The play, which will officially open March 18, was written by one of the Mechs' founders, Kirk Lynn, and will be directed by Shawn Sides. Sides will also appear opposite Lana Lesley, Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah and Jason Liebrecht.
The creative team will include set designer Leilah Stewart, lighting designer Brian Scott, sound designer Graham Reynolds, properties designer Doc Manning, production manager and technical director Madge Darlington and dramaturg Adrien-Alice Hansel.
The Method Gun is described in press notes as "a play about the ecstasy and excesses of performing, the dangers of public intimacy, and the incompatibility of truth on stage and sanity in real life." It centers on the legendary acting teacher, Stella Burden, who has mysteriously moved to South America but leaves behind an acting technique, the Approach, which "fused Western acting methods with risk-based rituals in order to give even the smallest role a touch of sex, death and violence."
Lynn, Sides, Lesley, Graves and Darlington are among the six co-producing artistic directors of Rude Mechs. (The sixth is Sarah Richardson.) Since its founding in 1995, Rude Mechs has produced 22 original pieces "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."
With the company, Lynn has written or adapted Lipstick Traces, Requiem for Tesla and the upcoming I've Never Been So Happy, among others. Additional credits include The Wrestling Patient and Major Bang. Actors Theatre of Louisville is located at 316 West Main Street in Louisville. For tickets call (502) 584-1205 or visit ActorsTheatre.org.
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The additional five full-length plays in the Humana Festival include Sirens by Deborah Zoe Laufer (Feb. 21-March 28), Fissures (lost and found) by Steve Epp, Cory Hinkle, Dominic Orlando, Dominique Serrand, Deborah Stein and Victoria Stewart (Feb. 26-March 28), Ground by Lisa Dillman (March 2-28), Phoenix by Scott Organ (March 5-27), and The Cherry Sisters Revisited by Dan O'Brien (March 18-April 11).
