Cast announced for Walking Shadow Theatre Company's "reasons to be pretty"

WALKING SHADOW THEATRE COMPANY
ANNOUNCES CASTING FOR NEIL LABUTE'S
reasons to be pretty
AT THE GUTHRIE THEATER, MINNEAPOLIS

Previews September 16; Opening September 17;
Playing through October 2, 2011
in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie

(Minneapolis/St. Paul) Walking Shadow Theatre Company today announced complete casting for reasons to be pretty, Neil LaBute's Tony Award-nominated dark comedy that explores America's obsession with physical beauty. The production, directed by Amy Rummenie and presented in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie Theater, will feature a cast of four: Joseph Bombard (Greg), Rachel Finch (Carly), Andrew Sass (Kent) and Anna Sundberg (Steph).

The final ferocious cap in a trilogy that began with The Shape of Things and Fat Pig, LaBute's reasons to be pretty centers on two young working-class couples who discover that simple comments can backfire horribly. When Greg casually comments to a friend that he finds his girlfriend Steph to be normal looking (even though he wouldn't trade her for the world), he ends up on the defensive. Was it an insult or a compliment? At the same time, his buddy Kent is looking for his next casual encounter, unbeknownst to Kent's wife Carly. Enlisted to help cover for him, Greg is at loss for what to do, while trying to figure out exactly what he's looking for in life, what it takes to be a good person and what it means to be pretty.

Walking Shadow has gained a reputation for creating well-staged and carefully researched independent theatre since its founding in 2004. The company's breakout production of LaBute's Fat Pig in 2007 was heralded as one of the year's best shows by the Star Tribune, City Pages and Lavender Magazine. Its subsequent 2009 production of LaBute's Some Girl(s) was among the top 10 shows of the year by Pioneer Press and Twin Cities Daily Planet.

An American playwright, screenwriter and film director, LaBute's plays include bash: latter-day plays, The Shape of Things, The Mercy Seat, The Distance From Here, Autobahn, Fat Pig, Some Girl(s), This Is How It Goes, Wrecks, Filthy Talk for Troubled Times, In a Dark Dark House and The Break of Noon. His most recent play In A Forest, Dark And Deep, a psychological thriller about sibling rivalry, premiered this past spring on London's West End. LaBute's film work includes In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, Possession, The Shape of Things, The Wicker Man, Lakeview Terrace and Death at a Funeral.

The artistic team for Walking Shadow's production of reasons to be pretty includes Steve Kath (Scenic Designer), Renata Shaffer-Gottschalk (Costume Designer), Karin Olson (Lighting Designer) and Sarah Holmberg (Stage Manager).

reasons to be pretty previews September 16, opens September 17 and continues through October 2, 2011, in the Dowling Studio. Single tickets start at $18 and go sale August 1 through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at http://www.guthrietheater.org/.

WALKING SHADOW THEATRE COMPANY stages exciting, intellectual and subversive theater. Past productions include after the quake by Haruki Murakami, Drakul by John Heimbuch, Robots vs. Fake Robots by David Largman Murray, Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s) and Fat Pig, and David Greig's The American Pilot, as well as notable Fringe Festival successes including 1926 Pleasant, William Shakespeare's Land of the Dead, SQUAWK and See You Next Tuesday. http://www.walkingshadowcompany.org/