TJ Edwards' BOY FRIENDS & THE HOLOGRAM Set for Black Box New Play Festival this Month

Two new plays by local playwright TJ Edwards will premiere at the Gallery Players of Brooklyn starting June 13th and running until June 23rd as part of their 16th Annual Black Box New Play Festival. Mr. Edwards has won two Helen Hayes awards for Outstanding New Play, and his plays have been performed in New York, Los Angeles and London-as well as cities throughout the U.S.

Mr. Edwards' Boy Friends is a comedy in which three men try to maintain a friendship while the only thing in common is the birth of their sons a minute apart at the same hospital four years earlier. It is directed by Alexander Harrington and stars J.B. Alexander, Joel Haberli, and Matthew A. Schrader as the three men who hold to a solemn vow of friendship despite hints of infidelity among them. It will be performed June 13th -June16th.

In The Hologram, Mr. Edwards has crafted a mystery/comedy in which all a man must do to earn the billion-dollar estate left to him by his computer-genius wife is to live with her hologram a full year and never leave her secluded mansion. Laughs and intrigue will overcome the audience in this fascinating mystery where the audience is kept guessing as to what is real. The Hologram is directed by long-time Pearl Theatre Company actress Robin Leslie Brown and stars veteran Actors Equity members David Townsend, Mel England, Nina Covalesky and Abby Lee. It will perform from June 20th - 23rd.

Both Boy Friends and The Hologram will perform on Thursday - Saturday at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets are $18 for adults, $14 for seniors and children 12 and under. The Gallery Players is located at 199, 14th Street, between 4th and 5th Aves. in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.galleryplayers.com or by calling Ovationtix at 212-352-3101 (phone hours 9-9 weekdays, 10-6 weekends).

Mr. Edwards was an O'Neill Theatre Festival semi-finalist this year. His production of Optimism! Or Voltaire's Candide, which premiered at the Gallery Players in 2010, closed last month in Washington , D.C. after receiving rave reviews and selling out. His plays have been presented in each of the last four years during the Gallery Players festival. In 2011 he was a featured playwright at the Los Angeles New Playwrights Festival. Also an actor, Mr. Edwards appeared in the recent series House of Cards, as well as on all the Law And Orders, The Sopranos, Oz and Kidnapped. He acted on Broadway with Christopher Plummer in King Lear and was a long-time member of the Pearl Theatre Acting Company. Mr. Edwards lives just 25 blocks from Gallery Players in Brooklyn with his wife and two kids.

The Black Box New Play Festival is The Gallery Players' signature season-ending festival of new works by both new and established playwrights. More than 400 plays have graced our stage in the 15 years of producing the festival, including Nat Cassidy's The Reckoning of Kit and Little Boots, a New York Innovative Theatre Award-winner for Best Play in 2008.

The Gallery Players (TGP) has provided Brooklyn audiences with quality theatre since 1967. Located in Park Slope but beloved on both sides of the Brooklyn Bridge, The Gallery Players is dedicated to producing classic and contemporary plays and musicals as well as premiering new works. Recipient of the Off-Off Broadway Review's 2000 Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Innovative Theater (IT) awards for outstanding musical forUrinetown, Yank and Like You Like It. The Gallery Players' season comprises three plays and three musicals, covering a remarkably wide range of dramatic and comedic styles. The season finale is the annual Black Box New Play Festival, which gives world premiere performances of works by playwrights.