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Adam Bock’s plays include THE THUGS (Soho Rep, 2007 Obie Award for Playwriting) THE SHAKER CHAIR, SWIMMING IN THE SHALLOWS, FIVE FLIGHTS, THURSDAY, THE FLOWERS and THE TYPOGRAPHER’S DREAM. Upcoming productions include the world premiere of THE RECEPTIONIST at Manhattan Theatre Club, and THE DRUNKEN CITY at Playwrights Horizons. His play FIVE FLIGHTS won the 2002 Will Glickman Award for best new play produced in the Bay Area, four Dean Goodman awards and was nominated for the American Theater Critics, the Osborn, and two BATCC awards, and moved to Rattlestick in NYC. Shotgun Player's production of SWIMMING IN THE SHALLOWS won the 2000 BATCC awards for best production, best ensemble and best original script. It was a Clauder Competition award-winner, was produced in NYC at Second Stage Uptown, and in Los Angeles, Boston, London, Toronto, Montreal, Athens and the Edinburgh Fringe, among others. THE TYPOGRAPHER'S DREAM has been produced in NYC, San Francisco and at the Edinburgh Fringe. He is the resident playwright at Encore Theater, and a Shotgun Players Artistic Associate. He is a NEA grantee, was twice a resident at Yaddo, and a former member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Adam’s plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and Playscripts Inc. He is currently writing a screenplay for Scott Rudin.
SWIMMING IN THE SHALLOWS
Comedy, Full-Length One-Act, 90 Minutes
3M, 3W
Set: A Bench
Barb finds out that Buddhist monks in Thailand only own eight
things—and wonders if that is all she wants. She starts giving away her
things but her husband Bob keeps buying her new ones. Donna wants Carla
Carla to marry her, but Carla Carla doesn’t like that Donna smokes.
Nick meets a shark at the aquarium—they go on a date to the beach and
Nick tries not to sleep with the shark too fast. Plus dream sequences.
Plus a wedding.
Productions: Coyote Theater, Boston; Shotgun Players, San
Francisco; Pisces Moon, Santa Cruz; USC, Long Beach; Red Barn,
Key West; MetaTheater, LA; Kitchen, Ithaca; Hen & Chickens,
London; Edinburgh Festival; TheatreFront, Toronto; SLAC, Salt
Lake; WET, Seattle; Second Stage, NYC; Invisible Theatre,
Tucson; Théâtre de L’Opsis, Montreal.
A screwy little jewel.”—New York Times
“A delightful comedy.”—Time Out New York
“Hits so many right notes, with so much smarts, winning charm, and goofy humor.”—Back Stage West
FIVE FLIGHTS
Comedy/Drama, Full-Length One-Act, 90 Minutes
3M, 3W
Set: Bare Stage
Siblings Ed and Adele inherit an enormous aviary that their late father
built for his deceased wife, whose soul, he believed, had transformed
into the body of a wren. The grown children are faced with the dilemma
of what to do with the crumbling structure—sister-in-law Jane wants to
build tidy new houses, friend Olivia want to use it to build her Church
of the Fifth Day, Ed wants the building to fall back into the ground.
Folded into this debate are issues of religious conviction, fear of
commitment, the way Russian ballet resembles a hockey game, and the
courtship of Ed by Tom, a gay professional hockey player.
Productions: Encore Theater, San Francisco; Pisces Moon, Santa Cruz;
Bowdoin College, Brunswick; Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYC
“Five Flights is a rare discovery in a new play—an intricately constructed comedy about love and grief that is incredibly funny, surprisingly touching and soaring with joyful humanity. The play’s skylarking structure combined with Bock’s haunting substance makes this a not-to-be-missed theatrical triumph.”—Back Stage
“Top Ten Best of the Year”—Advocate
“Only a sweet regret lingers at the end, when it is time to leave these characters and go home.” —San Francisco Chronicle
THE TYPOGRAPHER’S DREAM
Comedy, Full-Length One-Act, 80 Minutes
1M, 2W
Set: A Table
A typographer, a geographer, and a stenographer explore the connections
between profession, self and interpersonal relations. Are you your work?
If you are, what do you do when you hate your job?
Productions: Clubbed Thumb, NYC; Edinburgh Festival; Encore Theater, San Francisco; Encore Theater and Shotgun Players, Berkeley.
“Exhilarating…funny, provocative, psychologically revealing, intellectually stimulating.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Divine comedy...a celebration.”—San Francisco Weekly
“A striking one-act....challenging but funny and novel miniature.”—Variety
“A quirky comedy....with oddball cleverness.”—Village Voice
THE SHAKER CHAIR
Drama Full-Length One-Act, 90 Minutes
2M, 3W, 1 Girl, 1 Pig
Set: Two Chairs
Marion’s sister Dolly is staying with her; Dolly is distraught because
her husband is having an affair. Jean—an environmental activist—invites
Marion on an action. Marion, surprising herself, accepts and sets out on
a journey to answer the question: How big should your circle of concern
be? A play about three women in their sixties truly engaging their
worlds.
Productions: Humana Festival of New American Plays; Encore Theater/Shotgun Players (spring 2008). Workshop: ACT, San Francisco.
“A briskly funny and bracing new play.”—Louisville Courier-Journal
“Effectively and efficiently, it asks questions about personal and social responsibility, the cost of inaction and the importance of reverence for living things.”—Louisville Leo Weekly
“A warm quirky comedy.”—New York Times
THE THUGS
Comedy/Drama Full-Length One-Act, 80 Minutes
2M, 6W
Set: An office
A group of temps do coding work for a law firm on the ninth floor. They think someone is killing people in the building, but they’re temps so no one tells them anything.
Productions: Soho Rep, NYC; Portland Center Stage, Oregon. Workshops: Vineyard Theater, NYC; Playwrights Horizons, NYC; JAW/West, Portland Center Stage.
THE RECEPTIONIST
Comedy/Drama Full-Length One-Act, 80 Minutes
2M, 2W
Set: A Reception Area
A receptionist first helps a co-worker figure out her life and then has to examine her own. How complicit are you, when those you work for are doing something wrong?
Production: Manhattan Theater Club, NYC (fall 2007). Workshops: The O’Neill Playwrights Conference, CT; Perry-Mansfield, Steamboat Springs, Colorado.