Black Box Studios to Stage HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES at bergenPAC Performing Arts School, 3/27-4/6

Matt Okin, Artistic Director of Black Box Studios and its Ensemble, and Alex Diaz, Director of Education at The Performing Arts School at bergenPAC, announced the next fully-produced theatrical production to hit downtown Englewood this season, John Guare's House of Blue Leaves. House will run from March 27 through April 6, with performances Thursdays at 8pm, Saturdays at 9:30pm, and Sundays at 8pm, at the Van Brunt Studios of The Performing Arts School at bergenPAC, 30 North Van Brunt, just two doors away from the bergenPAC Mainstage. Tickets, $20.00 (with group rates available), go on sale on March 5th, at www.blackboxnynj.com/house.

House of Blue Leaves stars acclaimed local actors June Mandeville, Alan Schwartz, and Beth Selter, and features Ari Hiller, Naima Hirsch, Leora Hyman, Simon Krischer, Nachi Lederer, Leora Lupkin, Aliza Oppenheim, and Joey Silverman. Directed by Matt Okin, the show features a set by Netanel Shafier, incidental musical direction by Greg Paradis, lighting by Danny Hoffman, and stage management/sound design by Leora Lupkin.

House of Blue Leaves is set in in Sunnyside, Queens in 1965, on the day Pope Paul VI visited New York City. This unique black comedy pits together, among other elements,

a political bombing, a GI headed for Vietnam, nuns, a zookeeper who dreams of making it big in Hollywood as a songwriter, and his schizophrenic wife. First staged in 1966 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT, House of Blue Leaves, as directed by Mel Shapiro, opened on February 10, 1971 Off-Broadway at the Truck and Warehouse Theatre, where it ran for 337 performances. The cast included Frank Converse, Harold Gould, Katherine Helmond, William Atherton, and Anne Meara.

An acclaimed 1986 revival directed by Jerry Zaks was staged Off-Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and then transferred to the Vivian Beaumont Theater, where it played five months before transferring again to the Plymouth Theatre, for a total run of 398 performances. It won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival. It was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. In addition, a 2011 Broadway revival of House was staged at the Walter Kerr Theatre, which previewed on April 4, and opened on April 15 for a limited 16-week engagement.

This past December, at the newly renovated Performing Arts School Studios at bergenPAC, the BBS Ensemble's electrifying production of the rock musical Next To Normal won audiences over and sold out most performances. Before that, in nearby Teaneck, the BBS Ensemble mounted unique and successful productions of Sondheim/Lapine's Into The Woods, William Inge's Summer Brave, and The Who's Tommy. Coming up next in May: James Lapine and William Finn's musical comedy Falsettos.

For more information about Black Box Studios and it's year-round theater workshops for all ages and levels, about the BBS Ensemble, and for the full performance schedule for House of Blue Leaves, click on www.blackboxnynj.com. For more information on the bergenPAC jam-packed concert schedule and the Performing Arts School's acclaimed dance, music, and early childhood classes, visit www.bergenpac.org.

Photo credit: Richard Lurie/Kitstune Media, Inc.

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