Teaneck—Black Box Studios, which has been providing innovative, collaborative theater workshops and performances for ages five to adult since 2007, is set to open its new performing arts center in the West Englewood section of Teaneck, at 200 Walraven Drive just off Palisade Avenue. The venue will house theater workshops, improv classes and musical instruction for students of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience. The resulting performances, as well as professional productions, will lure audiences from throughout Bergen County and beyond.
BBS Founder and Artistic Director Matt Okin, an Englewood resident, explains, “Our diverse student body and artistic community finally has a central location to operate within around the clock, all season long and with full artistic freedom. As so many of our long-time students are just starting to emerge as top-level performing artists and choosing to pursue careers in the arts, the timing could not be more beneficial for all of us.”
Starting in early November, all current BBS collaborative theater workshops will relocate from a nearby rental space into the company’s first permanent home. Students ages five to adult now have more options to choose from, including both new and familiar classes in musical theater, theater dance, drama, acting technique, playwriting, directing and improvisation at various levels. New 10-week workshops will start during the week of of 11/15. Additionally, starting almost immediately, BBS’ musical directors will offer private instruction in guitar, drums, bass, keyboard and rock vocals; by mid-January, additional group music workshops will be offered within the space as well.
“We look forward to offering private and group performance workshops with a focus in rock and pop, as well as more advanced courses in musical theory,” adds Brody Greif, BBS’ musical director who was born and raised in Englewood. (BBS Musical Director Huey Esquire’s brand-new show, “This Time, A New Musical Romance,” was recently workshopped Off-Broadway in NYC.)
Concurrently, the new venue will also serve as the area’s only real “black box”: an intimate 40-to-70-seat theater that morphs dramatically depending upon the specific needs of a show or production. The stage area and seating configurations adjust to accommodate a larger-scale musical, smaller-cast play, improv jam, solo performance, open-mic night, musical performer, master class and so much more.
Originally from Paramus, Richard Lurie is the new general manager of the Black Box Performing Arts Center: “The BBS approach to theater and our new space is unique: we are all-inclusive, community-bridging, truly collaborative and envelope-pushing both in our art and in our plans for the most innovative use of the venue.”
A number of tight-knit BBS theater student groups are currently well into rehearsals for Zombie Prom: Atomic Edition (Musical Theater Kids), Scenes From Peter Pan (Young Children), How I Learned To Drive (Adult Acting), Other Desert Cities (Teen Drama Ensemble), and Bat Boy: The Musical (Teen Musical Theater Ensemble). Tickets for their end-of-semester shows, which will be performed within their new space starting in early January, go on sale on 12/1. Before that, early bird registration for BBS’s two popular summer theater programs, Rock Musical Theater Intensive and Dramatic Theater Intensive 2016, opens on 11/1 at www.blackboxnynj.com.
Black Box Studios continues to provide theater programs in a number of local private schools/institutions, including The Dwight-Englewood School, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School, Torah Academy of Bergen County, Yeshivat Noam, and YACHAD NJ, among others. It also produces “Uncensored Adolescents,” a monthly improv show at The PIT LOFT and other theatrical productions in New York City.
In February ‘16, Black Box Studios will unveil plans for its July ‘16—June ‘17 inaugural season at the center.
A formal grand opening for the new BBS space is being planned for early December. For additional details, visit www.blackboxnynj.com, or email [email protected] and/or [email protected].
