Ken Rus Schmoll directs the staging downtown at the 45 Bleecker Theater starting April 17. Opening night is April 19.

"In The Internationalist, Lowell, an American on a business trip, disembarks from a long plane ride to an unspecified European country," according to the announcement. "A beautiful colleague is there to meet him. They spend the night together and he thinks he's fallen into one of those great American movies where you go places and people are exotic, where there's romance and challenge and you have a blast and become a worldly and sophisticated person. The next morning in the office he discovers that he isn't in that kind of movie at all, he's in a different one, one of those foreign ones with no clear hero or moral, a movie in which experience does not necessarily redeem you. And most importantly, one with no subtitles."

The play is billed as being "about the mystery of communication, between nations, between people — performed, in part, in a made up foreign language."

13P member Anne Washburn is also a member of The Civilians and the winner of several awards and fellowships including a Cherry Lane Mentor Project Award. She was a Soho Rep Artist in Residence for the 2002-03 season and has been represented earlier this season with Apparition and The Ladies.

The cast includes Mark Shanahan as Lowell, the American, and Heidi Schreck as Sara, his beautiful foreign colleague, with Gibson Frazier, Kristen Kosmas, Michael Stumm and Travis York. Designers are Sue Rees (set), Jessica Gaffney (costumes), Garin Marshall (lighting) and Matthew Given (sound). Maria Goyanes will serve as producer for the production.

The initial mandate of the company is to produce 13 plays, one by each member of the group. For each production the resources of the company will be placed at the disposal of the playwright at work, who will serve as the company's artistic director during the production of their play. Rob Handel will serve as managing director for the company.

Next on 13P's production schedule will be plays by Winter Miller, Kate Ryan and Rob Handel.

The performance schedule for The Internationalist (April 17-May 8) is Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 7 PM. There will be three additional performances: the opening night performance on April 19 at 8 PM, and Saturday matinee performances on May 1 and 8 at 2 PM.

All tickets are $15. For information, call (212) 868 4444.