Guaranteed to get the blood pumping and open your Chakras so you’re ready for a day on the Fringe, Yoga with Jillian, a brand-new screwball comedy by Lia Romeo opens at the Pleasance on 2 August (press performances from 4 August) and promises to give your chuckle muscles a good workout.
From the team behind Trump Lear which enjoyed two years of Fringe sold-out success, and hit New York and Chicago seasons, Yoga With Jillian comes to Edinburgh direct from an off-Broadway season to explore whether Gwyneth Paltrow, green juice, and guru culture aren’t perhaps something that could save us all!
But as we all know, the past few years have been tough. As Jillian tries to teach again in our changed world, the shiny, happy yoga teacher attempts to keep the class, and herself, from completely imploding.
No previous yoga experience necessary. Watch from your chair or on a mat. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know your downward dog from your sun salutation, or your asana from your elbow; after an hour with Jillian’s capable hands, you’ll be walking tall. So, join Jillian on her yoga mat for show that expands the mind, stretches the hamstrings, and rids you of those nasty toxins leftover from a night in the Pleasance bar.
Playwright Lia Romeo is a playwriting fellow at Juilliard. Her plays have been developed at theatres including the O’Neill, La Jolla Playhouse and the Lark, and have been produced off-Broadway at 59E59 and ART/NY as well as regionally at venues such as Dorset Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Unicorn Theatre and New Jersey Repertory Theatre amongst others. Four of her plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. Her plays are published by TRW, Broadway Licensing, and Broadway Play Publishing. She is the associate artistic director with Project Y Theatre Company and the co-founder of the Parent-Caregiver Playwrights Group. She teaches playwriting at Primary Stages/ESPA and in the M.A. program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Director Andrew W. Smith is also the Co-Founding Artistic Director of award-winning Project Y Theatre Company. Selected regional acting work includes Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Pittsburgh City Theatre, Quantum Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Roundhouse Theatre, Potomac Theatre Project, Ars Nova, Studio Theatre, and Olney Center for the Arts. Film work includes Lucid, Shooting Script, Death of a Nation, and Under-Ground. Andrew’s television work includes American Rust, GONE, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Andrew is currently an Associate Professor of Acting at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. www.smithandrewwilliam.com.
Michole Biancosino (JILLIAN) co-created the Fringe hit, Trump Lear with actor/comedian David Carl. The show had a year-long run in New York before sold out performances at The Pleasance, two Edinburgh Fringe seasons in a row. Another co-creation, Celebrity One-Man Hamlet, enjoyed two hit Fringe runs – in New York at The Cow, and then in Edinburgh at Underbelly – before touring the US including a run at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Her productions have won multiple New York Innovative Theatre Awards, a United Solo Award, and Best Of and Critics’ Pick from The New York Times and TimeOutNY. Recently, her production of Planet of the Grapes featuring Peter Michael Marino won the Edinburgh Fringe Infallible Award. She produces Project Y’s Women in Theatre Festival, a NYC festival that produces, commissions, and develops the work of women writers and lead artists. The festival, now in its 8th year, showcases the work of between 50-80 artists each season. For her work with Women in Theatre Festival, Michole was featured by Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. She is a recipient of the Sir John Gielgud Award from the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. She is an associate professor of theatre at Middlebury College, a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, and when she’s not spending the summer in Edinburgh she runs Tiny Barn theatre, a streaming theatre created during COVID, out of her backyard.
Project Y and Richard Jordan Productions in association with Pleasance present
Yoga With Jillian
Written by Lia Romeo
Directed by Andrew W. Smith
Performed by Michole Biancosino
at Pleasance Courtyard (Pleasance Two)
2 – 28 August 2023 at 12.00 (1hr)