Actors Theatre of Louisville to Present O GURU GURU GURU as Part of 2013 Humana Festival, 3/20-4/7

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein have announced O Guru Guru Guru, or why I don't want to go to yoga class with you by Mallery Avidon, directed by former Actors Theatre directing intern Lila Neugebauer. The play will run in the Victor Jory Theatre beginning on March 20, opening March 22 and running through April 7th. The production is part of the 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays, made possible by a generous grant from the Humana Foundation. Tickets are on sale now to the public and can be purchased at The Actors Theatre Box Office by calling 502-584-1205 or online at ActorsTheatre.org.

Lila grew up in an ashram, but she does not want to go to yoga class with you. Not because she doesn't like stretching or has no discipline or worries she might be bad at it. Not because she doesn't like you. The reason Lila doesn't want to go to yoga class is not easy to explain-but let her try. A disarming look at the precarious process of becoming yourself.

Mallery Avidon's play Breaks & Bikes recently premiered at Pavement Group in Chicago. Her other work has been produced by Target Margin Theater, On the Boards, angry BLVD and Williams College Summer Theater Lab, and developed by Playwrights Horizons, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, IRT Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, New Century Theater Company and A Collection of Shiny Objects.

Lila Neugebauer was a former directing intern at Actors Theatre and was the assistant director/dramaturg on The Edge of Our Bodies (Humana Festival 2011), written and directed by Adam Rapp. She has had various credits in New York as well as in regional theatre including most recently Dan LeFranc's Troublemaker at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Annie Baker's The Aliens (The Studio Theatre, D.C.; West Coast premiere, The San Francisco Playhouse), and The Valley of Fear at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She is also the co-artistic director of The Mad Ones.

The cast includes Rebecca Hart who was most recently seen at Actors in A Devil at Noon during the 35th Humana Festival of New American Plays. Khrystyne Haje is an Emmy Award-winner and received the Civilian Medal of Honor for entertaining U.S. troops with Bob Hope during the war in Afghanistan. She will be familiar to many for her role as Simone in ABC's long running hit Head of the Class. Daphne Gaines is returning to Actors Theatre after appearing in A Christmas Carol. Maya Lawson's theatre credits include The K of D: An Urban Legend at Magic Theatre, Courting Vampires at Theatre at Boston Court, Blackbird at Studio Theatre Los Angeles and Curse of the Starving Class at American Conservatory Theater. Gisela Chipe was last seen at Actors in Dracula. Kristin Villanueva was last seen as May Kasahara in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the Singapore Arts Festival.

The production team includes Andrew Lieberman (Scenic Designer) who is a Princess Grace winner and designed Sandra Tsing Loh's I Worry at Actors Theatre in 2003. Ásta Bennie Hostette's (Costume Designer) New York theatre credits include The (*) Inn at Target Margin Theater, Grimly Handsome and Tube at Incubator Arts Project, Strange Cargo at PS122 and Babes in Toyland at the Ice Factory Festival and the Ohio Theatre. Brian H. Scott(Lighting Designer) recently designed lighting for Cafe Variations, Trojan Women, Under Construction, WhoDoYouThinkYouAre, Hotel Cassioepia and Death and the Ploughman. Darron L. West (Sound Designer) is a Tony and Obie Award-winning sound designer whose work for theatre and dance has been heard in over 500 productions nationally, internationally, on Broadway and off.

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