The Black Box Writers Project Continues This Month At Teaneck's Debonair Music Hall

THE WRITERS PROJECT, CHAPTER 2 will take place on Thursday, February 29th, 2024 at 7:30PM at Debonair Music Hall: 1409 Queen Anne Road in Teaneck, NJ 07666.  Tickets, just $15, are available now at www.blackboxpac.com; Debonair is adjacent to free street and lot parking, and the venue  offers accesible ground floor entry. 

This special evening, the second in a monthly series, will feature Black Box performers including Ilana Schimmel, J Niles, Danielle MacMath, and more performing segments from the original work of writers including Michael Gardiner, Jakob Holder (Executive Director of The Edward F. Albee Foundation), Justin Jager, Joseph Libterti, Matt Okin, and Dan Yaiullo.
Michael Gardiner is an actor, director, writer, teaching artist, as well as Co-Managing Director of Black Box PAC. With Black Box, he has helped develop new or under-produced work by John Patrick Shanley, Eric Bogosian, Paul Schrader, Beth Henley, the Estates of Edward Albee and Sam Shepard, and others. His plays include Frankenstein Unleashed and The Crab Wife — both developed at Black Box. His screenplay “As Dead as Disco,” is also in development.

Jakob Holder was Edward Albee's longest serving personal assistant and is currently the Executive Director of the Edward F. Albee Foundation. He is also an internationally produced playwright and a member of the Dramatists Guild. His plays have had productions and readings throughout the U.S., the U.K., in Helsinki and Rome. He is a two-time winner of the Last Frontier Theatre Conference Playlab Award and a three-time winner of the NAAA New Play Competition. In 2009, he was selected to be the sole Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project playwright for his play Housebreaking. His full-program plays include: Bedtime Solos; Housebreaking (Dramatists Play Service, 2012); Repeat Play; Green Setting Sun; The Shoulder;  The Open Circuit, To the Sea in a Sieve and The Agatha Shadow. His short plays include: One Slip; Darktime in Skipland; Ersatz; Findings; and Sumatra Mandheling. He has led playwriting workshops for children in Alaska, teenagers in Florida, and adults in Finland, and continues to mentor new playwrights through his work with the Dramatists Guild Institute.

A resident of Edgewater, NJ, he was a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a Lark Theatre Fellow, and an Oriveden Opisto Resident Artist.

Justin Jager is a NY based actor, writer, and director. Recent creative credits include writing, directing, and starring in his original play One Man Screaming, directing the NY debut of Carly Polistina's Nosebleed: A "comedy" about hypotheticals, mail, and crazy loud sex, and creating Calico, a movie filmed during the 2023 Oscars. His original sitcom pilot, The Startup, is currently in post-production. You can also find Justin online as lead actor for the Miacademy family of homeschooling websites!

Joseph Liberti (Stained Panes)- Joseph is honored to be working once again with The Black Box on this wonderful project. A current student at the Bergen Institute for the Contemporary Arts, he has experience and passion as an actor, singer, playwright, house manager, stage manager, and director. Behind the scenes, he is a self-fulfilled designer and constructor of scenic, audio, lighting, props, and costume design. 

Matt Okin's recent directing credits include Sam Shepard's Action, the U.S. Premiere of Little Ocean, and The Unseen Hand; each monthly installment of 'From A To Zoo: An Exclusive Staged Reading Series of Edward Albee's Plays'; and the initial workshop of The Lost Years by John Patrick Shanley.  His original plays showcased in NYC, NJ, and on tours include Cherry Hill; Beltsville/Rockville, Part One: Rise Of The Goatman; #OneInnocentWoman; Twist Of Faith; and Walter Liked To Sit In His Big Backyard.  Original musicals include Soul Searching and A Match Made In Manhattan: The Interactive Jewish Wedding Experience.  Matt received a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University's Tisch School of The Arts; he is a long-time Teaching Artist for select theater programs for teens and adults in Bergen County; and his screenplay, the comedy 'Issues', is in development.

Daniel Yaiullo wrote a full-length play about SantaCon, which received its first staged reading in December of last year. His short play, Wronged, is currently running at the Chain Theatre in NYC as part of their Winter One Act Festival. He co-wrote a pilot, Nightfish, with Katie North, about two diametrically opposed overnight aquarium employees. 
Since Fall 2021, Black Box PAC has incubated new and under-produced plays by world-class artists such as Eric Bogosian, Paul Schrader, Beth Henley, Craig Lucas, Neil LaBute, Daniel Handler, Ken Levine, and most recently John Patrick Shanley. Collaborations are underway with The Estates of Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, and IB Singer as well as with artists including John Lahr, Halley Feiffer, Billy Martin, and more.

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