Wellness culture was a tricky place to exist during the pandemic.

And how better to explore that gray area than through the lens of a middle-aged, struggling yoga teacher named Jillian.

In “Yoga with Jillian,” playwright Lia Romeo’s one-woman show, the titular character is a corporate lawyer who finds her true passion — yoga — later in life and decides to go after it full time. Unfortunately, her timing is off — her new yoga teaching career takes off just as the pandemic spreads across the world.

The hour-long comedy finds the newbie teacher teaching a class as an audition for a new studio, all while slowly falling apart on the inside.

“Things are OK, but things aren’t really OK, for her and for other people,” said Michole Biancosino, who stars as Jillian. “I’m a theater maker. I know what it is to follow your passions despite the odds against you. I relate to her hopefulness. She believes you can be in control of your health and can make things better for yourself despite any evidence to the contrary.”

Fresh off Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, the show will be at Millibo Art Theatre Thursday through Saturday.

“She (Romeo) was interested in being told you have to do all these things to be healthy — the wellness culture things — while being alive during COVID, when a lot of people didn’t have health insurance and were getting sick,” Biancosino said. “The dissonance between people having major health crises all over the globe and wellness influencers really struck a chord.”

Adding to the show’s ambiance is audience participation. Four to six attendees will be able to take Jillian’s yoga class during each show. No yoga mat or knowledge is necessary. There’s a fair amount of interaction with Jillian, but nobody is made a focus of the show. Call the theater after purchasing a ticket to sign up to be part of the class.

“It makes the show a lot more fun if we have some people on stage doing the class,” said MAT co-founder and co-artistic director Jim Jackson. “Michole is a certified yoga instructor and the folks on stage only have to participate in the class and respond to instruction. It’s pretty safe and easy audience participation.”

Biancosino, who’s also a theater professor at Middlebury College and co-founder and artistic director of Project Y Theatre Company in New York City, regularly uses yoga in her work with students and actors.

“It’s for helping people open up, not just the muscles or body, but emotionally before beginning a performance,” she said. “We’re all stressed out all the time — we walk with our shoulders up by our ears. If we take a moment to focus on alignment and posture and connect with our breath, some of that melts away. You can be more at ease in acting or anything you’re doing.”

The show also pokes a little fun at that inherent humor in wellness culture.

“Humor comes from when you take things out of context or take things too far,” Biancosino said. “If you really believe in yourself, you can’t cure yourself of all diseases. When people treat yoga like another fad, ala Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop, and treat it as a commodity it becomes ridiculous — to do yoga in order to have a yoga body, rather than using yoga to connect to something deeper.”

Contact the writer: 636-0270

“Yoga with Jillian,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Millibo Art Theatre, 1626 S. Tejon St., $25-$28, sign up to take Jillian’s yoga class after purchasing a ticket by calling the theater; 719-465-6321, themat.org

In the one-woman show “Yoga with Jillian,” a middle-aged, former corporate lawyer has given up her career to pursue her passion — yoga.

Courtesy of Tara Giordano

Michole Biancosino stars as Jillian in the one-woman show, “Yoga with Jillian.” It’s coming to Millibo Art Theatre Thursday through Sunday.

Courtesy of Tara Giordano

Audience members can be part of the one-woman show “Yoga with Jillian” at Millibo Art Theatre Thursday through Sunday.

Courtesy of Eric Bondoc

Playwright Lia Romeo started writing the one-woman show “Yoga with Jillian” during the first summer of the pandemic when she saw wellness culture and COVID collide. 

Courtesy of Eric Bondoc