From A to Zoo Series at Black Box Starts Off 2024 with “The Lady From Dubuque”



(TEANECK, NJ) — In association with The Estate of Edward Albee, Black Box PAC presents 1980’s The Lady From Dubuque on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at Debonair Music Hall: 1409 Queen Anne Road b/w State Street and Walraven Drive in Teaneck. This performance kicks off 2024 with the monthly staged reading event Edward Albee: From A To Zoo, An Exclusive Stage Reading Series of Edward Albee’s Plays.

Reservations are strongly suggested: www.blackboxpac.com.  Debonair is adjacent to free street and lot parking, and the venue offers ground floor entry.

In The Lady From Dubuque (1980), as described by The Edward Albee Society, three young couples are playing Twenty Questions. The drinks have been flowing, so the mood has gone from good to bad in a very short time. As it happens, the hostess, who has the most abrasive tongue of all, is dying — and the party ends when her pain becomes so intense her husband must carry her to bed. After the stage is empty, a handsome, mysterious woman, accompanied by an equally handsome man, enter the house and settle in for the night. In the morning they are still there to greet the baffled young husband and his ailing wife when they come down for breakfast. Unruffled by the young couples questions, the two must also confront the guests of the previous evening.

The performance — featuring eight BBPAC regulars including Ilana Schimmel, J Niles, Michael Gardiner, Danielle MacMath, Arthur Gregory Pugh, Justin Jager, and more — will once again be followed by a conversation with the cast, director Matt Okin, and Jakob Holder, Executive Director of The Edward F. Albee Foundation and Mr. Albee’s longest serving assistant. General admission seating is FREE yet limited for each evening in this series. House opens approximately 7:00pm.

From the masterworks to the rarely seen, this curated monthly series began in May with The Sandbox (1959) and The American Dream (1960), and has continued with Finding The Sun (1983) and Marriage Play (1983) in June, The Man Who Had Three Arms (1983) in July, Malcolm (1966) in August, and Counting the Ways (1976) and Listening (1976) in September.  Coming up is The Lady From Dubuquq on November 15 and The Play About The Baby on December 13 (produced by The Black Box in its area premiere last Winter).

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, The Black Box 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 now underway with The Estates of Sam Shepard and IB Singer as well as with artists including Craig Carnelia, Migdalia Cruz, John Lahr, Ishmael Reed, Halley Feiffer, and Billy Martin.