A LIFE To Open At The Armory This Fall

Adam Bock's A Life, commissioned by Portland Center Stage at The Armory, will receive its West Coast debut at The Armory following the success of the play's world premiere in New York. A Life begins preview performances on September 29, opens on October 5, and runs through November 11 in the Ellyn Bye Studio. Associate Artistic Director Rose Riordan, who has frequently partnered with Bock, will direct. Nat DeWolf (Broadway: Take Me Out) will make his company debut as the astrology-loving and hopelessly single Nate Martin. DeWolf is joined by Cycerli Ash, also making her debut at The Armory, as well as returning artists Dana Green (Major Barbara and many others) and Gary Norman (Our Town).

"My feeling when I read any Adam Bock play is always the same. I am enthralled with the sparseness, and with his ability to capture the human experience on such an insightful level," Riordan said. "A Life it precisely that. A Life. What we value, hold dear and treasure. Who we share it with, how we take inventory, and what becomes of it all in the end. With Adam's keen eye and ear for the human journey, he captures it in exactly the right way."

Regular tickets start at $25 and are on sale now. Tickets may be purchased at www.pcs.org, 503.445.3700, or in-person from the box office (128 NW Eleventh Avenue, Portland, OR). Rush tickets are $20. Students and patrons who are 30 or younger get 50% off premium tickets. $5 tickets are available for Oregon Trail Card holders through the Arts for All program. Discounts available for groups of 10+. Active duty or veteran military personnel and their immediate families get 50% off premium tickets. Performance times (with a few exceptions noted below) are Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.; and Thursday matinees at noon. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Contains adult situations and language. For more information visit www.pcs.org/alife.

A Life is Adam Bock's wickedly funny play about the meaning of life. Nate Martin is hopelessly single. When his most recent breakup casts him into a funk, he turns to the only source of wisdom he trusts: the stars. Poring over astrological charts, he obsessively questions his past and his place in the cosmos. The answer he gets is shockingly obvious - and totally unpredictable. A Life was commissioned by Portland Center Stage at The Armory and the Perkins Coie's "Innovative Minds" program in 2013 and featured at JAW: A Playwrights Festival in 2014. It had its world premiere Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons staring David Hyde Pierce. A Life will be Adam Bock's fifth play produced at The Armory, following The Typographer's Dream (2014), A Small Fire (2014), The Receptionist (2010) and The Thugs (2007).

Adam Bock's plays include The Colby Sisters (Kiln Theatre, London), Phaedra (Shotgun Players, dir. Rose Riordan), A Small Fire (Playwrights Horizons, Drama Desk nomination), book for We Have Always Lived in the Castle, with music by Todd Almond (Yale Repertory Theatre), The Receptionist (Manhattan Theatre Club, Outer Critics nomination), The Evidence Room with Megan Mullally), The Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons, Outer Critics nomination), The Thugs (Soho Rep, OBIE Award for Playwriting), The Shaker Chair (Humana Festival), Swimming In The Shallows (Second Stage Uptown, Shotgun Players, BATCC Award, Clauder Prize), Five Flights (Encore Theatre and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Glickman Award, ACTA nomination, Osborn nomination) and The Typographer's Dream (Encore Theatre/Shotgun Players). Bock is a Guggenheim fellow, NEA grantee, a three-time resident at Yaddo, a former member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and New Dramatists, a NYTW Usual Suspect, a Clubbed Thumb Associate, a TDF Open Doors mentor and a member of the board of Space on Ryder Farm. Bock's plays are published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service and Playscripts, Inc.

Nat DeWolf will make his debut at The Armory in the lead role of Nate Martin. His New York credits include Take Me Out on Broadway and at The Public Theater, and Off-Broadway runs of Antlia Pneumatica and Betty's Summer Vacation at Playwrights Horizons. Cycerli Ash (recently Black Nativity and Two Trains Running at PassinArt: A Theatre Company) will also make her debut at The Armory in the roles of Ellen/Medical Examiner/Mortician. Dana Green (The Armory: Major Barbara, Constellations, Great Expectations, Othello and A Midsummer Night's Dream) will play Other Medical Examiner/The Assistant/Nate's Sister and Gary Norman (The Armory: Our Town) will play Curtis/Boyfriend.

Director Rose Riordan, in her 21st season as associate artistic director of Portland Center Stage at The Armory, has previously directed five Bock plays at The Armory, as well as Bock's Phaedra at Shotgun Players and The Receptionist at CoHo Productions. Rounding out the creative team are Scenic Designer Tony Cisek, who collaborated with Riordan on Bock's A Small Fire at The Armoy, among many others, including Our Town and The Whipping Man; Costume Designer Alison Heryer (whose recent credits with The Armory include Kodachrome and Fun Home); Lighting Designer Diane Ferry Williams (who most recently designed Astoria: Part One and Two at The Armory); Sound Designer Casi Pacilio (whose recent credits at The Armory include Kodachrome and A Christmas Memory/Winter Song); Stage Manager Mark Tynan; and Production Assistant Sarah Stark.

To post a comment, you must register and login.