Allen takes his dual act to the theater

With more than 30 turns as a writer-director behind him in the movies, Woody Allen is getting ready to wear both hats for the first time in a theater production. “Writer’s Block,” a pair of one-acts he has written, will be mounted in New York at the Atlantic Theater Company, starting April 23.

Beth Emelson, producing director of the off-Broadway, nonprofit theater, said Friday that Allen volunteered the script out of the blue less than two weeks ago. “We liked it and thought it would be wonderful.”

Casting has not been announced for the companion pieces, “Riverside Drive” and “New Milford.” Emelson said she doubts Allen will act in the show too. “

“I’ve never directed anything in the theater before and have no idea whether I’ll have any flair for it,” Allen said in a statement reported in the New York Times. He said he offered the play to the Atlantic Theater Company “because I really like their work over the years.”

Allen, 66, has written nine previous plays, most recently “Central Park West,” which stood alongside short pieces by David Mamet and Elaine May in a 1995 triptych called “Death Defying Acts.” His other stage works include “Don’t Drink the Water” (1966), “Play It Again, Sam” (1969) and “God” (1975).