Santa Monica Playhouse Presents the World Premiere of Albert James Kallis's A DELUSIONAL AFFAIR 2/25

Just when you thought your life was finally under control, Fate steps in, turns everything on its heels, and you're off on the wild ride of your life. Funny, touching, and just a little bit racy, Albert James Kallis's A DeLUSIONAL Affair will make you question everything you ever thought you knew about love, marriage, fantasy and reality and come away with a new perspective on it all.

A DeLUSIONAL Affair stars Gregg Berger, Rachel Galper, and Albina Katsman and is helmed by Playhouse Artistic Director Chris DeCarlo, with costumes by award-winning designer Ashley Hayes, set by James Cooper and sound design by The Attic Room. George J Vennes III does double duty as Technical Director and Production Stage Manager.

Gregg Berger is an American Voice / Actor, who is internationally known for his iconic roles as GRIMLOCK in the G1Transformers franchise and most recently in Transformers Devastation. He also originated the voices of Odie, Squeak, Harry and others from the Garfield franchise, Spirit from G.I. Joe, Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Agent Kay from the Men in Black Series, Sir Jecht from Final Fantasy, Eeyore from Kingdom Hearts 2, The Pain from Metal Gear Solid 3, The Gromble from Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and many more. On camera, Gregg has had leading roles in the classic comedy Police Academy: Mission To Moscow and the Sci Fi Comedy cult classic Spaced Invaders as well as three pilots for CBS and numerous Guest Starring roles in episodic television. On stage, Gregg has appeared in Repertory Theater, Stock and Touring Productions across the country and has been directed by John Cassavetes, Davey Marlin-Jones, William Woodman, RoBert Woodruff, Martin Charnin, John Bowab and more.

Rachel Galper, a graduate of New Mexico State University, began her arts career in New Mexico, where she taught the classics to young people as part of the American Southwest Theatre Company. Working with Mark Medoff and Ruth Cantrell, she "translated" Shakespeare and other classic authors, making the works more accessible to young people. Stage credits include numerous Actors' Repertory Theatre and Family Theatre productions with The Playhouse, and most recently Rachel was seen in the world premiere of Lisa Phillips Visca's Turning Thirty and Jerry Mayer's How To Love a Republican. Playhouse productions include several runs of Author! Author! - an evening with Sholom Aleichem, A Very Special Day (Japan Premiere), Dorothy's Adventures in Oz, Cinderella, Charlie's Place, Santa Knows Best, and Barnyard Madness with the Three Little Pigs. She toured with Actors' Repertory Theatre both in England and Japan. Rachel teaches creative expression and play building in numerous schools in Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

Albina Katsman is a Ukrainian born actress who grew up in Chicago. She moved to Los Angeles right after graduating high school at the nationally acclaimed Chicago Academy for the Arts. From there, she spent her college career studying Theatre at Loyola Marymount University, in which she had the incredible experience of studying and performing abroad in Bonn, Germany and Moscow, Russia for a semester. Studying at the Moscow Art Theatre is where her appreciation and admiration of the theatre peaked as she spent long days training with her fellow classmates as well as observing some of the greatest performers in renowned roles. Theatre credit's include Lisa Phillips Visca's Raise Me Up, Soul Half Dead, Christmas Carol, Kiss Me Kate and The Crucible (Strub Theatre), Strider (Theatre Im Baalsal). Film and Television credits include Innocent, All Matt's Children, Never Forget, Cheaters, Walk of Shame, Silver Shadows, Piper the Movie, Immurement, Dabsity, Initiation, Shadow, Mrs. The Series.

Born to Russian immigrant parents, Albert James Kallis co-founder of the iconic IHOP restaurant chain exemplifies the American dream. Living the Gift of Time follows his coming of age journey from childhood in New York where he develops his eye-hand co-ordination and risk-taking skills, through a stint in the Air Force, to the streets of Paris as a young artist finding his way in love and life. During this intriguing sojourn he develops his creative talents, pursues his curiosities and experiences life-changing epiphanies. He ends up in California where thanks to an unexpected phone call from Roger Corman, King of the "B" flicks, Kallis goes on to forge a career creating advertising campaigns for American International Pictures. "If we could put sprocket holes on Al Kallis' art we'd have better films." Inspired early on by his collaboration with Saul Bass, Kallis paints album covers for Capitol Records - his clients include Universal Pictures and Allied Artists. Witness to a rapidly changing world, Kallis has lived seventy-five years in the 20th century and fifteen in the 21st. Filled with insights, humor and candid confessions, Kallis attributes many opportunities to luck and instinct, but his ability to take timely action plays out over and over.

Veteran director Chris DeCarlo has been acting, writing and directing in Los Angeles for more than 40 years, bringing to the stage over 250 World Premieres and American Premieres, including the critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground, Hard Laughs starring Sammy Shore and Ron Palillo, Michel Garneau's Quatre á Quatre, Stephen King and Robert B. Parker's RAGE, Brenda Krantz's Lovely!, starring Louise Sorrell, the Ovation-nominated Picon Pie, Todd Susman's Locked and Loaded, the long-running Wyse-Rae-Waldman hit musical Funny, You Don't Look Like a Grandmother. Among his LA TIMES Critics' Pick productions are Doug Knott's Last of the Knotts, the Silver Anniversary production of Jerry Mayer's Aspirin & ELEPHANTS, the Sroka/Fleming comedy Dying for Laughs starring Stuart Pankin and Charlie Lustman's pop operetta Made Me Nuclear. Recent credits: Santa Monica Playhouse's critically acclaimed productions of Arnold Schulman's Sleeping Ugly, Lisa Phillips Visca's Raise Me Up and Jerry Mayer's 2 ACROSS, Almost Perfect and How To Love A Republican.

A DeLUSIONAL Affair opens February 25th and plays Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3:30pm, through April 20, 2017. General admission is $35. Discounts are available for students, teachers, seniors, members of the military and groups of 8 or more. Tickets for the special preview performances February 4 to 19 are $25 with no further discounts. For reservations visit http://SantaMonicaPlayhouse.com or call The Playhouse Box Office at 1-310-394-9779 extension 1. For about group sales and special event parties offered in conjunction with every performance, use extension 2.

The Santa Monica Playhouse Main Stage is at 1211 4th Street (between Wilshire and Arizona) in the heart of downtown Santa Monica. Convenient parking is located directly across the street in city lot #1. By public transportation: take the Santa Monica Blue Bus or the LA Metro Rapid #720 and exit at 4th and Wilshire or ride the Metro Expo Line to 4th and Colorado (end of the line). The Playhouse is 3.5 blocks north of the station.

Santa Monica Playhouse is supported in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, by the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, and by U.S. Bank.

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