Photos: First Look at the Cast of HIGH SCHOOL PLAY: A NOSTALGIA FEST

The Tony Award-winning Alley Theatre presents Vichet Chum's world premiere comedy High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest. The play is directed by native Houstonian Tiffany Nichole Greene and runs January 21 - February 13, 2022 in the Hubbard Theatre.

Vichet Chum is a Cambodian-American playwright and theatre maker originally from Dallas, Texas and now lives in New York City. Tiffany Nichole Greene, a Houston native, splits her time between Hamilton as Resident Director of the Philip Tour and freelance directing in theatres across America. Both Chum and Greene hold MFA degrees from Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company where they met and have remained close friends since, championing each other's work over the years. Greene, in fact, brought Chum's play to the attention of Alley Theatre where it was developed in the 2020 Alley All New Festival and Alley at Ucross Residency.

It's 2003, senior year in Carrollton, Texas, and Riverside High School's competitive theatre troupe is climbing back to the top from last year's unprecedented loss. Dara is trying to rally his teammates, while new kid Paul disrupts Dara's complete understanding of himself and his small-town suburban life. When coaches Dirkson and Blow make a bold choice for the one-act play competition and the community takes issue, friends and rivals duke it out and find themselves in this uniquely Texan and thoroughly universal coming of age comedy.

"I adore High School Play. I laughed out loud the first time I read it. Then when Vichet was working on it during the Alley at Ucross residency, we would read sections out loud and it made me laugh even more to hear it spoken," said Alley Artistic Director Rob Melrose. "But it wasn't until I saw the full reading at the Alley All New Festival that I realized how moving it was. It is no mean feat to write a play that is hilariously funny and deeply moving at the same time, but Vichet has done it. Whether you participated in the UIL One Act Play Contest as a kid or watched your kids participate as an adult or are someone from outside of Texas, like me, simply having wonderful memories of high school theatre, this play will make you laugh until you cry and bring back some of the most important memories of growing up. I'm so proud that the Alley is presenting this wonderful world premiere."

"Conversations around gender expression, sexuality and race in this country are much different now than when I was in high school in the early 2000s," shares playwright Vichet Chum. "Still, it is a grave mistake to believe that prejudice goes away when cultural and societal norms shift. In fact, right now in 2021, we are arguably witnessing the greatest movement to progress and its greatest resistance. High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest hopes to show how much has changed in almost twenty years and at the same time, how much more important work there is still to do. And to show that as a young person in face of a community that denies them, the journey to be the most authentic version of yourself is a personal and perilous one. This play endeavors to be a love letter to today's, yesterday's, and tomorrow's youth... to offer them grace, power, and love to face that very journey."

The cast of High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest includes Alley's Resident Acting Company members Melissa Pritchett as Ms. Blow/Mrs. Simms and Todd Waite as Dirkson/Mr. Bland. Rounding out the cast are Ricardo Dávila as Rich, Sabrina Koss as Kailee, Mai Le (For Steve Wozniak, on His 67th Birthday, Alley All New Reading of High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest) as Allison, Kiaya Scott (Stages' The Fantasticks and Little Shop of Horrors) as Sophie, Jarred Tettey (A Christmas Carol) as Paul, and Daniel Velasco (Alley All New Reading of High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest) as Dara.

The creative team of High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest includes Scenic Designer Michael Locher, Costume Designer Ari Fulton, Lighting Designer Kevin Rigdon, Sound Designer Melanie Chen Cole, Stage Manager Rebecca R.D. Hamlin, and Assistant Stage Manager Ethan Mitchell.

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