Patricia McGregor will direct the gritty drama about life and change in a Memphis housing project, by the author of Broadway's The Mountaintop.

Hurt Village — running Feb. 7-March 18, 2012, with a Feb. 27 opening — will be the inaugural production in The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre at the not-for-profit Signature's new home in Signature Center at 480 W. 42nd Street between Dyer and 10th Avenues.

The initial cast list for Hurt Village includes Marsha Stephanie Blake (The Merchant of Venice; Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Amari Cheatom (Zooman and the Sign), Nicholas Christopher (Rent, In the Heights), Corey Hawkins (Suicide, Incorporated), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean, The Bridge Project), Joaquina Kalukango (Godspell), Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change; "All My Children") and Saycon Sengbloh (Fela!, Hair). Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Here's how Signature bills Hurt Village, which has received a 2011 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award from TCG: "It's the end of a long summer in Hurt Village, a housing project in Memphis, Tennessee. A government Hope Grant means relocation for many of the project's residents, including Cookie, a 13-year-old aspiring rapper, along with her mother Crank and great-grandmother Big Mama. As the family prepares to move, Cookie's father Buggy unexpectedly returns from a tour of duty in Iraq. Ravaged by the war, Buggy struggles to find a position in his disintegrating community, along with a place in his daughter's wounded heart."

The gritty work earned Hall the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, given annually to an outstanding female playwright. Single tickets are now on sale for Hurt Village and Athol Fugard's Blood Knot, which runs Jan. 31-March 11, 2012, as the inaugural production in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre.

The design team of Hurt Village includes David Gallo (set and projection design), Clint Ramos (costume design), Sarah Sidman (lighting design), Rob Kaplowitz (sound design), Cookie Jordan (hair and make-up design), Kate Wilson (dialect coach), Rick Sordelet (fight direction) and Luqman Brown (additional music). Casting is by Telsey + Company. The production stage manager is Jane Pole; assistant stage manager is Megan J. Alvord.

All regularly priced single tickets ($75) for the initial run of both shows will be made available for $25 through The Signature Ticket Initiative: A Decade of Access. Tickets and season subscriptions can be purchased by calling the box office at (212) 244-7529 or online at www.signaturetheatre.org.