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OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. 14 Forty-Plus Candles for THE ENSEMBLE A merica's Bicentennial year, 1976, was a time of cultural creativity and artistic ferment — an ideal opportunity to broaden the defi nition of the American experience. In Houston, theater impresario George Hawkins, bemoaning the lack of roles for African-Americans, founded a theater company in a grass-roots, bootstrap manner — literally from the trunk of his car. The Ensemble Theatre began as a touring company before moving into its fi rst home, a 1920s-era storefront at 1010 Tuam. Flash forward four decades, and the thespian endeavor now boasts an annual operating budget of $2 million and owns its own Midtown building, where it stages six productions W hat's 20 stories high, promises 223 guest rooms, towers over downtown in a development dubbed GreenStreet, and is situated a stone's throw from Avenida Houston and a short walk from EaDo? If you guessed a new luxury hotel from the team that created Hotel Sorella in CityCentre and the Hotel Valencia in San Antonio, you're certainly up on your real estate happen- ings. Slated to open this October, Hotel Alessandra will mark the fi rst ground- up hotel-interiors project by international architectural fi rm, Rottet Studio, headed a year at a state-of-the-art theater and reaches an audience of 60,000. But the quality of the performances is what make Ensemble stand out, as befi tting the oldest and largest African-American professional company in the Southwest — one of the few theaters in America to stage the entire cycle of acclaimed playwright August Wilson's dramas of black urban life in the 20th century, produce Broadway's The Wiz, as well as this season's musicals on the life of gospel great Mahalia Jackson, followed by the incomparable Nina Simone (Simply Simone, through July 30). As Ensemble begins its fi fth decade, it gears up for its fi rst million-dollar gala, themed Live It, Love It, Celebrate Theatre! Chairs Merele Yarborough and Jane-Page Crump reign over the black- Founder George Hawkins, at the original Ensemble, 1010 Tuam, circa 1982-1985 A rendering of the bar at Hotel Alessandra. COURTESY THE ENSEMBLE THEATRE, PHOTO JEFFERY ST. MARY CHECKING IN AT HOTEL ALESSANDRA by its Houston-based founder, Lauren Rottet. The sleek architecture by the San Francisco offi ce of Gensler is described by those in the know as a lean contemporary jigsaw of planes and glass. PaperCity is the fi rst to peek inside Rottet's posh guest rooms and hotel public spaces created in a palette of crisp white, graphite gray, glim- mering gold, and jade. Guest rooms start at the fi fth fl oor where Rottet has eliminated the traditional bedroom closet and any sign of clutter; in their stead are white wall systems that provide storage options and conceal a desk and 50-inch LCD TV. Through sliding doors is the bath — a study in classic black marble and white subway tile, and cool chrome fi ttings. Ho- tel Alessandra has lured away lauded chef Jose Hernandez from its sister property's restaurant, Radio Milano, and set him up in the contemporary Continental restau- rant Lucienne — a stunning long, narrow room with a ribcage ceiling and cozy ban- quets. Watch for the much-anticipated fall opening this October. Laurann Claridge tie night, Saturday, August 19, at Hilton Americas-Houston; Tables from $4,000; contact Kathy Kelley, 713.807.4304, k l k e l l e y @ e n s e m b l e h o u s t o n . c o m . Catherine D. Anspon Luury PROPERTIES. Utm DISCRETION. M E C O M P R O P E R T I E S . C O M | 7 13 . 5 5 8 . 3 3 18 M A R Y E L I Z A B E T H . H A H N F E L D @ S O T H E B Y S H O M E S . C O M