THE METHOD GUN Opens at Humana Festival, 3/18

The 34th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, made possible by a generous grant from The Humana Foundation, will continue with The Method Gun, created by Austin?based theatre troupe Rude Mechs and written by Kirk Lynn. The Method Gun is a play about the ecstasy and excesses of performing, the dangers of public intimacy, and the incompatibility of truth on stage and6 sanity in real life.

The play begins performances March 16 in Actors Theatre's Victor Jory Theatre and runs through March 28. The press opening is slated for Thursday, March 18 at 7 p.m. 

This year's festival is comprised of eleven full productions including seven full-length plays presented in rotating repertory in Actors Theatre's 637-seat Pamela Brown Auditorium, 318-seat Bingham Theatre and 159-seat Victor Jory Theatre, a site-specific play at 21c Hotel Museum Hotel showcasing The Actors Theatre Acting Apprentice Company and four ten-minute plays. For more than three decades, Actors Theatre celebrates its underwriter, The Humana Foundation - the philanthropic arm of Humana Inc. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Full?length plays include Ground by Lisa Dillman; The Cherry Sisters Revisited by Dan O'Brien with music by Michael Friedman; Fissures (lost and found) by Steve Epp, Cory Hinkle, Dominic Orlando, Dominique Serrand, Deborah Stein and Victoria Stewart; Phoenix by Scott Organ; Sirens by Deborah Zoe Laufer and The Method Gun created by Rude Mechs and written by Kirk Lynn. The site-specific work commissioned for the Acting Apprentice Company, titled Heist!, was conceived and created by Sean Daniels and Deborah Stein. The four ten-minute plays include Let Bygones Be by Gamal Abdel Chasten, Lobster Boy by Dan Dietz (winner of the Heideman Award), Post Wave Spectacular by Diana Grisanti and An Examination of the Whole Playwright/Actor Relationship Presented As Some Kind of Cop Show Parody by Greg Kotis.

The Method Gun was created by Rude Mechs and written by Kirk Lynn. The production, running March 16th through March 28th, is directed by Shawn Sides and runs at the Victory Joy Theatre. The Method Gun explores the life and techniques of Stella Burden, actor-training guru of the 60s and 70s, whose sudden emigration to South America still haunts her most fervent followers. Ms. Burden's training technique, The Approach (often referred to as "the most dangerous acting technique in the world"), fused Western acting methods with risk?based rituals in order to give even the smallest role a touch of sex, death and violence.

Kirk Lynn is a Founder and one of six Co-Producing Artistic Directors of Rude Mechs. With Rude Mechs, Mr. Lynn has written and adapted more than a dozen plays including Lipstick Traces, Requiem for Tesla and I've Never Been So Happy, winner of a National Endowment for the Arts New Play Development Award, set to premiere in Fall 2010. Mr. Lynn also adapted The Wrestling Patient, a finalist for a NEA New Play Production Award, for 40 Magnolias in Boston. He wrote Major Bang for The Foundry Theatre in New York, with whom he is working on a new commission about "value" and its myriad meanings in America. Mr. Lynn received his M.F.A. from the Michener Center for Writers and currently teaches at The University of Texas at Austin.

Since 1995, Rude Mechs has used performance to explore collectivity, collaboration and community. Co?Producing Artistic Directors Madge Darlington, Thomas Graves, Lana Lesley, Kirk Lynn, Sarah Richardson and Shawn Sides have created a mercurial slate of 22 original theatrical productions ranging from Low-Fi, Agit-Prop, Lec-Dems to Multi-Media, Romantic Era, Closet Dramas. What these works hold in common is an emphasis on corporeality, an intellectual savoir-faire, a preference for the actor above the character and a cheeky sense of humor. Rude Mechs tours these performances nationally and abroad; maintains The Off Center, a performance venue for Austin arts groups of every discipline; and produces Grrl Action, a year?round program in autobiographical writing and performance for teenage girls.

The cast of The Method Gun features Lana Lesley, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, Jason Liebrecht and Shawn Sides. The production team includes: Leilah Stewart (Scenic Design), Brian Scott (Lighting Design), Graham Reynolds (Sound Design), Doc Manning (Properties Design), Madge Darlington (Production Manager/Technical Director) and Adrien?Alice Hansel (Dramaturg).

Tickets for The Method Gun are priced at $35 Sunday-Thursday & Weekend matinees and $40 on Friday and Saturday evenings. Tickets are on sale now to the public by calling (502) 584-1205 or online at ActorsTheatre.org.

The Humana Festival is an internationally acclaimed event that has introduced more than 400 plays into the American and interNational Theatre's general repertoire, including three Pulitzer Prize winners-The Gin Game by D. L. Coburn, Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley and Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies-as well as Rinne Groff's The Ruby Sunrise, Jane Martin's Anton in Show Business, Charles L. Mee's Big Love, Theresa Rebeck's The Scene, Gina Gionfriddo's After Ashley and Becky Shaw, Stephen Belber's Tape and The Civilians' This Beautiful City. Over 380 Humana Festival plays have been published in anthologies and individual acting editions, making Actors Theatre a visible and vital force in the development of new plays.

For more information, visit www.ActorsTheatre.org.