Artists Repertory Theatre Presents AMERICAN HERO

Artists Repertory Theatre presents the Northwest Premiere of Drama Desk award-winner Bess Wohl's AMERICAN HERO to Portland audiences starting October 4, 2016. Directed by Shawn Lee, this comedy takes a look at the struggles and perseverance of the American working class through the lens of a franchise-owned sandwich shop. AMERICAN HERO runs through October 30 on the Alder Stage.

When the American Dream is dashed, try making a sandwich! A trio of disparate and desperate 'sandwich artists' find themselves abandoned by their fast-food franchise and left to their own devices in this utterly amusing and ridiculously believable story of making ends "meat and cheese."

This post-recession, comedic commentary embraces the humor in misery, the creativity in despair, and the ingenuity of the human spirit as this indomitable group bands together to succeed on their own damned terms. "...a sweet and sour new comedy." - New York Times
"I ordered the same sandwich at Subway for years, everyday, never really thinking about the lives of those 'sandwich artists' behind the counter, and here Bess Wohl's play tells the collective, true-to-life story of those many hardworking people in our society just trying to get by, " said the play's director Shawn Lee, at the production's first rehearsal. "

A sharp comedy and commentary, this play features characters that represent working-class people with a lot going on in their lives, each with their own sets of baggage and aspirations, all struggling to survive this economy, but doggedly still chasing the American Dream. With wit and empathy, the play reminds us that if we don't work together to succeed, we don't move forward - and that's a message we all need to hear."

Tickets and more information are available at: 503.241.1278 or www.artistsrep.org

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Wohl began her career as an actress, earning an MFA from Yale, and has since become a writer, developing projects for the stage, motion pictures, and television. She is currently at work on a family drama about the meat business for HBO. She is also working on an original musical about the adult entertainment business, a recent commission from the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles.

Her first play, CATS TALK BACK, had its world premiere at the Yale Cabaret while she was a student at Yale. It was subsequently performed at the Williamstown Theater Festival and finally at the NYC International Fringe Festival where it won the award for Best Overall Production. Her play, TOUCH(ED), had its world premiere at the Pioneer Theatre Company earlier this year. BARCELONA was recently workshopped at Ojai Playwrights Conference. Her plays have been produced or developed at The Vineyard Theater, The Pittsburgh Public Theater, The Northlight Theater, TheaterWorks New Works Festival, and The Geffen Playhouse. Her work has also been supported by the MacDowell Colony, where she was recently a fellow. Upcoming productions include the world premiere of her play, IN, at the Pioneer Theater in 2011. Her screenplay adaptation of her play, IN was included on Hollywood's Black List of best feature scripts. She has also developed for network television, and recently wrote an original pilot for Twentieth Century Fox Television/FBC. As an actress, Bess has appeared onstage in New York, regionally and at Williamstown Theater Festival (five summers) and in numerous films and TV shows, where she has given birth, solved crimes, committed crimes, been wrongly accused, and come back from the dead. She is a graduate of Harvard, Magna Cum Laude, where she was awarded the Rona Jaffe Writing Prize and the Tennessee Williams Scholarship. At the Yale School of Drama, she was a recipient of the Rebecca West Scholarship. Wohl won the 2015 Drama Desk Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award that recognizes excellence and significant contributions to the theater for establishing herself as an important voice in New York Theater, and having a breakthrough year with the eclectic AMERICAN HERO, PRETTY FILTHY and SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS. She is originally from Brooklyn, New York, and divides her time between New York and Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

This is Shawn's first time directing for Artists Rep. He recently directed the Portland Premiere of EM Lewis' THE GUN SHOW at CoHo Productions starring Artists Rep Resident Artist Vin Shambry. He is in his third season as Artistic Producer at Artists Rep, where he has produced 16 shows to date and coordinated with companies such as Profile Theatre, Portland Shakespeare Project, Risk/Reward, Hand2Mouth, Corrib Theatre, PHAME and the Grammy-nominated band Tiempo Libre. In 2001, he co-founded the Furious Theatre Company in Los Angeles where he served as co-artistic director until moving to Portland in 2014. He is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, the Back Stage Garland Award, LA Weekly Theatre Award, LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award and the Pasadena Arts Council's Gold Crown Award. With Furious Theatre, over 25 productions including the award-winning rolling U.S. premiere of FOXFINDER with Artists Rep and THE PAIN AND THE ITCH with The Theatre@Boston Court. He is a co-creator offoundfootage.net with Matt Pelfrey (MTV Skins) and directed several episodes of the web-series A.G.A.N.G. He is a member of Actors' Equity Association.

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