Filmmaker, comic and occasional playwright Woody Allen will return to the theatre for the first time since 1995's Death Defying Acts when he directs two of his own one-acts at Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theatre Company. The two plays, Riverside Drive and New Milford, will debut on April 23, a theatre spokesperson confirmed, with an opening on May 15. The overall title of the evening is Writer's Block. Allen himself will direct.

Little is known about the plays, except that the first has three characters and the second has seven.

Allen's Central Park West was part of the three-play evening Death Defying Acts, which was directed by Michael Blakemore. Allen's piece was generally acknowledged to be the best of the trio. (Blakemore later wrote a New Yorker piece about his trying experience helming the evening, which also featured works by heavyweights David Mamet and Elaine May—only Mamet came off well in the article.)

No casting for the Atlantic evening has been announced.

As a playwright, Allen had two hits on Broadway, Play It Again, Sam and Don't Drink the Water, before launching into films. A 1981 play, The Floating Light Bulb, was not as successful. —Robert Simonson