Obie winner and sometime film star James Urbaniak will star in [sic], Melissa James Gibson's new play being given its premiere at Soho Rep this fall. Previews begin Nov. 14. Opening is Nov. 21. Soho Rep artistic director Daniel Aukin will direct.

Urbaniak toiled for years in Off-Off-Broadway haunts like Nada and HERE, before winning an Obie Award for The Universe by Richard Foreman. Soon after that, he began popping up in films such as Hal Hartley's "Henry Fool" and Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown." He was a co-founder of the Arden Party theatre company, a troupe which also produced director Karin Coonrod and actor-director Randall Curtis Rand.

Also in the cast are Dominic Fumusa, Christina Kirk, Jennifer Morris and Trevor Williams. Fumusa was seen on Broadway in Wait Until Dark and A Flea in Her Ear. Kirk made an impression as the star of Emma Griffin's recent revival of Kaufman and Ferber's Stage Door.

In [sic], Babette, Theo and Frank live in neighboring apartments. Once wunderkinds who looked forward to great careers as a novelist, musician and auctioneer, respectively, they are now not so young and not so promising. The show is described as being about "friendships built on quicksand."

[sic] was developed in Soho Rep's 2000-01 playwrights-directors lab and given a reading this past spring. The company then took the extraordinary step of immediately giving it a production slot. Aukin directed the Soho Rep hit The Year of the Baby by Quincy Long and Cat's Paw by Wellman. "[sic]" is an editorial term meaning, roughly, "intentionally so written." It is typically placed after a misspelled or archaically spelled word to indicate that the spelling is that of the original writer or speaker, not the publication or editor which has reprinted the quote.

Soho Rep's spring show, meanwhile, is Attempts on Her Life, the latest by British scribe Martin Crimp. Is she a terrorist? Is she a porn star? A new car model? The show, which bowed at the Royal Court in London, tries to answer these questions. New York sightings of Crimp's work include The Treatment at the Public Theater and a new adaptation of The Misanthrope at CSC.

Attempts will run in April 2002, with specific dates and a director to be announced.

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Soho Rep spent a few harrowing weeks following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan. One of the few New York theatres perilously close to Ground Zero, it was forced to suspend operations for weeks. The company toughed it out, however, and managed to stage a planned Sept. 27-30 workshop of Signals of Distress by The Flying Machine. The area surrounding the theatre is now open to pedestrians.

Last spring, Soho Rep won an Obie Award grant of $1,000.

—By Robert Simonson