A MAP OF VIRTUE Plays 4th Street Theater 2/6-25

At the conclusion of this final season, which begins with the world premiere of A Map of Virtue by Erin Courtney in February, the collective of American Playwrights will have realized full productions by each of its 13 members.

13P states, "Even more remarkable is how successful the undertaking has been: they have won two OBIEs, a sizable grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and much critical praise. Their most recent production, Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die, gave the writer-director (P#11) an opportunity to stretch her artistic boundaries and take the stage herself for the first time. Courtney’s (P#12) turn at the helm, too, epitomizes 13P’s vital function: The collective is helping her to premiere the show on her own terms, with a world-class team that includes director Ken Rus Schmoll (13P’s The Internationalist, Aphrodisiac and Mark Smith; The Foundry Theatre’s FUREE in Pins & Needles and Telephone; Will Eno’s Middletown) and an accomplished cast of actors and designers."

Performances of A Map of Virtue will take place February 6—25 at the 4th Street Theatre. Critics are welcome as of Thursday, February 9 for an official opening of Sunday, February 12. The 4th Street Theatre is located at 83 East 4th Street in New York City. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased by visiting www.13p.org or calling 866.811.4111.

About the show: "In A Map of Virtue, two strangers meet at a diner and a swarm of birds descends. The woman builds her art career around a bird statue that the man leaves behind. He slashes her painting and they become friends. This begins a series of random and violent events that echo the strangeness of their first meeting. A small bird statue guides us through this symmetrical story about the limits of our virtues and what we leave behind."

The play is doubtless informed by Courtney’s training and work as a painter before she was a playwright. In this world premiere, she will see her vision portrayed by a cast that includes Birgit Huppuch as the bird statue. Huppuch last worked with Schmoll in The Foundry Theatre’s Telephone. Schmoll has collaborated with Courtney before, too: He directed her play Demon Baby in 2004.

The cast of A Map of Virtue also features Alex Draper (Howard Barker’s Gary the Thief and No End to Blame, the Presnyakov Brothers’ Terrorism), Jesse Lenat (Michael Kimmel’s The Last Goodbye, Melissa James Gibson’s Current Nobody), Annie McNamara (Elevator Repair Service’s Gatz, Sheila Callaghan’s That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play), Hubert Point-Du Jour (Target Margin’s recent production of The Tempest and The Really Big Once), Jon Norman Schneider (Rehana Lew Mirza’s Barriers, the recent NAATCO production of Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, Julia Cho’s Durango) and Maria Striar (P.S. 122’s Hello Failure, Producing Artistic Director of Clubbed Thumb).

The A Map of Virtue creative team includes Marsha Ginsberg (Sets and Costumes), Tyler Micoleau (Lighting) and Daniel Kluger (Sound and Music).

53rd State Press will publish the text of A Map of Virtue in February 2012 in a volume that also features Courtney’s Black Cat Lost. The book will be available online at www.53rdstatepress.com and at the box office.

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