0 DAYS SINCE LAST MIRACLE
A new comedy by Alexis Kozak
WHEN: June 14, 15 and 16, at 7:00 PM
WHERE: Gallery 13, 658 Cookman Avenue, Suite 5, Asbury Park
TICKETS: $17.50 purchased in advance or $20.00 at the door.
To get a taste, check out a preview scene at kickstarter.com.
For tickets, call 732.737.7671, e-mail blackboxnj@gmail.com, or log onto www.blackboxnj.org.
0 Days centers around two girls in an urban Catholic high school for girls who decide to fake a stigmata with ketchup to get out of their Spanish final exam. Kozak—who teaches Theatre Arts at Middletown High School South—holds an MFA in play writing from Boston University. “I attended Catholic school from kindergarten until twelfth grade. I was an altar boy until I was seventeen. I was the oldest one there was,” says Kozak. “This play is sort of an irreverent love letter to Catholic high schools. A lot of people call themselves ‘recovering Catholics.’ Not me. I loved every moment of my time in Catholic school.”
0 Days has been developed through Black Box’s Writers’ Group. “I brought what I thought was a stand-alone ten-minute play to the first meeting I attended, a little over a year ago. I got such great feedback from the group that really opened up avenues of where the story could go next. I sort of ended up writing it in installments. Having the pressure of needing to bring in new writing every month, coupled with the questions and feedback, really helped me move the story forward.”
Kozak juggles teaching, directing at the high school, a busy self-imposed writing schedule, and a family (his wife co-directs this production, while his mother-in-law watches their four-year old son). “Sure, it’s hard to find time to do your own work—after teaching all day and then directing students at the high school. But I love it. I heard an artist say once that even the tide comes in twice a day. In some ways, I feel like I’ve never left high school, and I sort of love that. It keeps me young.”
