The Gallery Players Presents The 12th Annual Black Box New Play Fest 6/4-6/28

Through the month of June, The Gallery Players celebrates playwrights and new works in The 12th Annual Black Box New Play Festival. Each weekend is a new experience as The Gallery Players introduces new crops of talent and celebrates its alumni, June 4-28, 2009.

Where can a playwright find an outlet? Where can an audience see new works? The Gallery Players provides both of these in this Festival. Over the years of producing the Festival, we have developed works by countless playwrights, many of whom continue to work with The Gallery Players each year to incubate their new ideas. More than 300 plays have appeared in the Black Box New Play Festival since its inception and this year will bring even more writing and acting talent to the stage. Who knows what you'll discover in the Box?

Full length plays open and close the festival, with two weekends of original one-acts in between. Free readings of new plays will take place Saturdays at 3pm. The lineup of world-premieres is as follows:

Box 1 -World-Premiere full length play, runs June 4-7:
FATHER MIKE by T.J. Edwards, Directed by Mark Harborth. Workshopped at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2008, the play is a nostalgic comedy that takes place in 1955 in the home of a proud Catholic family.

Box 2 - Original World-premiere one acts, runs June 11-14:
NOBODY SELLS CARPET LIKE BILL by Edward Versailles, Directed by Barrie Gelles,
GIVEN OUR CURRENT FISCAL CRISIS by Daniel Damiano, Directed by Amanda White
UNFINISHED DEBASEMENT by Michael Kevin Baldwin, Directed by Andrew Firda
BUGS by Rich Espey, Directed by Barrie Gelles
PHILOSOPHY 101 by Allan B. Lefcowitz, Directed by Chad Yarborough

Box 3 - Original World-premiere one acts, runs June 18-21:
HONEY & CANDY by Lauren Cavanaugh Dir. Justine Campbell-Elliott
DISTASTEFULLY YOURS by Denis Meadows Dir. Robin Leslie Brown.
BEAUTIFUL WORLD by Kevin Christopher Snipes Dir. Seth Soloway.
INHALE by Victoria T. Joseph Dir. Taibi Magar.

Box 4: World premiere full-length play, runs June 25-28
IN THE SHADOW OF THE LIGHTHOUSE by Carolina Aguilera, Directed by Dev Bondarin
This play opens in 1999 with three friends spending a week at the beach before one of them gets married and moves away. A decade later as the group convenes in the same beach house, the friends realize the cost of the choices they've made and find betrayal and loyalty in unexpected places.

The 12th Annual Black Box New Play Festival is produced by Dominic Cuskern for The Gallery Players and opens June 4, 2009. The festival continues Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm through June 28, 2009. Additionally, there will be free readings of new plays Saturdays at 3pm.

Tickets to The 12th Annual Black Box New Play Festival are $15 for adults, $12 for Seniors & Children 12 and under. Festival passes are $30. Tickets can be purchased by calling TheaterMania at (212) 352-3101, or online at www.galleryplayers.com. The Gallery Players is located at 199 14th St., between 4th and 5th Aves. in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Take the F Train to 4th Ave. or the R Train to 9th Street. By car: BQE to Hamilton Avenue to 14th Street.

A New York institution since 1967, The Gallery Players has served actors and audiences alike for more than 4 decades by showcasing burgeoning new talent and offering a home base for theater professionals. Its eclectic programming of intimate revivals and ambitious new work in inventive productions has earned it the reputation of "New York's Best Kept Secret." The Gallery Players is the recipient of the Off-Off Broadway Review's 2000 Award for Lifetime Achievement and was the recipient of New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical in both 2007 & 2008 for their productions of Urinetown! the musical and Yank! A New Musical. Among its famous alumni are founding member Harvey Fierstein; Broadway regulars Nancy Anderson, Jeffry Denman and Diedre Goodwin; New York theater personality Seth Rudetsky and many others.

Still to come this summer at The Gallery Players: The Peanut Gallery, A Musical Theatre Summer Adventure Camp for kids July 6 - 31; Players' Shakespeare presents The Tragedy of King Lear featuring Dominic Cuskern as Lear, July 23 - August 2.

www.galleryplayers.com