OperAvant, Inc. is a morphing of Amour Productions, a company which Cashour formed at New York University, where she obtained an MA from the Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Studies.  Cashour's interdisciplinary major was in Opera/Theatre Production, Musical Direction and Performance, with a minor in stage directing, avant garde theatre techniques and feminist psychoanalytic theory/theories of performance. Ms. Cashour’s MA Thesis was a full production of a traditional opera, to which she wrote an accompanying dramatic text and incidental music; the entire process was informed by Ms. Cashour’s seven year study of various theatre disciplines and included independent coursework in: deconstruction, philosophy, psychoanalysis, theatre semiotics, and feminist theories of the stage.   At NYU, Ms. Cashour trained in Directing Theory and Acting with noted avant-gardist Richard Schechner; Theories of the Avant-Garde with Michael Kirby; Directing/Acting Practicum with  Helen White; Gendered Theories of Performance with Professors Peggy Phelan and Alexis Greene; and finally, in 20th Century European Styles of Acting and Directing with Damyan Popchristov.  Additional directors Ms. Cashour studied in-depth included:  Richard Foreman, Elizabeth LeCompte, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Sellars, Peter Brook, Joanne Akalaitis, Stanislavsky, Mtislav Meyerhold and Alexander Tairov.  At NYU, Ms. Cashour directed numerous scenes of avant-garde interpretations of traditional works and works recently entering the repertory, including:  Angels in America, Antigone, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, and the operas The Consul, Pagliacci, Marriage of Figaro and La Voix Humaine. OperAvant will continue her groundbreaking work in deconstructionist theatre techniques.