West Coast Premiere Of Absurdly Hilarious DO YOU FEEL ANGER? Will Make You Squirm At Circle X

Circle X Theatre Company kicks off the New Year with the West Coast premiere of a truly outrageous comedy Do You Feel Anger?, written by Mara Nelson-Greenberg and directed by Halena Kays, opens January 21 for a six-week run at Atwater Village Theatre. Performances continue through February 25, with two Pay-What-You-Can previews set for January 19 and January 20.

What is the absurdity - and danger - of a world where the feelings of some people matter more than those of others? When Sofia is hired as an empathy coach at a debt collection agency, she finds she has her work cut out for her. These employees can barely identify what an emotion is, much less practice deep, radical compassion for others. As they painstakingly stumble towards enlightenment, someone keeps mugging Eva in the kitchen, and the unspoken dynamics of their seemingly blithe workplace culture become increasingly unsettling.

"When I saw the original production at Actor's Theatre of Louisville, it was one of the most surprising live experiences of my life," says Kays. "My mouth was wide open for most of the play. Playwright Mara Nelson-Greenberg has tilted our world just enough askew that we recognize it, but also see it in a whole new way. Female trauma in America is a really tricky thing to make a comedy out of, but Mara has managed to make the subject both funny and profound. Comedians and comic writers have become the philosophers and poets of our society."

Do You Feel Anger premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at The Actors Theatre of Louisville in March 2018, going on to an off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre the following year.

The Circle X cast includes two-time Ovation award-winning actor Paula Rebelo (The Grail Project with Theatre Movement Bazaar, The Temptation of St. Antony with Four Larks) as Sofia and Ovation winner Tasha Ames (Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies at the Echo, Miss Lilly Gets Boned and Honky at Rogue Machine) as Eva. Rich Liccardo (Bob: A Life in Five Acts at Echo Theater Company, upcoming The Naked Umbrella with Tom Arnold), Ovation recipient Casey Smith (Violators Will Be Violated, Laura Comstock's Bag Punching Dog, Sperm at Circle X) and Napoleon Tavale (General Hospital, Hallmark movie Groundswell) play the sometimes clueless, but always bad-mannered office crew of debt collectors. Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award-winner Charlotte Gulezian (Hit the Wall at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Shameless on Showtime) is co-worker Janie... who just may have gone AWOL.

Six actors make cameo appearances, one each week of the run, as a mysterious 130-year old man whose violent tendencies have only been tempered by age: Jan.19-Jan. 22 (including two previews and opening weekend): Bob Clendenin (Trevor, City, The Eight, Marley's Ghost, Great Men of Science at Circle X; TV's Cougar Town); Jan. 26-Jan. 29: William Salyers (Battle Hymn, In Flagrante Gothicto, Naked Before God at Circle X; Rigby in Cartoon Network's Regular Show, Dock Ock in Spiderman PS4); Feb. 2-Feb. 5: Jan Munroe (Detained at the Fountain, John O'Keefe's Ghosts at Open Fist); Feb. 9-Feb. 12: John Getz (An Undivided Heart with Circle X and Echo Theater Company; NBC's Timeless, Amazon's Bosch, Showtime's Homeland); Feb. 16-Feb. 19: Antaeus founding member Tony Amendola (Everybody, Hedda Gabler at Antaeus; ABC's Once Upon A Time, Apple's Blackbird); and Feb. 23-Feb. 25: Silas Weir Mitchell (Lascivious Something at Circle X; Fox's Prison Break, NBC's My Name is Earl, NBC's Grimm, recent reboot of Criminal Minds for Paramount+).

(Please note that the guest performer rotation is subject to change; updates can be found at www.circlextheatre.org.)

The creative team includes scenic designer François-Pierre Couture; lighting designer Stephen Azua; sound designer Jesse Mandapat; and costume designer Dianne K. Graebner. Properties design is by Kat Haan, with specialty props by Richard Maher. The assistant director is Lee Hannah Conrads and the production stage manager is Roella Dellosa. Kat Haan, Jen Kays and Timothy Wright produce for Circle X Theatre Company.

Halena Kays is a theater maker from Chicago where she is an artistic associate with the Neo-Futurists, for whom she has directed world premieres of Wildcats, Comfortable Shoes, Pop/Waits, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, Burning Bluebeard, Daredevils, Daredevils Hamlet and Fake Lake. Other selected Chicago directing credits include Endgame, Ivywild, Six Characters in Search of an Author (The Hypocrites); The Magic Play (The Goodman); Lord of the Flies (Steppenwolf); How a Boy Falls (Northlight Theatre); On Clover Road (American Blues Theater); and Feast, part of a collaboration with the Albany Park Theatre Project (The Goodman). Regionally: The Welkin (Nashville Story Garden), The Magic Play (The Olney Theater Center, The Actor's Theater of Louisville, Portland Center Stage and Syracuse Stage), Love Song (Nashville Story Garden), and Secretary (Nashville Rep's Ingram New Works Festival). Kays is a founding member of The Ruffians, former member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care unit, and past artistic director of The Hypocrites and Playmakers Lab. Halena is an assistant professor of MFA acting and directing at Northwestern University. She has been nominated for Jefferson awards for Best Supporting Actress, Best Direction, Best New Work, and Best Production, and is a recipient of the prestigious 3Arts award. She is a member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers.

Do You Feel Anger opens on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023, with performances continuing on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through February 25. Two preview performances are set for Thursday, Feb. 19 and Friday, Feb. 20, each at 8 p.m.

All tickets are $30, except opening night (Saturday, Jan. 21) for which tickets are $35 and include a post-performance reception, and previews, which are Pay-What-You-Can. The senior/student rate is $25, and additional Pay-What-You-Can tickets will be available at the door every Sunday.

Atwater Village Theatre is located at 3269 Casitas Ave in Los Angeles, CA 90039.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call (323) 644-1929 or go to www.circlextheatre.org.

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