Throes Theater to Present HALFWAY THROUGH THE STORY OF OUR LIFE, Begin. 5/15

Drama Desk Award nominated Throes Theater (2013's Act Before You Speak at The Flea Theater) presents the premiere of HALFWAY THROUGH THE STORY OF OUR LIFE by 2013 Financial Times/Bodley Head Prize winner Alexandra Zelman-Doring in collaboration with Benedita Pereira and Emma Meltzer. Inspired by the monologues of Spalding Gray, this comedy with music begins previews May 15 at Access Theater with opening slated for May 22.

In HALFWAY THROUGH THE STORY OF OUR LIFE three actors, three composers, and three musicians come together in this comic investigation of identity and the search that ensues when we wake to find we have been living in a dream we chose to call "reality." Why are we as we are? Who is the "persona" that builds up in and around us?

HALFWAY THROUGH THE STORY OF OUR LIFE reunites Drama Desk Award nominated composers Ana Milosavljevic, Jiri Kaderabek and Mahir Cetiz, who create original music for the production. The cast features award-winning Portuguese TV actor Benedita Pereira (Best Actress at the 2010 Portugal TV7 Dias awards for "Ele e Ela"), Emma Meltzer (Lost Tribe at Abrons Arts, Ghost Stories at HERE, and Best Ensemble winner What Every Girl Should Know at FringeNYC) and Alexandra Zelman-Doring, whose recent performances at the Edingburgh Fringe, The Flea, and 59E59 have all been widely praised. The cast also features Naum Goldenstein on clarinet, Marc Uys on violin, and Mahir Cetiz on piano. The production features lighting by Isabella Byrd and production design by contemporary artist Jeffrey Landman and Dan Spielman.

Alexandra Zelman-Doring won the 2013 Financial Times/Bodley Head Prize as well as the 2008 Glascock Poetry Prize, which boasts Sylvia Plath and James Merrill among its past winners. She studied at Brown University, Wadham College, Oxford, and holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia University. Her poems/texts have been set to music by composers including Andile Khumalo and Jiri Kaderábek, and she collaborated with composer David Adamcyk on 2011's Cheval mémoire, for solo piano, electronics, and sound installation. She is the author of numerous plays including Light in the Dust, To Hold an Apple (59E59th Street's East to Edinburgh and Edinburgh Festival) and Act Before You Speak (Flea Theater). She trained at Lee Strasburg, HB studios, and Michael Howard Studios.

HALFWAY THROUGH THE STORY OF OUR LIFE runs May 15 - June 8, Tuesday - Friday at 8pm; Saturday and Sunday at 8pm & 2pm. Access Theater is located at 380 Broadway between Walker and White Streets, 2 blocks south of Canal -- accessible from the N,R,6,1,A,C&E trains at Canal. Tickets are $20, available at 800-838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com. For more info visit www.throestheater.com.