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    Up Her Alley

    Houston beats Broadway: A top playwright and Smash creator makes her choice clear — she's no Fool

    Tarra Gaines
    Mar 4, 2014 | 12:34 pm

    Adult Language, Adult Situations, Beheadings. This is the description the Alley Theatre gives as a guidance for audiences planning to see the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s farce Fool. And while most adults breeze over these types of warnings this particular juxtaposition of advisories seems to aptly represent how the horrific can sometimes be hilarious especially when the beheadings are surrounded by cross-dressing, deadly food fights and lots of fart jokes.

    Set in the sub-kitchen of a 14th century castle, Fool juggles questions about the nature of comedy, identity and power as two rival court jesters are forced by their kings to compete in a joke-off, with the loser losing his or her head.

    When I recently had a chance to speak with Theresa Rebeck, I had to ask how a playwright so well known for scathing comic looks at contemporary power struggles, especially among the creative classes, came to write a play filled with references to witch burning and pig farming — one where kitchen wenches are threatened by literal cutthroats.

    Foolish Inspiration

    Rebeck explains that the idea of two fools in competition came to her several years ago, but she did not really discover their story until later.

    “I had gone through a series of situations that were connected to big power structures, and I started to understand that anything about a pair of fools would have to also be about power and comedy. When those pieces began to fall into place, I decided it was time to start writing this,” she says.

    “Sometimes when you do work in New York, everyone gets so obsessed with what kind of movie stars or TV stars you can put in this. It sort of starts to feel that it’s not about the play."

    Along with being the author of the Broadway hit plays Seminar and Dead Accounts, the Pulitzer Prize nominee is also the creator and first showrunner of the NBC drama Smash. The show’s behind-the-scenes drama was well publicized and, for some viewers, might have become more interesting than the on screen drama. So it would be easy to interpret Fool as a allegory for Hollywood power struggles, but after seeing the play, I think that might be the least interesting take on this comedy.

    In fact, it might be better to pair Fool with a trip to the Museum of Natural Science to view the Magna Carta exhibition, then to review Smash gossip.

    Truth in Comedy

    All the characters in the play from the fools to the villainous king’s advisors to the king himself are at the whim of whoever has the most power at any given moment. Sometimes that power comes from a sword or a seduction, other times from a well-timed joke. Even a seemingly decent king can easily become a despot when confronted with a “no.” Meanwhile, two fools just trying to tell some jokes, discover good comedy has a tendency to also reveal truths and sometimes that’s the last thing powerful people want to hear.

    “This play quite literally becomes about speaking truth to power in a comedic voice,” Rebeck says.

    Add in the constant exchanging of costumes and roles in the play, and Fool also struggles (and pratfalls) with issues of identity, a theme Rebeck has not explored much in her previous work.

    “Everyone in the play is in some sense wearing a costume. . .You’re not so much a jester as you are a person in a jester costume,” Rebeck explains, also making connections between the life of a medieval jester and the way we life today. “As the other classes show up we perform for them, as we all perform for people who have more power than us.

    “If the boss shows up, you want to wear a nice outfit. If the boss isn’t around you go: Ugh, I hate that guy. It’s very much about the way we perform for different classes of people and then when we aren’t performing you can still be in costume but you’re not performing the costume. There’s a lot of that that goes on, not just the fools but for everybody in the play.”

    Fool Finds a Home at the Alley

    Rebeck has been in town for rehearsals and is “thrilled” with what she’s seeing. Fool getting its world premiere at the Alley was no accident. Alley artistic director, Gregory Boyd, who is also directing Fool, attended one of the first readings of the play at the Eugene O'Neill Theater. When the play was ready Rebeck says she was quite “audacious” in calling Boyd and asking if he wanted the play for the Alley. She wanted Boyd especially for his gifts as a comic director.

    “The play is complicated, but there’s a strong farcical element to it, so that was a big part of wanting to do it here because I could get it to Greg Boyd,” she says.

