Signature's HURT VILLAGE Begins Performances Tonight

Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) has announced that performances begin tonight for the world premiere production of Katori Hall's HURT VILLAGE, directed by Patricia McGregor.

HURT VILLAGE runs February 7 – March 18, 2012 with a February 27th opening night and is the inaugural production in the The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the Company's new home The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th Avenues).

HURT VILLAGE features Marsha Stephanie Blake (The Merchant of Venice; Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Nicholas Christopher (Rent, In the Heights), Corey Hawkins (Suicide, Incorporated), Charlie Hudson III (The Piano Lesson), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean, The Bridge Project), Joaquina Kalukango (Godspell), Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; "All My Children"), Saycon Sengbloh (Fela!, Hair) and Lloyd Watts (Treme).

The design team includes David Gallo (Set and Projection Design), Clint Ramos (Costume Design), Sarah Sidman (Lighting Design), Rob Kaplowitz (Sound Design), Cookie Jordan (Hair and Make-Up Design), Kate Wilson (Dialect Coach), Rick Sordelet (Fight Direction), and Luqman Brown (Additional Music). Casting is by Telsey + Company. The Production Stage Manager is Jane Pole and Assistant Stage Manager is Megan J. Alvord.

It's the end of a long summer in Hurt Village, a housing project in Memphis, Tennessee. A government Hope Grant means relocation for many of the project's residents, including Cookie, a thirteen year-old aspiring rapper, along with her mother Crank and great-grandmother Big Mama. As the family prepares to move, Cookie's father Buggy unexpectedly returns from a tour of duty in Iraq. Ravaged by the war, Buggy struggles to find a position in his disintegrating community, along with a place in his daughter's wounded heart. A bold, gritty and devastating work, HURT VILLAGE earned Katori Hall the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, given annually to an outstanding female playwright. HURT VILLAGE has received a 2011 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award from TCG.

Single tickets are now on sale for BLOOD KNOT by Athol Fugard, HURT VILLAGE by Katori Hall and Edward Albee'S THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE. All regularly priced single tickets ($75) for the initial run of all three shows are available for $25 through The Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access. Tickets and season subscriptions can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-244-7529 or online at www.signaturetheatre.org.

2011-2012 SEASON OVERVIEW

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