7/28/22

Late July and August are usually considered the dog days, nothing to do but loll near the ocean and wait for fall. Apparently, Long Island theaters didn’t get the message. The last months of summer bring a variety of interesting outdoor park productions — from a few different takes on Shakespeare to an evening of one-acts by several accomplished playwrights. So get off the beach (but keep your blanket or chair) and see a show. At least you won’t have to worry about sharks.

7/25/22

Strongbox Theater just launched several evenings of short, one-act plays complimented with songs by live musicians. After receiving over 500 plays from writers all over the world, the directors at Strongbox chose (8) entertaining and well written plays authored by award winning playwrights to be performed at their festival in East Rockaway's outdoor theater in Memorial Park. The plays will consist mostly of comedies and the music will be upbeat.

7/24/22

Interviews with Hampton Water Founder Jesse Bongiovi and Strongbox Theater Founder and Owner Tony Leone (at minute 38:02 of interviews)

7/15/22

East Rockaway’s Strongbox Theater has a number of one-act plays planned for this summer, which will include live musical accompaniment.

Its founder and owner, Tony Leone, bought the long-closed East Rockaway National Bank early in the coronavirus pandemic with the intention of renovating it, an effort that is now under way. Until the work is completed, the public will be treated to free performances at Memorial Park’s outdoor theater, as it was last summer, in what Leone describes as a local “theatrical renaissance.”

10/6/21

There is unbridled enthusiasm in Long Island's growing theatrical community.

After an 18-month-long shutdown, new regional and professional troupes are performing again. There's even an old bank that will soon be a theater, the vault converted into a stage, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported Wednesday.

That abandoned bank in East Rockaway is the talk of Main Street.

"Once we saw it, we knew we had to have it," Tony Leone said.

7/14/21

A New Theatrical Venue and 39 Steps Comes To Long Island!

6/25/21

Tony Leone can still remember the moment he fell in love with theater. After landing a few bit parts in plays as a college student at SUNY Buffalo, he finally earned his first speaking role when he played an old curmudgeon named Mr. Morse in the Lanford Wilson play “Hot l Baltimore.” For his first line, he rumbled into the scene from a backstage staircase to deliver four words — “I have a complaint” — and from that moment on, theater was a major part of his life.

6/18/21

Strongbox Theater will present a production of Patrick Barlow's adaptation and parody of the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, The 39 Steps. This high octane comedy follows Richard Hannay, whose dreadfully boring life is upended by a mysterious and beautiful spy enmeshed in a dastardly plot.

11/30/20

For the past 25 years, Anthony Leone of Valley Stream has been telling family and friends that he would love nothing more than to own a theater.

"It's his dream," said his wife, Marla D'Urso.

And with her support, that dream has become a reality. Of course, adding a pandemic and a bank vault into the mix is a scenario no playwright could have written.