she realizes there are not one but two brides. Another bridges the years between a 1920 Russian writer in Poland with the Red Cavalry and a 2010 air crash of Polish officials in Russia.

Very different, thought-provoking and just three of the six readings on workshops the Alley Theatre’s All New Festival — now in its second year — has in store for Houston audiences.

There’s late add Suzanne Vega in her (with Duncan Sheik) new musical Lover, Beloved: An Evening with Carson McCullers. Tony-nominated playwright Robert Askins is dropping in with a new farce, The Carpenter, about a Texas couple on their way to the altar. Kenneth Lin returns to the Alley, this time with a stage adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; as does Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph with Describe the Night, a tale unraveling truth and myth.

Bekah Brunstetter presents The Cake with its bewildered baker, Christina Gorman makes her Alley debut with Roan @ The Gates, a play about a relationship that intersects with national security. Don’t know all these playwrights? This is your chance. And we haven’t even gotten to all the acting talent you’ll have a chance to see.

Performances are scheduled for February 2-12 with varied dates and times. For information call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. Readings and workshops are free and open to the public. Reservations are recommended.