How do you like living in Houston?

I’ve always been a little too loud and a little too friendly for the other places I’ve lived: Minnesota, the East Coast and San Francisco. Here, I feel very much at home.

Tell us about the differences in San Fran’s and Houston’s creative scenes.

The philanthropic community in Houston is a force of nature, and they have really made it their mission in life to make Houston a great place to live. The combination of great ideas and generous support is what makes Houston such a vibrant, ‘can-do’ city.

You are bringing quite a few literary tales to life on the Alley stage this season.

I love the classics and feel that they are essential to the life of the theater

This month, patrons can see A Christmas Carol and Fully Committed at the Alley. What should we be looking forward to?

A Christmas Carol is a play that is so important to our audience. It is just such a great story. Fully Committed features one actor playing a restaurant reservationist as well as all 40 people who call him on the phone. It is a tour de force for an actor and our Dylan Godwin is going to knock it out of the park.

This season, you directed Murder on the Orient Express and Winter’s Tale, and this spring you will direct 1984.

I’m very excited about 1984. I was 14 in 1984 and all the TV shows joked the entire year about how wrong Orwell was. But now we have cameras in our phones, our computers and on every street corner, and the novel feels more relevant than ever