Rob Melrose, who begins his tenure early next year, “is the founder of the Cutting Ball Theater, an experimental, avant-garde theater based in San Francisco. His hire comes at the end of a six-month search for a leader for Houston’s largest theater company. [Gregory] Boyd, who had led the Alley for 28 years, retired abruptly in January as the Houston Chronicle began investigating allegations that he had fostered an abusive working environment and had singled out female actors for harassment.”