By Adam Bock
Directed by Rose Riordan

For select performances, Jen Rowe will replace Dana Green in the role of Jill and others. Notice will be posted indicating the change. 

For select performances, Jen Rowe will replace Dana Green in the role of Jill and others. Notice will be posted indicating the change. 

Adam Bock, Playwright 
Adam’s plays include The Colby Sisters (Kiln Theatre, formerly known as Tricycle, 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, 2008 Outer Critics nomination, Best Plays of 2007-2008, The Evidence Room with Megan Mullally), The Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons, 2008 Outer Critics nomination), The Thugs (Soho Rep, 2007 OBIE Award for Playwriting), The Shaker Chair (2005 Humana Festival), Swimming In The Shallows (Second Stage Uptown, Shotgun Players, 2000 BATCC Award, Clauder Prize), Five Flights (Encore Theatre and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 2002 Glickman Award, ACTA nomination, Osborn nomination), and The Typographer’s Dream (Encore Theatre/Shotgun Players). Mr. 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. Mr. Bock’s plays are published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service and Playscripts, Inc. A Life is his fifth play produced at The Armory, following The Typographer’s Dream (2014), A Small Fire (2014), The Receptionist (2010) and The Thugs (2007). His work has also been featured at three JAW festivals, including A Life (2014), which was commissioned by Portland Center Stage at The Armory and the Perkins Coie’s “Innovative Minds” program.

Rose Riordan, Director
Rose is in her 21st season at Portland Center Stage at The Armory, where she serves as associate artistic director and has previously directed Kodachrome, Every Brilliant Thing, Lauren Weedman Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Wild and Reckless, The Oregon Trail, Our Town, The People’s Republic of Portland (2013 and 2015), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Typographer’s Dream, LIZZIE, A Small Fire, The Mountaintop, The Whipping Man, The North Plan, Red, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, A Christmas Story, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Receptionist, A Christmas Carol, Frost/Nixon, How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, Doubt, The Underpants, The Pillowman and The Thugs, which won four Drammy Awards, including Best Ensemble and Best Director. Rose has recently directed, for various other theaters, Adam Bock’s Phaedra and The Receptionist, The Passion Play and Telethon. In 1999, she founded the annual JAW: A Playwrights Festival. JAW has been instrumental in developing new work for the company’s repertory, including this season’s production of A Life and Storm Large’s Crazy Enough, as well as Kodachrome, Lauren Weedman Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Wild and Reckless, Threesome, Bo-Nita, The People’s Republic of Portland, The Body of an American, The North Plan, Anna Karenina, Outrage, Flesh and Blood, Another Fine Mess, O Lovely Glowworm, Celebrity Row, Act a Lady, The Thugs and A Feminine Ending. She enjoys being part of a company committed to new work and having a beautiful building in which to work.

Tony Cisek, Scenic Designer
Tony has collaborated with Ms. Riordan at Portland Center Stage at The Armory on productions of Our Town, A Small Fire, The Whipping Man, The North Pool, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Christmas Story and Frost/Nixon. Also for The Armory, he has designed The Color Purple, Astoria, Ain’t Misbehavin’, A Feminine Ending, Sometimes a Great Notion and Anna in the Tropics; and his designs here have received five Drammy Awards. Tony’s work has been seen Off-Broadway and regionally at Roundabout Theatre, Arena Stage, Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Baltimore Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Syracuse Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, Cleveland Play House, Folger Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Round House Theatre, Studio Theatre, GALA Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group and Signature Theatre. tonycisek.com

Alison Heryer, Costume Designer
Alison is a costume designer for theater, film and print. She is thrilled to be returning to Portland Center Stage at The Armory, after designing costumes for Kodachrome, Fun Home, Lauren Weedman Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Wild and Reckless, His Eye is on the Sparrow, The Oregon Trail, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Our Town, Three Days of Rain and Threesome. Other design credits include productions with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 59E59 Theaters, La MaMa, The New Victory Theater, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Portland Opera, Artists Repertory Theatre and The Hypocrites. She has exhibited work at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, World Stage Design and the Prague Quadrennial of Design and Space. Alison is on the faculty at the School of Art + Design at Portland State University and a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. alisonheryerdesign.com

Diane Ferry Williams, Lighting Designer
Diane is pleased to be returning to Portland. Diane has worked for many theaters around the country and abroad. Her most recent design is an international tour of How to Succeed ... beginning in Beijing, China. In the U.S., her work has been seen at The Marriott Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars, Goodspeed, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, ACT-Seattle, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Ford’s Theatre, Hubbard Street, Regional Dance America and elsewhere. Other international work includes The Harlem Gospel Singers (Paris and the European tour) and Die Shone Und Das Biest (Berlin and the European tour). She has also lit several national tours and premieres. Awards include a Jeff Award, an After Dark Award, a Carbonelle Award, Drammy Awards – including the 2015 Drammy for Ain’t Misbehavin’ – and seven Jeff nominations. Diane has an M.F.A. in theatrical design from Northwestern University.