    Another thing Rebeck finds refreshing about debuting a work so very far off Broadway is that the production is all about the play itself, not foremost a vehicle for a star.

    “Sometimes when you do work in New York, everyone gets so obsessed with what kind of movie stars or TV stars you can put in this. It sort of starts to feel that it’s not about the play. The play somehow gets turned into a platform to attract stars. That gets a little wearing on the heart,” Redeck confesses.

    At the Alley, she found “Largely the intent was to build a perfect a production of this play, with that being the main goal and that’s very exciting as a playwright to feel like you’re in hands that secure.”

    Fool runs at the Alley Theatre through March 16.

    Jeremy Webb as Stuart in the Alley Theatre’s production of Fool.

    Jeremy Webb as Stuart in the Alley Theatre\u2019s production of Fool
      
    Photo by © Michal Daniel
    Jeremy Webb as Stuart in the Alley Theatre’s production of Fool.
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    Hodge Podge

    Houston artist bids farewell, for now, with career-spanning new exhibit

    Craig D. Lindsey
    Jun 18, 2025 | 10:29 am
    Robert Leroy Hodge Sanman Studios
    Courtesy of Robert Leroy Hodge/SANMAN Studios
    The exhibit shows a range of the artist's works.

    Artist Robert Leroy Hodge is saying goodbye to Houston – well, not exactly.

    The Houston-born multidisciplinary artist recently debuted his latest exhibit, Diamonds That Fall from the Treetop, at SANMAN Studios. Known more for his eye-catching, pop-art collages (in 2023, he collaborated with Austin artist Tim Kerr for the No Kings But Us exhibit at Blaffer Art Museum), this mini-retrospective will feature selected works from his two-decade career – including the early stuff.

    “A lot of kids think I only make collages,” Hodge tells CultureMap. “And, also, I'm not making collages anymore like that. So, it's like the end of an era. I show where I started with these portraits and real paintings and drawings and how I kind of got into collage. It's a wide range of things I do, not just collage.”

    Diamonds will also be his last exhibit in Houston, but he’s not moving away. Hodge will cut down on doing local exhibits and focus more on getting his art and his name out there in other parts of the world. He’s out to prove that serious art can come out of this place.

    “When I interact with politicians and people in higher positions, they treat local artists like they're secondary, they're not good enough,” he says. “[They say] ‘They're in Houston because they can't be in New York and LA,’ and that's not the case. I could be anywhere, and I chose Houston.”

    But Hodge wants to be known as an artist from Houston, instead of just in Houston. “There’s nothing wrong with being a local artist in your city, but that’s not what I want,” he says. “I live here, but for me to get to the next space I wanna get to, I need to be showing more in New York, LA, out the country. And it's nothing personal – when you do a lot of stuff here, you just can't keep doing the same thing. You start to feel stagnant.”

    As much as he loves both the city and its art scene, Hodge knows that the visual arts isn’t a high priority around here. “We are an oil-and-gas city,” he says. “And because that's the main way money is being made, arts and culture is not primary. And, then, the new mayor is not really into art. So, it's like it all depends on who loves art and who's in office.”

    Within city limits, Hodge says he will be more of a curator and mentor, helping young artists and working with galleries and studios on creating showcases for those artists and others. He also wants to continue collaborating with fellow art enthusiasts of color, like the folks at SANMAN.

    “I wanted to do it with SANMAN because it's owned by two young Black men,” he says. “They got a staff of Black creatives, and I wanted to really show cohesiveness between Black men.”

    But Hodge isn’t completely hanging up the idea of doing another big solo show in his hometown. “This is the last one for a while,” he says, “unless the Menil calls or something crazy happens.”

    -----

    Diamonds That Fall will be on display through Saturday, July 26.

    Robert Leroy Hodge Sanman Studios
      

    Courtesy of Robert Leroy Hodge/SANMAN Studios

    The exhibit shows a range of the artist's works.

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