Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen Begins January 12th

Women's Project will present a world premiere comedy, a tale of beauty and the geeks, by Women's Project Playwrights Lab member Kathryn Walat, entitled Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen. Directed by Loretta Greco, Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen begins previews Friday, January 12, at 8pm for an opening Sunday, January 21, at 7pm at the Julia Miles Theater (424 West 55th Street).

"Vickie Martin is uber-popular. She's also wicked smart. Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen demonstrates that chaos theory rules when the third most popular sophomore is roped into joining the all-male, all-nerd Longwood High School math team, upsetting the axis of symmetry of boys becoming men. Will Vickie Martin invert the curve or become the coefficient for her team winning the state math championship? Can this goddess of Pi possibly become the common denominator that makes the mathletes victorious? Totally," as press notes describe the show. 

Victoria Martin is played by Jessi Campbell (Inky, Women's Project). The cast also includes Zachary Booth, Adam Farabee, Tobias Segal and Matthew Stadelmann. The sets are by Robert Brill, costumes by Valerie Marcus Ramshur and lighting by Sarah Sidman. Original music and sound design is by Daniel Baker.

Playwright Kathryn Walat has been a member of Women's Project Playwrights Lab for nearly three years. Her plays include Connecticut, Greenspace, Know Dog, and Johnny Hong Kong. Her work has been produced at Salvage Vanguard (Austin), Perishable Theatre (Providence), The Hangar Theatre (Ithaca), and developed at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Boston Theatre Works, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Lark, and New Georges, where she is an affiliated playwright. She has been commissioned for Actors Theatre of Louisville's Anthology Project/Humana 2007, and her newest play Bleeding Kansas will premiere next summer at The Hangar Theatre.

Greco's New York premieres include: The Story (Public Theater Audelco nom/Kesselring Prize), Meshugah (Naked Angels), Lackawanna Blues (Public Theater), Two Sisters and a Piano (Public Theater/Kesselring Prize), Mercy (Vineyard), A Park in Our House (New York Theater Workshop), Rinne Groff's Inky (Women's Project), Toni Press Coffman's Touch (Women's Project), Karen Hartman's Gum (Women's Project), and Amparo Garcia's Under a Western Sky (Women's Project/ INTAR).

Founded by Julia Miles in 1978 in response to the lack of opportunities for women in theater, Women's Project has staged over 120 productions, 450 readings and workshops, and published 10 anthologies of produced plays. Nurturing emerging artists through its outreach programs: the intensive Lab Series for Playwrights, Directors, and Producers, and Ten Centuries of Women Playwrights – an award-winning, curriculum-based arts education program – are among the many reasons why Women's Project remains vital today.

Performances begin January 12 for a run through February 11 at the Julia Miles Theater (424 West 55th Street, just west of 9th Avenue). Tickets, which are on sale now, are $40; rush tickets $10 (for students under 25 with valid student ID, cash only, on day of performance at the box office only). Click www.telecharge.com or 212.239.6200.

Photo by Carol Rosegg; L. to R.:  Adam Farabee, Zachary Booth, Jessi Campbell (as Victoria Martin), Tobias Segal, Matthew Stadelmann