The Black Box to present readings of Albee’s “Listening” and “Counting the Ways”



(ENGLEWOOD, NJ) —  In association with The Estate of Edward Albee, the Black Box announces Listening (1976) and Counting The Ways (1976) as the next monthly reading in Edward Albee: From A To Zoo, An Exclusive Stage Reading Series of Edward Albee’s Plays.

Listening is described by Clive Barnes as “a chamber opera and a symbolic poem about communication.” The Edward Albee society website notes how it weaves together its strands of conversation and soliloquy into a meaningful pattern of events underscoring the inescapable fact that while we may listen we do not always hear, and our lives, for better or worse, are shaped accordingly.

Counting The Ways concerns a long married couple aware that time has wrought changes in their relationship. In his introduction to The Collected Plays of Edward Albee. Vol. 2., Mr. Albee explained that the piece “was composed to be done with Listening – before it – as a nicely varied evening… Perhaps what I have written is a “curtain lower” rather than the curtain raiser I had supposed.”

See both rarely performed pieces on Wednesday, September 27th at 7:30pm at The Black Box, 8 East Palisade Avenue, 2nd Floor, between Van Brunt and Dean Streets in Englewood, NJ. Performances are followed by a conversation with the cast, director, 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, and Malcolm (1966) in August.  Coming up is Fragments on October 25; The Lady From Dubuque 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 continued to incubate 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, Billy Martin, and Halley Feiffer.