The American Theatre of Actors opens its 49th season with Black & White City Blues A young junkie, heroin, Brooklyn, 1971. January 8 — 19, 2025 at the American Theatre of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, New York City

The decaying and decadent world of 1971Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is the setting for the heroin fueled world of hallucination and despair as a “Little Guy” struggles to survive his loneliness and his addiction.

Richard Vetere’s play Black & White City Blues is the story of a young junkie struggling to survive his addiction to heroin in the decaying landscape of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the summer of 1971.

Dan Lauria will moderate a talk-back on Sunday the 12th. Lauria played Jack Arnold in The Wonder Years and currently plays Tip O’Neill in the 2024 film, Reagan.

Black & White City Blues follows the journey of Little Guy, a junkie all his adult life. His younger brother, John, dies from a leap off a roof top when they were both getting high. Little Guy can no longer live with the guilt. Pushed to do a deal with his middle-class supplier, Bobby, and with the neighborhood drug dealer, Piranha, Little Guy puts a hit on himself as punishment.

The only thing keeping him alive, and the only reason he continues to battle with his addiction, is his love for his prostitute girlfriend, Delilah, and his drug counselor, Mister Wellman.

Joseph Monseur as Little Guy
Featured in the cast: Jake Minter (member, Actors Equity),* Sam Cruz, Riyadh Rollins, Amber Brookes, Kevin Leonard, Wasim Azeez, Anita Moreno, and Gary Vincent

American Theatre of Actors, Inc. (ATA) was founded in 1976 by James Jennings to promote the development of new playwrights, directors and actors, and to provide them a creative atmosphere in which to work. The plays are dramas, comedies, and hybrids, dealing with the social and ethical problems of contemporary society. More than 12,000 actors have worked at ATA including Dennis Quaid, Bruce Willis, Dan Lauria, Chazz Palminteri, Danny Aielo, David Morse, Edie Falco and Kathryn Hahn. Our productions are sometimes grouped as ‘festivals,’ such as a Playwrights Festival or a Directors Festival. In 2016 we began an initiative to feature women in theatre as directors and playwrights, today this is our WIT! (Women in Theatre) program.