Out of Line Productions presents the play which will run July 13-Aug. 5 at the downtown venue. James Phillip Gates directs the work set to open July 18.

  Set on a stormy night in Los Angeles, Cloud Tectonics follows the story of a lonely man who picks up a pregnant hitchhiker in search of the father of her child. The work of magic realism debuted at Louisville's Humana Festival in March 1995 and reached New York via Playwrights Horizons in January 1997 with original director Tina Landau.

Frederique Nahmani, Luis Vega and Julio Rivera will star in the new run of the work. The design team features Casey Smith (scenic), Paul Hackenmueller (lighting) and Heather Klar (costumes). Lauren Arneson serves as production stage manager.

Puerto Rican scribe Rivera earned an Academy Award nomination recently for his adaptation of "Motorcycle Diaries." Better known as a playwright, he has written Marisol, References To Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, Maricela de la Cruz Lights The World, Lovers of Red Hair, The House of Roman Iglesia and Each Day Dies With Sleep.

Director James serves as the artistic director of Roust Theatre Company where he helmed the company's inaugural production, Bertolt Brecht's The Private Life of the Master Race. He is also the founding artistic Director of the London-based theatre company Dramarama. Tickets to Cloud Tectonics at The Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street, are available by calling (212) 868-4444. For more information, visit www.cloudtectonics.com.