(ENGLEWOOD, NJ) -- Black Box PAC's 2022 Save Our Stages season continues with the NJ Premiere of Paul Schrader's The Cleopatra Club, courtesy of the legendary filmmaker! The production runs from March 24 through April 10, 2022. In the play, a mysterious robbery in a Cairo hotel spurs an over-the-hill film critic and a once-celebrated movie producer to search for meaning in the twilight of their Hollywood careers--and finally come to terms with their mutual friend’s untimely death.
This new production of The Cleopatra Club features the talents of Isabel Bertelsen, Michael Gardiner, Mike Marcou, Arthur Gregory Pugh, and Luke Shibbo. Matt Okin serves as Director, with Ilana Schimmel as Assistant Director. Tickets are available for purchase online.
The Cleopatra Club is one of the only works for the stage from Paul Schrader: legendary filmmaker responsible for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, American Gigolo, First Reformed, and The Card Counter.
Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a film until he was 18. Although he more than made up for lost time when studying at Calvin College, Columbia University and UCLA's graduate film program, his influences were far removed from those of his contemporaries--Robert Bresson, Yasujirô Ozu and Carl Theodor Dreyer (about whom he wrote a book, "Transcendental Style in Film") rather than Saturday-morning serials.
After a period as a film critic (and protégé of Pauline Kael), he began writing screenplays, hitting the jackpot when he and his brother, Leonard Schrader (a Japanese expert), were paid the then-record sum of $325,000, thus establishing his reputation as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters, which was consolidated when Martin Scorsese filmed Schrader's script Taxi Driver, written in the early 1970s during a bout of drinking and depression. The success of the film allowed Schrader to start directing his own films, which have been notable for their willingness to take stylistic and thematic risks while still working squarely within the Hollywood system. The most original of his films (which he and many others regard as his best) was the Japanese co-production Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.
Black Box Performing Arts Center (BBPAC), a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in Teaneck 2015 and relocated to 49 East Palisade Avenue in Englewood in 2019, and Black Box Studios (BBS), which has operated in Bergen County since 2007, together form Northern NJ’s premiere theater and performing arts school combo. BBPAC is a working professional theater run by The Black Box Rep Company, a group of collaborative artists engaging in collaborative, cutting-edge theater. The tight-knit community self-generates full seasons of cutting edge theater, reviving classics both old and newer, while also developing original works for the intimate stage. Many of these professionals double as teaching artists for Black Box Studios, running classes and workshops at the theater and at various schools and organizations in the area, for students currently ranging in age from 9 to 81. Our team is also focused on presenting other art forms within the space, such as comedy and music, as we host the emergence of a new and unique artistic community.
The Cleopatra Club follows the NJ premiere of Craig Lucas' Ode To Joy, which was preceded by short works from John Guare and Caridad Svich as well as the regional premiere workshops of Eric Bogosian's 1+1 and Neil Labute's Ten x Ten, which both remain in active development. All are part of BBPACs 2022 #SaveOurStages season.
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