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F. Murray Abraham to Appear in a Staged Reading of "Fragments" by Edward Albee at Black Box PAC

Published by New Jersey Stage

originally published: 03/13/2024

(TEANECK, NJ) -- Black Box PAC has announced that F. Murray Abraham will appear in a special benefit performance of Edward Albee's Fragments on Saturday, April 6, 2024 at Debonair Music Hall. F. Murray Abraham has appeared in more than 80 films including Amadeus, for which he received the Academy Award® for 'Best Actor,' as well as Golden Globe® and L.A. Film Critics Awards. Showtime is 8:00pm.

From the Edward Albee Society website, Fragments is described as "Several people sit together reading proverbs aloud to each other. From these proverbs are prompted stories of each one's past, or musings surrounding life-long mysteries. Each tries to tell about some incident which they hope will illuminate their own being; hoping the others will understand who they are.

"Each story flows to the next, with a musical quality to the randomness. Albee explains it this way: 'Fragments lacks plot in any established sense; there is no clear dilemma and resolution—no 'story,' no apparent sequentially. The piece proceeds as a piece of music does—accumulating, accumulating, following its own logic.

'Its effectiveness, its coherence reside in what we have experienced from the totality of it. Fragments is also a very simple, straightforward piece—on its own terms, of course.'"

Abraham's other films include The Name of The Rose, Finding Forrester, Scarface, The Ritz, Star Trek: Insurrection, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inside Llewyn Davis, How to Train Your Dragon 3, House of Geraniums, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Where Love Begins, Robin Hood, and Lady and the Tramp where he sang "This is the Night, Bella Notte".




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Mr. Abraham recently starred in the second season of HBO's The White Lotus, for which he received an Emmy and Golden Globe® nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Mr. Abraham can currently be seen in the HBO limited series The White House Plumbers as "Judge John Sirica." Previously, Mr. Abraham was a series regular on Homeland (2 Emmy nominations), and had memorable appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Mythic Quest, Marco Polo, Louis CK, Shakespeare Uncovered and Chimerica for the BBC. Additionally, he was featured in Guillermo del Toro's critically acclaimed Netflix anthology series, 10 After Midnight in the role of ‘Dr. Winters'. A veteran of the stage, F. Murray Abraham has appeared in more than 90 plays, among them Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (Obie Award), Trumbo, Standup Shakespeare, the Italian tour of Notturno Pirandelliano, Susan Stroman's A Christmas Carol, the musical Triumph Of Love, A Month In The Country, the title roles in Cyrano de Bergerac, King Lear, Macbeth, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice in rep with The Jew of Malta which he did at Stratford on Avon with the RSC, The Seagull, Oedipus Re", Creon, Angels In America (Broadway), Arthur Miller's last play The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Waiting For Godot, The Caretaker, The Ritz, Sexual Perversity In Chicago, Duck Variations, A Life In The Theatre, Paper Doll, The Threepenny Opera, The Mentor, and in Terrence McNally's It's Only A Play (Drama Desk Award nomination). He made his LA debut in Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and his NY debut as a Macy's Santa Claus, soon thereafter to Broadway in The Man In The Glass Booth, directed by Harold Pinter.

Mr. Abraham's book A Midsummer Night's Dream: Actors On Shakespeare, is published by Faber & Faber. He is proud to be the spokesman for The MultiFaith Alliance. Honors include The Moscow Art Theatre Stanislavski Award, The Sir John Gielgud Award for Excellence in Shakespeare, Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a member of The New York Theater Hall of Fame

Debonair Music Hall is located at 1409 Queen Anne Road b/w State Street and Walraven Drive in Teaneck, New Jersey.  Debonair is adjacent to free street and municipal lot parking, and the venue offers accessible ground floor entry; doors open at 6:30pm, and the bar/restaurant is scheduled to be open throughout. Tickets, $40 in advance and $50 at the door, are available for purchase online.

Edward Albee was born on March 12, 1928, and began writing plays 30 years later. His plays include The Zoo Story (1958), The Death of Bessie Smith (1959), The Sandbox (1959), The American Dream (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? (1961-62, Tony Award), Tiny Alice (1964), A Delicate Balance (1966, Pulitzer Prize; 1996, Tony Award), All Over (1971), Seascape (1974, Pulitzer Prize), Listening (1975), Counting the Ways (1975), The Lady From Dubuque (1977-78), The Man Who Had Three Arms (1981), Finding the Sun (1982), Marriage Play (1986-87), Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer Prize), Fragments (1993), The Play About the Baby (1997), The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (2000, 2002 Tony Award), Occupant (2001), At Home at The Zoo: (Act 1, Homelife. Act 2, The Zoo Story) (2004), and Me, Myself & I (2008). Mr. Albee was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980.  In 1996 he received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts.  In 2005, he was awarded a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

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 John Patrick Shanley. Collaborations are now underway with The Estates of Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, and I.B. Singer as well as with artists including John Lahr, Halley Feiffer, Billy Martin, and more.

Debonair Music Hall is a live music venue that brings the best national touring acts and local bands to Teaneck, NJ. Enjoy delicious food and drinks while you experience the electrifying energy of live music. Black Box PAC, along with the event producer and colaborative educational theater company Black Box Studios, is now 'in residence" at Debonair Music Hall.


EVENT PREVIEWS

(UNION, NJ) -- American Theater Group (ATG), in partnership with the Union Arts Center, will present a three-day Spotlight play reading event featuring works by New Jersey playwrights at the DMK Black Box Theater at the Union Arts Center from July 6-8, 2026 with performances at 7:00pm each night.

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(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- Live On Stage Productions presents Together Off-Broadway: Merman & Martin in Concert at Cape May Stage from July 4-10, 2026. This show celebrates the remarkable bond between Ethel Merman and Mary Martin — two of Broadway’s brightest stars.
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(SOMERS POINT, NJ) -- Gateway Playhouse presents Neil Simon's London Suite with three performances from July 11-12, 2026. Witty, charming, and unmistakably Neil Simon, London Suite invites audiences into a series of hilarious and heartfelt encounters set in the same London hotel room.

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(MATAWAN, NJ) -- Misfits Theatre Co., a community theater organization dedicated to producing bold, entertaining, and accessible theater for audiences of all ages, presents its inaugural book musical production, She Loves Me at Matawan Regional High School from July 10-12, 2026.
Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center presents "Sense and Sensibility" outside duCret Center of Art

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(PLAINFIELD, NJ) -- Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center invites audiences to experience Jane Austen's beloved classic Sense and Sensibility in a charming outdoor production this summer at duCret Center of Art in Plainfield. Performances take place July 10-12, 2026.

Howell PAL Theater Company presents "Grease"

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Pioneer Productions presents encore run of "What the Constitution Means to Me" in Chatham Borough

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Skyline Theatre Company presents Shakespeare on the Porch with "Much Ado About Nothing"

(BLOOMFIELD, NJ) -- Skyline Theatre Company presents Much Ado About Nothing with performances July 17-18, 2026 as part of its Shakespeare on the Porch series. The Bard's ultimate rom-com comes to life on the porch of the Oakeside Mansion.

The Montclair Foundation and Studio Players will present Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" at Van Vleck House and Gardens

(MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- The Montclair Foundation and Studio Players will present Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing outside at Van Vleck House and Gardens across two weekends from July 10-18, 2026. This is no ordinary stage production, it’s an immersive theatrical experience.
 

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