Kitchen Theatre Company's SWIMMING IN THE SHALLOWS Begins Tonight

What do you get when you combine a lesbian couple with trust issues, a straight couple with accumulation issues, a single guy with commitment issues, and an aquarium shark with glass issues? It could only be Swimming in the Shallows by Adam Bock, a comedy with a bite. Kitchen Theatre Company is trying to stop laughing long enough to say that the production is opening for previews tonight, April 29, with the press opening on May 2 and performances through May 17.

This is an encore production; Swimming in the Shallows was produced in the Kitchen's 2002-2003 Season, and it featured Karl Gregory as the commitment-phobic Nick and Dean Robinson as Bob, the husband who can't understand why his wife wants to get rid of all of their belongings. Those two are back for this production, and they are joined by a stellar, all-Equity cast: Karina Arroyave, Lesley Gurule, Lena Kaminsky, and Peterson Townsend.

All six actors have extensive credits in NYC and regional theater, and four have previous KTC credits. Karl Gregory was Resident Actor at KTC for five seasons. Some of his favorite productions here (and ours too!) include: Gutenberg! The Musical!, Fully Committed, SantaLand Diaries, From White Plains, Swimming in the Shallows, A Perfect Ganesh, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and The Servant of Two Masters. Dean Robinson's previous roles at KTC include The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Chairs, Nora, and Circle Mirror Transformation. Elsewhere, Dean has performed at Trinity Repertory, American Southwest Theatre Company, ACT, The Public Theatre, and The Eureka Theatre, and he is a founding member of The Actors' Gang in Los Angeles. Karina Arroyave is best known for her role as Jamey Farrell in the TV show 24 and 2005's Best Picture Winner Crash. She performed at Kitchen Theatre Company in 2013 in Stephen Adly Guirgis's The Motherf**ker with the Hat. Lesley Gurule returns to KTC after a very brief hiatus; she was here last month in A Body Of Water, a production which then moved to the Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY. Lena Kaminsky makes her KTC debut with Swimming in the Shallows, but she was nearby recently for Syracuse Stage's production of In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play. Playing the shark is Peterson Townsend, also new to KTC. His credits range from regional theater in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Greensboro, NC, to appearances in seven Metropolitan Opera productions.

Reprising her role as director of Swimming in the Shallows is Kitchen Theatre Company Artistic Director Rachel Lampert."This is a wonderful show to direct," says Lampert. "Adam Bock's play is full of laughs and surprises, and it gives the actors and director license to play. We have had a blast in rehearsals! I am so pleased to be returning to this play with this fabulous cast and design team. Swimming in the Shallows remains a delightfully frothy examination of relationships with surprising insights bubbling up all the time. I encourage everyone to see this play, because it is also the perfect way to celebrate the arrival of spring... with a play full of love and laughs and surprising couplings!"

The design team is led by set and lighting designer David L. Arsenault, designer of over a dozen shows at Kitchen Theatre Company, including A Body of Water, Sunset Baby, Seminar, Cock, Black Pearl Sings!, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, The Whipping Man, Call Me Waldo (also Working Theatre), Selling Out, and Mary's Wedding, and regional productions at Hangar Theatre, Merry Go Round Playhouse, Hudson Stage, Gulfshore Playhouse and more. Sound design and original music is by Scott O'Brien, designer of this season's A Body of Water and Lonely Planet and last season's Slashes of Light at Kitchen Theatre Company. Costume design is by Lisa Boquist, designer of many Kitchen Theatre Company productions, including most recently this season's A Body of Water and Sunset Baby. The Production Stage Manager is Jennifer Schilanksy.

Swimming in the Shallows is Co-Produced by Tompkins Trust Company, with media sponsorship by WSKG FM.