A Young Love and the Great War Collide Within a Dream in Stephen Massicotte's Play MARY'S WEDDING

Mary's Wedding, Stephen Massicotte's dream-centered love story set during World War One, opens in The Armory's Ellyn Bye Studio on April 21, with preview performances beginning April 15 and regular performances running through May 28. Brandon Woolley will direct this tender story, starring Lexi Lapp and Alex J. Gould in their company debuts. Lapp will play Mary, the English dreamer we meet on the eve of her wedding day, and "Flowers," a commanding officer in WWI. Gould will play Charlie, the Canadian farm boy turned soldier.

"In Mary's Wedding," said director Brandon Woolley, "all we really know for sure is that we are entering the subconscious of a young woman who is trying to remember, reimagine and revisit a relationship with her beloved as she prepares for her wedding day. Ultimately, I hope her dream will take audiences on a journey that is enlightening, cathartic and whimsical."

Regular tickets start at $25. 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 can purchase $30 tickets for all dates/times. $5 tickets are available for Oregon Trail Card holders through the Arts for All program. Showtimes are Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m. (excluding April 30; May 6, 14, 16, 23, 28); Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. (excluding April 15, 16, 22; May 6, 20) and Thursday matinees at noon (excluding April 20, 25). Recommended for ages 12 and up. Contains mature language and battle sound effects; an actor will use one tobacco-free herbal cigarette.

ABOUT THE PLAY

When Mary and Charlie unexpectedly find one another sheltering in a barn during a thunderstorm, a tentative love is born. But the year is 1914, and they must surrender their fates to the uncertainties of the tumultuous times during the First World War. In this award-winning Canadian play, their love story unfolds against the most devastating conflagration of war that the world had yet seen, as the playwright weaves time, dreams and memory together to remind us that the heart is beautifully resilient. Mary's Wedding had its world premiere in 2002 at Alberta Theatre Projects' playRites Festival and has since received more than a hundred productions in Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. More information at www.pcs.org/maryswedding.

Alex J. Gould (CHARLIE)

Off-Broadway: The Woodsman (New World Stages, 59E59 Theaters, and featured on PBS and BroadwayHD). Other recent credits include The Radicalization of Rolfe (New York International Fringe Festival Best Overall Play, 2016); Last Cigarette (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Student Body, The Mysteries, a cautionary tail, Job and #serials@theflea (Flea Theater); Whaddabloodclot (Williamstown Theatre Festival); and Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2015.

Lexi Lapp (MARY/"FLOWERS")

Off-Broadway: STET (Abingdon Theatre Company/The Muse Project). Other recent credits include Alligator (New Georges/The Sol Project); I Will Be Gone, That High Lonesome Sound, So Unnatural a Level (Humana Festival of New American Plays); Luna Gale, At The Vanishing Point and The Markers (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Film: Love & Everything in Between and Cut Shoot Kill.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Stephen Massicotte's play Mary's Wedding won the 2000 Alberta Playwriting Competition, the 2002 Betty Mitchell Award and the 2003 Alberta Book Award. It has also been translated into French and adapted into an opera by Pacific Opera Victoria. His play The Oxford Roof Climber's Rebellion premiered as a co-production between Tarragon Theatre and Great Canadian Theatre Company and was a hit Off-Broadway. It won the 2007 Canadian Author's Association Award for Best English Language Play and the 2007 Alberta Book Award for Drama. His most recent play, The Clockmaker, premiered at the Alberta Theatre Projects' 2009 playRites Festival and won the 2009 Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play and the 2011 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best English Language Play. He wrote the feature films The Dark and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, for which he won the award for Best Script/Drama Over 60 Minutes at the 2004 Alberta Media Production Industries Association Awards. He also wrote the award-winning short film June and, most recently, Historica Canada's Winnipeg Falcons and Nursing Sisters Heritage Minutes.

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Brandon Woolley most recently directed Sex with Strangers at The Armory. His other recent directing credits include International Falls and The Few (CoHo Productions). Joining Woolley to create the dream-like world of Mary's Wedding are scenic and costume designer G.W. Mercier (most recently A Streetcar Named Desire, Dreamgirls and Fiddler on the Roof at The Armory); lighting designer Kristeen Willis Crosser (Sex with Strangers at The Armory; Invisible Hand at Seattle's ACT Theatre); sound designer Em Gustason (The Few with Coho Productions; Marjorie Prime at Artists Repertory Theatre); projection designer Kwame Braun (debut at The Armory; The Lasso of Truth at Marin Theatre Company; Chavez Ravine at UC Berkeley); dialect coach Mary McDonald-Lewis (most recently Astoria: Part One at The Armory); production dramaturg Mary Blair (dramaturgical credits include Our Town and The Oregon Trail at The Armory); with stage manager Mark Tynan and production assistant Bailey Anne Maxwell.

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