TOXIC Press Release

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

9/17/26

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PLAYERS PRESENTS TWO PERFORMANCES OF TWO ONE-ACT PLAYS ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9 & 10 IN RIDGEWOOD, NJ

The Environmental Justice Players present their second professional production, Toxic, a double bill of two one-act plays; Jolly Wally by Chris Widney and The Ballad of Love Canal by Joyce Carol Oates directed by Frank Farrell. Toxic will have two performances, Friday and Saturday, October 9 & 10 at 7pm at the Anderson Auditorium at the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood, 113 Cottage Place, Ridgewood, NJ  07450. Tickets are a suggested donation of $20 and can be purchased at https://cur8.com/41001/project/140977. Tickets are also available at the door.

Fed up with the day-to-day humiliation of their “act,” a walrus tries to convince her complacent walrus boyfriend to escape from the “SeaLife Aquarium” in Tallahassee in Chris Widney’s one-act play Jolly Wally.

Jolly Wally by Chris Widney features

Susie Bellin as Dot

Dylan Meyers as Wally

Laura Ward as Molly

The Ballad of Love Canal by Joyce Carol Oates is a one-act play that centers on the Noonan family, who have lived for years on a toxic-waste dump site in upstate New York.

The Ballad of Love Canal by Joyce Carol Oates features

Tom Bellin as Medrick

Tiffany Browne-Tavarez as Bama

Sam Fuchs as Dugan

and David Schwartz as Gip.

Music and sound by Ben Masterton and sound operator is Lisa Dahlborg.

FRANK FARELL (Director) is the artistic director of the First Flight Theatre Company which has performed several productions at the Hermitage in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ since 2018. www.firstflighttheatreco.com. He most recently directed and adapted Declaration a musical adaptation of the Declaration of Independence at the Hermitage and in April he directed Rachel Carson Speaks for the Environmental Justice Players’ inaugural production.

JOYCE CAROL OATES (The Ballad of Love Canal Playwright) is a prolific American novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet, playwright, and literary critic whose career spans more than six decades. Author of over 70 novels—many exploring violence, social class, and the human condition—her acclaimed works include them (National Book Award), Blonde, Black Water, and We Were the Mulvaneys. She has also published under the pseudonyms Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly, earned multiple O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize, and taught for decades at Princeton University while mentoring generations of writers.

CHRIS WIDNEY (Jolly Wally Playwright) is an award-winning playwright, book writer, and lyricist who tries to spend as much time as possible wandering around in the mountains. Full-length plays, “Big, Fat And Ugly With A Moustache” (Perry Street Theatre, NYC), “Family Men” (Arden, Philadelphia), “The Normals” (Luna Stage, NJ), “Consumed” (Barter Theatre, VA), along with other full-lengths, one-acts, musicals and screenplays have been presented, read, work-shopped, and honored in theatres and contests around the world, including The Actors Theatre Of Louisville, City Theatre, Miami, and The Fire Rose Theatre in Los Angeles. He is co-author of a book about squash (the sport, not the vegetable), a member of The Dramatists Guild, the BMI Workshop, and a graduate of the Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU. https://newplayexchange.org/users/10758/chris-widney

                                                                ###

Press Contact:

Frank Farrell

773-307-4586 (Not for public release.)