Unpublished Sam Shepard Play “Little Ocean” Starts U.S. Premiere With “Action” and “The Unseen Hand” at The Black Box



(ENGLEWOOD, NJ) — In association with the Estate of Sam Shepard, The Black Box – NJ’s incubator for new and under-produced works by world-class artists – is proud to present Shepard’s groundbreaking plays Action, The Unseen Hand, and the U.S. premiere of the unpublished Little Ocean, starting next week on September 21 through October 8, 2023 for ten shows only!

For this 2023-24 Season opening fundraiser, limited tickets are now on sale for performances on the 2nd floor of 8 East Palisade Avenue, Englewood, NJ 07631 at www.blackboxpac.com.

O-Lan Jones, from the West Coast, serves as Creative Consultant and provided an original song in Little Ocean.  The ensemble includes Michael Gardiner, Danielle MacMath, Ilana Schimmel, J Niles, Arthur Gregory Pugh, Daniel Yaiullo, and Sarah O’Sullivan. The production designer is Joseph Liberti, incidental music is by Ben Shanblatt, and the director is Matt Okin. 

“Two hours after our opening night party, the building blew up. Working with Sam was like that!”  explains Albert Poland, producer of the original Off Broadway production of The Unseen Hand in NYC.  

Sam Shepard’s first New York plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were produced by Theatre Genesis in 1964. For several seasons, he worked with Off-Off-Broadway theatre groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays won Obie Awards, including Chicago, The Tooth of the Crime, and Curse of the Starving Class. Other award-winning plays include Fool for Love, True West, A Lie of the Mind, and Buried Child, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979.  In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992. He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame two years later. As a writer and director, he filmed Far North and Silent Tongue. As an actor, he appeared in numerous films, including The Right Stuff, Days of Heaven and Resurrection. His final works of prose, The One Inside and Spy of the First Person, were published in 2017, the year of his death.

Since Fall 2021, The Black Box continues to incubate new and under-produced plays by world-class artists such as Eric Bogosian, Paul Schrader, Beth Henley, Craig Lucas, Neil Labute, and most recently John Patrick Shanley. Collaborations are now underway with The Estates of Edward Albee and IB Singer as well as with artists including Craig Lucas & Craig Carnelia, Migdalia Cruz, John Lahr, Daniel Handler, Ken Levine, Ishmael Reed, Halley Feiffer, and Billy Martin.

In addition to the Estate of Sam Shepard, Action and The Unseen Hand are presented in special arrangement with Concord Theatricals Inc. on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. 

Promo pics courtesy of The Black Box