12 Peers Theater Presents THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING) by Will Eno

12 Peers Theater presents the first production of their 2017 season, Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno, to be performed at the University of Pittsburgh Studio Theatre June 1-18, 2017. Thom Pain (based on nothing) is an epic and intimate Pulitzer Prize-nominated solo show. Directed by Vince Ventura and starring Matt Henderson, this play will take you through the ins and outs of love, loss, growing up, and badly done magic tricks. Join us for one man's journey through life-changing interactions with dogs, bees, and audience members.

THOM PAIN (BASED ON NOTHING) Directed by Vince Ventura

Featuring Matt Henderson

June 1-18, 2017

University of Pittsburgh Studio Theater

A moving solo show and Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Thom Pain (based on nothing) is one man's attempt to mythologize the loss of innocence we all experience when we shift, sometimes in a single moment, from child to adult. He's just like you, except worse. He is trying to save his life, to save your life-in that order. In his quest for salvation, he'll stop at nothing, be distracted by nothing, except maybe a piece of lint, or the woman in the second row.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Will Eno recently made his Broadway debut with his critically acclaimed new play, The Realistic Joneses. Eno received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre Award. His plays The Open House and Title and Deed premiered at the Pershing Square Signature Center in 2014 and 2012 respectively. The Realistic Joneses also premiered in the spring of 2012, at the Yale Repertory Theater. Both 2012 plays were named in a short list of Best Plays in the New York Times. His critically acclaimed play Middletown (Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play, 2010) received its premiere in winter 2010 at the Vineyard Theatre, and was then produced at Steppenwolf Theatre.

His collection of short plays entitled Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations premiered at The Flea Theater in 2007 starring Marisa Tomei and Brian Hutchison. Eno's internationally heralded play Thom Pain (based on nothing) had a successful year long run at the DR2 in New York, after a sold out run at the 2004 International Edinburgh Festival, where it won all the major awards, and then transferred to the Soho Theatre in London. The play is now being produced across the United States, as well as Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, Israel, Mexico and other countries. Thom Pain (based on nothing) was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Eno's play The Flu Season received the 2004 Oppenheimer Award for the best debut production in New York by an American playwright. His play Gnit, an adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt, premiered at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville, in the Humana Festival, in the spring of 2013. Eno's plays have also been produced by the Gate Theatre, the SOHO Theatre, BBC Radio, The Print Room and elsewhere. His plays are published by Oberon Books, TCG, and playscripts, and have appeared in Harper's, The Antioch Review, The Quarterly, and Best Ten-Minute Plays for Two Actors. He has been commissioned by the Royal National Theatre in London and the Yale Repertory Theatre. He is a Helen Merrill Playwriting Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow, a Fellow of the Cullman Center at the NY Public Library, and was awarded the first-ever Marian Seldes/Garson Kanin Fellowship by the Theater Hall of Fame, as well as the Alfred Hodder Fellowship at Princeton. Will Eno lives in Brooklyn, New York.

ABOUT THE PERFORMER

Matt Henderson's previous acting projects with 12 Peers Theater include White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Colorado, the Pittsburgh Monologue Project, and the Modern Myths Podcast episode of Gone Astray. He has worked with many theatre companies throughout the Pittsburgh area, including PICT Classic Theatre (The Lion in Winter), Bricolage (B.U.S., Midnight Radio, Jr. - Mad Science Lab and Underwater Voyage, Midnight Radio - Animated Holidaze, Speech & Debate, Weightless), City Theatre (the Young Playwrights Festival), Saint Vincent Summer Theatre (Suite Surrender), No Name Players (Fixing King John), Off the Wall (boom), Throughline Theatre (The Farnsworth Invention), Prime Stage Theatre (Walk Two Moons, The Scarlet Letter, The Westing Game), TACT (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), Stage Right (Tink, The Little Mermaid), and Cup-A-Jo Productions (Hospitality Suite). As a playwright, his work has been produced by 12 Peers, Bricolage, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, In Between Theatre, Stage Right, and the Pittsburgh New Works Festival and has been performed throughout the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, and Finland. Directing credits include Caliban, The Curse of Atreus, The Mango Farmer of Vermont, The Disappearing, and Wine and Spirits for 12 Peers. He is also Literary Manager and Marketing Director for 12 Peers. This August, you can see him in the 12 Peers production of Mr. Burns, a post-electric play, and you can see his play The Most Epic Awesomest Superhero Movie Ever at The Theatre Factory.

TICKETS

Single Tickets: $20 Tickets are available online at www.12peers.org and by phone at 412-626-6784. Name Your Own Price performances will be held every Sunday and Monday, June 12, 2017.

Performances: June 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17 at 8 PM; June 4, 11, 18 at 2 PM

Performances: University of Pittsburgh Studio Theatre, Cathedral of Learning,

4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15260

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Founded in 2011, and taking their name from the Twelve Peers of Charlemagne, 12 Peers Theater is a 501(c)(3) organization operating in the Greater Pittsburgh Area. 12 Peers Theater's mission is to provide challenging and engaging theater through contemporary works exploring myth and cultural identity.

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