Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman to Star in ANNAPURNA at Odyssey Theatre, 4/20-6/9

Annapurna, by award-winning playwright Sharr White, is a funny and surprising exploration of love and loss. Emma and Ulysses haven't laid eyes on each other in twenty years. Now she's back, lugging her matching suitcases into his squalid Colorado motor home for a final reckoning that neither of them saw coming. Annapurnabrings husband-and-wife stars Megan Mullally ("Will & Grace") and Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation") to the Odyssey Theatre under the guidance of director Bart DeLorenzo, winner of the 2012 TCG Alan Schneider Award.

Bart DeLorenzo (Director) is the artistic director of the Evidence Room. He returns to the Odyssey where he has directed Ivanov, Margo Veil, and The Receptionist (Evidence Room co-productions), as well as Day Drinkers and A Number. Other recent directing includes: Coney Island Christmas at the Geffen Playhouse; Cymbeline at A Noise Within; Legacy of Light and Around the World in 80 Days at the Cleveland Playhouse; King Lear with the Antaeus Company; Doctor Cerberus, Dead Man's Cell Phone, and Shipwrecked! An Entertainment at South Coast Rep; Voice Lessons at the Zephyr; bobrauschenbergamerica with TheSpyAnts; and The Projectionist at the Kirk Douglas. He is on the faculty at CalArts. He has received six LA Weekly Awards, three Backstage Garlands, and three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards. He is the recipient of the 2012 Alan Schneider Director Award, funded and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for the American theatre.

Megan Mullally (Emma) Television: Will & Grace (2 Emmys, 4 SAG Awards, 5 Golden Globe nominations); Party Down; Children's Hospital. Television (recurring): Parks and Recreation; Happy Endings; Bob's Burgers. Film: Toy's House (soon to be released, Sundance Main Competition 2012); Smashed (Sundance Special Jury Prize 2011); Somebody Up There Likes Me (SXSW and Locarno Film Festival Special Jury Prize); and the upcoming films GBF; Gay Dude and Post Like Fail. Broadway: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Drama League Award, Outer Critic's Circle Nomination); Young Frankenstein; Grease. Los Angeles theatre: The Receptionist (Odyssey Theatre, BackStage West Garland Award - Best Performance in a Play); The Berlin Circle (Evidence Room Theatre Company, LA Weekly Award - Best Leading Female Performance and BackStage West Garland Award - Best Lead Actress in a Play), both directed by Bart DeLorenzo. Music: the bands Nancy and Beth and Supreme Music Program as well as solo international concert touring. Husband: the guy in the apron.

Nick Offerman (Ulysses) Best known for his role as Ron Swanson on NBC's critically acclaimed Parks and Recreation, Nick Offerman's humor has made him a fixture in television culture. On the Emmy-nominated Parks and Recreation, Offerman plays the masculine director of a parks and recreation department in small-town Indiana. Working alongside the ensemble cast of Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, AZIZ ANSARI, and Rob Lowe, Offerman's role has developed a cult following. Offerman was a founding member of the Defiant Theatre in Chicago. He worked extensively at Steppenwolf, The Goodman, Wisdom Bridge and Pegasus Players, among many others. Off-Broadway credits include Adding Machine at The Minetta Lane Theater. In Los Angeles, he is a company member of Evidence Room Theater Company, where he has appeared in many plays. He is also the recipient of the Joseph Jefferson Citation Award for his performance in The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan at Chicago's Pegasus Players Theatre. He was awarded a second Jefferson Award for the puppets and masks he crafted for The Skriker at Chicago's Defiant Theatre. Offerman's most recent films include Toy's House and In a World..., which both premiered in competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and Smashed, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Festival with a cast that includes Octavia Spencer, Megan Mullally, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and AaRon Paul. Bob Byington's film, Somebody Up There Likes Me, which Offerman both produced and starred in, was released by Tribeca Films in March 2013. He can next be seen in the upcoming comedy We're the Millers with Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, and Kathryn Hahn, and Diablo Cody's untitled film alongside Holly Hunter, Julianne Hough, Russell Brand, and Octavia Spencer, which is slated for a 2013 release. Other film credits include: 21 Jump Street; Casa de Mi Padre; All Good Things; The Men Who Stare at Goats; Harmony and Me; and RSO [Registered Sex Offender], both written and directed by Bob Byington; The Go-Getter with Zooey Deschanel and Jena Malone; Wristcutters: A Love Story; Sin City; Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous; Cursed; November; Groove; Lush and Treasure Island. Offerman has also tickled television audiences with his roles on Deadwood, Will & Grace, Children's Hospital, Wainy Days, Monk, The West Wing, 24, ER, George Lopez, American Body Shop, NYPD Blue, The Practice, The King of Queens, Gilmore Girls, and CSI: NY. Offerman currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Megan Mullally. When he's not acting, he is working in his woodshop, building canoes, tables, and other items by hand. www.offermanwoodshop.com

Sharr White (Playwright) Sharr White's plays have been developed or produced at theatres across the country and Europe, including Manhattan Theatre Club, MCC Theatre, Nationaltheater Mannheim, The Magic Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Marin Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Theater's Directors Lab, Key West Theatre Festival, and more. The Other Place received its world premiere off-Broadway with MCC Theatre at the Lucille Lortel, featuring Laurie Metcalf (Lucille Lortel, Obie Awards) and directed by Joe Mantello (nominated for Lucille Lortel Award) and was subsequently presented with its European premiere at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, where it is currently running in rep. The Other Place is a recipient of the 2010 Playwrights First Award, the 2011 Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation's Theatre Visions Fund Award and was an Outer Critics Circle Award nominee for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. The Other Place received its Broadway premiere with Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre beginning December 2012 with Joe Mantello again directing Laurie Metcalf. White's Six Years premiered at the 30th Anniversary Humana Festival of New American Plays, with following productions around the country. Sunlight was commissioned by South Coast Repertory and subsequently received a National New Play Network rolling world premiere, featuring productions at Marin Theatre Company, Seattle's ArtsWest, Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis and New Jersey Rep. White's play Annapurna was commissioned by South Coast Repertory, appeared at SCR's 2011 Pacific Playwrights Festival, premiered at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco in November 2011 and was a 2012 finalist for the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award. White has also been honored with a Dr. Henry and Lillian Nesburn Award as part of the Julie Harris Award in Playwriting (The Escape Velocity of Savages), a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (Six Years) and the 2009 Skye Cooper New American Play Prize (Sunlight). sharrwhite.com

Performances of Annapurna take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 2pm (The Sunday April 21 performance will be at 5PM), April 20 through June 9 (with the exception of May 24-26). Additional weeknight performances are scheduled for Wednesdays at 8PM on May 8, May 22, and May 29; and Thursdays at 8PM on April 25, May 2, May 16, May 23, May 30, and June 6.

Tickets are $30. There will be three pay-what-you-can performances: Thursday, May 2; Wednesday, May 8; and Friday, May 17. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in West Los Angeles, Calif. For reservations and information, call (310) 477-2055 or go to www.OdysseyTheatre.com.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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