The Flea Tackles Abortion In GIRLS IN TROUBLE

The Flea Theater presents the World Premiere of GIRLS IN TROUBLE by playwright provocateur Jonathan Reynolds. Mr. Reynolds, whose previous controversial play, Pulitzer Prize finalist Stonewall
Jackson's House, took on issues of racial victimization, now turns his attention to women's rights and abortion. Performed by The Bats and directed by Jim Simpson, previews begin February 12th with opening night slated for February 28th.

GIRLS IN TROUBLE takes on abortion in the sixties, when backrooms in the wrong part of town offered hope or death, as well as abortion in the twenty first century. In 2010, has abortion become merely another form of birth control?

GIRLS IN TROUBLE features 7 actors from The Bats, the resident acting company of The Flea: Andy Gershenzon, Brett Aresco, Betsy Lippitt, Akyiaa Wilson, Eboni Booth, Laurel Holland and Marshall York. The design team includes John McDermott (sets), Zack Tinkelman (lights), Amanda Bujac (costumes) and Jeremy Wilson (sound).

Jonathan Reynolds has had 9 plays produced in New York: Pulitzer Prize finalist Stonewall Jackson's House; Dinner With Demons, a solo show in which he prepared a full five-course meal onstage eight times a week; Geniuses, produced by Playwrights Horizons and which ran for a year off-Broadway; the one-acts Yanks 3 Detroit O Top of the 7th and Rubbers at The American Place; Fighting International Fat; and Tunnel Fever or The Sheep is Out. He has had five screenplays produced, most notably Micki and Maude and My Stepmother is an Alien. He is the recipient of Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundation grants as well as The Dramatists Guild Flora Roberts Award for Sustained Achievement. For five years, he was Treasurer of The Dramatists Guild, and for six years wrote a bi-weekly food column for The New York Times Sunday Magazine. His memoir, Wrestling With Gravy: A Life, With Food, was recently published by Random House.

The Flea Theater, under Artistic Director Jim Simpson and Producing Director Carol Ostrow, is one of New York's leading off-off-Broadway companies. Winner of a Special Drama Desk Award for outstanding achievement, Obie Awards and an Otto for political theater, The Flea has presented nearly 100 plays and numerous dance and live music performances since its inception in 1996. Past productions include the premieres of Anne Nelson's The Guys; five plays by A.R. Gurney (Post
Mortem, O Jerusalem, Screenplay, Mrs. Farnsworth and A Light Lunch); Mac Wellman's Cellophane and Two September; Roger Rosenblatt's Ashley Montana Goes Ashore... and The Oldsmobiles; Elizabeth Swados' JABU and Kaspar Hauser; Karen Finley's Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman; Adam Rapp's Bingo with the Indians; Will Eno's Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations; Dawn by Thomas Bradshaw; and, most recently, The Great Recession.

GIRLS IN TROUBLE runs February 12 - March 15. Schedule varies. The Flea is located at 41 White Street between Church and Broadway, three blocks south of Canal, close to the ACE, NRQW, 6, JMZ and 1 subway lines. Tickets are $25 and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or online at www.theflea.org.