Casi Pacilio, Sound Designer
Casi’s home base is The Armory, where recent credits include Kodachrome, A Christmas Memory/Winter Song, Wild and Reckless, His Eye is on the Sparrow, The Oregon Trail, Little Shop of Horrors, A Streetcar Named Desire; A Small Fire and Constellations with composer Jana Crenshaw; and 12 seasons of JAW. National shows: Holcombe Waller's Surfacing and Wayfinders; Left Hand of Darkness, My Mind is Like an Open Meadow (Drammy Award, 2011), Something’s Got Ahold Of My Heart and PEP TALK for Hand2Mouth Theatre. Other credits include Squonk Opera’s Bigsmorgasbord-WunderWerk (Broadway, PS122, national and international tours); I Am My Own Wife, I Think I Like Girls (La Jolla  Playhouse); Playland, 10 Fingers and Lips Together, Teeth Apart (City Theatre, PA); 2.5 Minute Ride and Fires in the Mirror (Profile Theatre). Film credits include Creation of Destiny, Out of Our Time and A Powerful Thang. Imagineer/maker of the Eat Me Machine, a dessert vending machine.

Scott Thorson, Original Sound Designer, JAW 2014 
Scott is a local sound designer and job captain with BRIC Architecture, a local K-12 design firm. Credits at The Armory include sound design for The Mountaintop, The Typographer's Dream, Sex With Strangers (Drammy nomination), and four seasons of JAW, including the original sound design for A Life in 2014. Other Portland designs include Sweet and Sad, Noises Off, Middletown and The Night Alive for Third Rail Rep; Ivy and Bean for Oregon Children's Theatre; and Uncanny Valley for Hand2Mouth Theatre.

Mark Tynan, Stage Manager
Imagine being in a room full of artists, watching the birth of an idea, a movement given purpose, a sentence, phrase, scene, act given life. Then imagine that room translating to the stage with lighting, sound, costumes, scenery and props; then you can imagine what Mark’s job is like. Special thanks to the phenomenal stage management apprentices, Alexis Ellis-Alvarez, Molly Reed and Sarah Stark, who help keep the vision attainable. Prior to The Armory, Mark toured nationally and internationally with musicals including Dreamgirls, The King and I with Rudolf Nureyev, How to Succeed …, Grand Hotel, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent and Jersey Boys. Other Portland credits include several summers with Broadway Rose Theatre Company in Tigard. Regional credits include Alley Theatre (Houston, TX), La Jolla Playhouse (La Jolla, CA) and Casa Mañana Theatre (Fort Worth, TX).

Molly Shevaun Reed, Production Assistant
Molly is thrilled to be joining Portland Center Stage at The Armory this season as a stage management apprentice, where she most recently served as a production assistant for JAW: A Playwrights Festival (Pick a Color and The Birds of Empathy). Originally from Denton, Texas, Molly has worked in stage management, props design and developing new work as a director in Dallas and Portland. Local credits include Spectravagasm X (stage manager), the one-woman original play Endless Oceans (director/designer/producer) and The Few at CoHo Productions (assistant director/production assistant). Dallas credits include Dry Land at Upstart Theater (stage manager) and Nomad Americana (formerly titled Rooting) at Nouveau 47 Theatre and WaterTower Theatre’s Out of the Loop Fringe Festival (director/designer). Molly holds a B.F.A. in theater performance from Baylor University. Love and thanks to Cam, Fam, Lyss and Bear. 

Sarah Stark, Production Assistant
Sarah is a recent Portland transplant from Chicago, where she graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in theater and performance studies. Chicago stage management and assistant stage manager credits include: Little Shop of Horrors (American Blues Theater); Civility! (The Syndicate); Ellen Bond, Union Spy(The House Theatre of Chicago); Love’s Labour’s Lost, She Kills Monsters, Belleville, Urinetown: The Musical (The University of Chicago). Most recently, Sarah has worked as an assistant stage manager for several productions at The Glimmerglass Festival. She is thrilled to be continuing her work and education at The Armory this season!