Stages by David Lee Nelson at PURE Theatre

In 2017, award-winning solo performer David Lee Nelson received news that would change his life. At 38 years old he was diagnosed with Stage Four Colon Cancer. He kept a blog of his time in chemotherapy – a heartbreakingly funny chronicle of a disease which affects over nine million Americans. This material became the basis for his solo play performed in 2020 and created with Riverside Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director Adam Knight. Stages is not simply a play about sickness: it’s a story of life’s setbacks and surprises, and about searching for hope in the most unlikely of places. Filmed at the Gilbert Street Theatre in March 2020 and presented virtually in partnership with the Iowa Cancer Consortium and Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.