(ENGLEWOOD, NJ) -- With performances starting on May 11, Ken Levine's Guilty Pleasures: An Unapologetic Comedy premieres at The Black Box, located at 8 East Palisade Avenue between Van Brunt and Dean Streets in Englewood, NJ. Tickets are $35 ($30 for students and seniors), are on sale now at www.blackboxpac.com! The play runs May 11-28, 2023.
From the writer of 'MASH', 'Cheers', 'Frasier', 'The Simpsons', and 'Wings' -- not to mention a series of new plays including Guilty Pleasures: An Unapologetic Comedy follows 30-something marrieds Larry and Jinx Berman as they embark on a luxury cruise and befriend a glamorous celebrity couple. Before they know it, a frivolous agreement leads to sex and comic complications, and Larry and Jinx must resort to infidelity in order to save their marriage. A modern-day throwback to Noel Coward-type screwball comedies that is very much for today, Guilty Pleasures: An Unapologetic Comedy is The Black Box's first full production in their new loft space and since their acclaimed NJ Premiere of Edward Albee's The Play About The Baby in November!
Guilty Pleasures: An Unapologetic Comedy features Gavin Hammon, Justin Jager, Erin McMahon, and Katie North. The directors are Michael Gardiner and Matt Okin, the Production Designer/Stage Manager is Ilana Schimmel, and the Promotional Art Director is Danielle MacMath.
Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/ director/playwright/major league baseball announcer/cartoonist. Ken has written over 200 episodes of television for such shows as 'MASH', 'Cheers', 'Frasier', 'The Simpsons', and 'Wings'. He has directed over 60 TV episodes and has co- written the movie Volunteers starring Tom Hanks and John Candy. He has been the play-by- play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, and San Diego Padres and hosted Dodger Talk for eight seasons. He has nine published full-length stage plays that have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, and around the world. Ken has won a primetime Emmy, two Writers Guild Awards, a Peoples’ Choice Award, Peabody and Humanitas recognition. Currently Ken hosts a popular podcast, "Hollywood & Levine", and is a contributing cartoonist to the New Yorker Magazine.
Starting Fall '21, The Black Box sought press-worthy, artistically satisfying opportunities to save the Northern NJ theater during the height of the pandemic. This led to The Black Box’s incubation of new and under-produced plays offered to us by world-class artists such as Eric Bogosian, Paul Schrader, Beth Henley, Craig Lucas, Neil Labute, John Guare, and Caridad Svich. For ‘22-’23, collaborations are underway with The Estates of Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, and IB Singer as well as with working artists such as Craig Lucas & Craig Carnelia, Nicky Silver, Migdalia Cruz, John Lahr, Daniel Handler, Ken Levine, Ishmael Reed, and Halley Feiffer. The Black Box specializes in risk-taking, cutting-edge material offered just outside of NYC.
Eric Bogosian’s 1+1 (which was mounted at The Black Box in November 2021 and had its Special NYC Premiere in July at The Chain Theatre) received an Off-Broadway Run at The SoHo Playhouse in February/March 2023. Also in March, The Black Box hosted Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) for a week-long developmental workshop of his new play Imaginary Comforts, Or The Story of The Ghost of The Dead Rabbit, and which will have it's East Coast premiere at The Black Box in the near future. World renowned drummer/percussionist, filmmaker, and visual artist Billy Martin (of Medeski Martin & Wood) continues The Black Box's first non-theatrical residency with a series of ongoing solo shows and workshops throughout the year, and Spring Reading Series of works at the start of the "incubation" process continues throughout April. Starting in mid-May, The Black Box, in association with The Estate of Edward Albee, presents Edward Albee: From A to Zoo, An Exclusive Staged Reading Series of Edward Albee Plays.
