Alec Duffy News

Banana Bag & Bodice has announced the premiere of their film Space//Space as part of the Special Screenings program at the Anthology Film Archive. 

Banana Bag & Bodice will present the premiere of their film Space//Space as part of the Special Screenings program at the Anthology Film Archive. Space//Space is a cinematic reimagining of their 2012 critically acclaimed live theatre piece of the same title.

JACK invites artists to share their interpretation of radical in the second year of their daring performance festival Radical Acts. 

JACK has announced the appointment of theater director, writer, and facilitator Skye Kowaleski to join Jordana De La Cruz as Co-Director of JACK. Skye joins the team as JACK's Founder and Co-Director Alec Duffy transitions out of leadership, fulfilling his original intention to turn over the space after 10 years in order to promote the infusion of fresh energy and ideas. 

Brooklyn performance and civic space JACK announced an extension of Hoi Polloi's White on White

Brooklyn performance and civic space JACK has formed an explosive line up for its summer/fall 2022 season, with the premiere of two theatrical works: Hoi Polloi’s White on White, and powerhouse duo Peter Mills Weiss & Julia Mounsey with their play Open Mic Night, dance works by Kensaku Shinohara and TRIBE, and a dance-party-performance by The Dragon Sisters. The season also includes the second-annual Radical Acts Festival and the Spanish-language musical Desaparecidas, with music composed by Jaime Lozano.

OBIE-winning theater company Hoi Polloi (Three Pianos; All Hands) returns to JACK with a peek inside the meeting of a white anti-racist group. As the members reckon with sacrifices they must make to live up to their principles, other forces begin to disrupt and unsettle their efforts. An uncanny ode to honesty, forgiveness, and accountability, this ensemble tour de force pulls the audience on a descent from the too-real to the sub-real.  

The program features a new work by 2021-22 Artist-in-Residence Katherine Young, We are all lichens for bass flute, tenor saxophone, violin, cello, feedback piano, drum kit, and live electronics, in which improvisation permeates the piece as musicians improvise extended passages based on carefully workshopped materials.

JACK Founder/Co-Director Alec Duffy will transition out of leadership in July 2022, a fulfillment of his original intention upon founding JACK in 2012 to lead the space for only 10 years, to allow for the infusion of fresh energy and ideas.

Brooklyn performance and civic space JACK has announced a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, September 14 at 11 a.m. to officially open its new space at 20 Putnam Ave in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The ceremony was originally planned for spring of 2020, and was delayed because of the pandemic.

Remarkable theater artist and composer Justin Hicks shares a song cycle drawn from memories of Baptist church services and R&B club performances with a series of mantras, tantrums, spoken texts and responsive readings that embrace a convergence of the sacred and secular. Like the theatrical work of his band The HawtPlates (Waterboy and the Mighty World - Under the Radar Festival 2020), CROSS OVER promises majestic musicality within a mesmerizing environment. 

Brooklyn performance and civic space JACK announces an outdoor forum for the open City Council District 35 seat (currently held by Laurie Cumbo), which comprises parts of Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and DUMBO, among other neighborhoods. The forum will be moderated by broadcast journalist Brian Vines, and there will be a chance for attendees to ask questions of the candidates.

Brooklyn performance and civic space JACK has announced two live-streamed forums on Facebook featuring seven candidates for the open City Council District 35 seat (currently held by Laurie Cumbo), which comprises parts of Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and DUMBO, among other neighborhoods.

Due to the ongoing health crisis, the traditional in-person event is replaced by an enduring online tribute.

Brooklyn performance and civic space JACK announces a live-streamed forum on Facebook featuring three candidates for the open New York State Senate seat (currently held by Velmanette Montgomery) in District 25, which comprises Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, Gowanus, and Park Slope, among other neighborhoods. The forum will be moderated by JACK founder/Co-Director Alec Duffy and is so far the only planned candidate forum for this race.

Brooklyn performance space JACK announced a partnership with the mutual aid group We Keep Us Safe Abolitionist Network to transform its theater into a hub for the distribution of food to neighbors in need. Dozens of volunteers are involved, and already, more than 100 families have received food as part of the effort.

JACK (Founder / Co-Director Alec Duffy, Co-Director Jordana De La Cruz) is proud to present Best Life by Melisa Tien, a New Dramatist resident playwright. Directed by Kenneth Prestininzi, Best Life is an alarming dark comedy that centers on two women trying to bridge their racial and economic differences. Best Life runs March 21 a?" April 5, 2020, at JACK (18 Putnam Ave, Brooklyn) with opening night on March 22. Tickets are now on sale at jackny.org.

JACK (Founder / Co-Director Alec Duffy, Co-Director Jordana De La Cruz) is proud to present Best Life by Melisa Tien, a New Dramatist resident playwright. Directed by Kenneth Prestininzi, Best Life is an alarming dark comedy that centers on two women trying to bridge their racial and economic differences. Best Life runs March 21 a?" April 5, 2020, at JACK (18 Putnam Ave, Brooklyn) with a press opening on March 22. Tickets are now on sale at jackny.org.

The first season in JACK's new, larger space a?" located just four blocks from its original home a?" features a torrent of talent, with new plays by Amina Henry, T. Adamson, Melisa Tien, Kate Kremer, James Ijames, and Jaber Ramezani in collaboration with Shadi Ghaheri, new dance work by Zachary Tye Richardson, Amanda Szeglowski, Niall Noel Jones, Justin Allen, Nia & Ness, mayfield brooks, as well as concerts featuring Shelley Hirsch, Pascal Niggenkemper and more. The season, running October 2019 through March 2020, serves as a sampler of some of the most arresting artists in the current performance scene.

On June 24, (Le) Poisson Rouge hosted 'JACK Moves,' a benefit concert for OBIE Award-winning performance venue JACK, located in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Emcee'd by Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and Octet composer Dave Malloy, 'JACK Moves' was a vibrant evening of life-affirming music, featuring an adventurous group of performers from the Broadway, Downtown, and Brooklyn theater and music scenes, all in support of JACK's move to a larger space in the same neighborhood.