APRIL 22 + 23, Friday + Saturday
at 4pm + 7pm

General admission: $12
FREE for kids under 18 and Bushwick community members with proof of address presented at our Box Office (please bring a valid State ID or utility bill).

Tickets and Reservations can be acquired through The Bushwick Starr.

CLICK HERE to view invite and details for our BGT Benefit Event on April 23rd!

Big Green Theater (BGT) is a new program developed by The Bushwick Starr that combines environmental education with an annual green theater festival. Over the past 6 months, we’ve been working with a group of local Bushwick kids to explore environmental topics. Throughout this time, the students have written 10 original environmentally-themed plays. At the Big Green Theater performance festival, we will premiere these new works, which we have produced with an ensemble of professional actors, directors, and designers. The plays have been created using only green theater methods (recycled materials for sets and costumes, fluorescent and LED lighting, paperless programming, etc.).

This program is operated in collaboration with our partners:

Still Waters in a Storm
Superhero Clubhouse

Plays Written by:
Jonathan Balcazar, age 10
Luz Balcazar, age 13
Alvaro Campos, age 9
Destiny Diaz, age 8
Isaiah Diaz, age 9
Alyanna Diaz, age 11
Jenny Duran, age 7

Directed by:
Jeremy Pickard

Stage Manager:
Sarah Hughes

Lighting and Sound design:
Jay Maury

Set and Costume design:
Sarah Bertolozzi

Featuring:
Ava Eisenson
Jon Erdman
Danny Gardner
Flako Jimenez
Corey Johnson
Teale Sperling
Anne Zager

BGT Teaching Artists:
Maria Portman Kelly & Jeremy Pickard

Chief of Still Waters in a Storm:
Stephen Haff

It’s hard to believe it’s already the end of January! Following a break for the holidays, Superhero Clubhouse’s Jeremy Pickard and Maria Portman Kelly are back at work with the writers at Still Waters in a Storm. Big Green Theater, our environmental education program which will culminate in a production of kid-written plays about the environment, is entering its second phase.

We hope you’ll join us for our very first Big Green Theater event at The Bushwick Starr. Please check back for more updates as the plays take shape!

As we enter our 2010-2011 season at The Bushwick Starr, we’d like to introduce some of our friends who will be working with us on our new Big Green Theater environmental education program.

This month, we’d like you to meet Superhero Clubhouse’s Captain, Jeremy Pickard, and First Mate, Maria Portman Kelly.

Superhero Clubhouse is partnering with The Bushwick Starr on our Big Green Theater initiative, working with the young writers at Still Waters in a Storm to create new plays inspired by local and global environmental issues. The plays will be produced at the Bushwick Starr in April 2011 using green theater methods.

Superhero Clubhouse works to create art that is ecologically inspired, using theater as a resource to ignite dialogue about the environment. Jeremy Pickard says, “We want to make theatrical events that are inspired by the natural world, uniting science and the arts.”

The company got its start with Jeremy’s play Uranus (a play about waste). The play was a success, and Superhero Clubhouse was formed. Jeremy, working as Captain of the company, went on to create an entire series of planet plays, which include Neptune (a play about water), Mercury (a play about poison), and Venus (a play about energy). Further planet plays are in development.

When Superhero Clubhouse learned about the Big Green Theater program, Jeremy and Maria contacted Artistic Directors Sue and Noel at The Bushwick Starr. Jeremy explains, “We [at SHC] are striving to create a green theater process – that idea of creating theater in more efficient and sustainable ways is a great initiative that a lot of theaters from Broadway to small companies around the country are embracing, but there aren’t a lot of companies doing work inspired by the environment. When I saw that The Bushwick Starr was doing it, and interested in having children write these plays, we were very interested in working with them. “

First Mate Maria Portman Kelly is a teaching artist, and Jeremy has done work with children over the years, so the partnership is a good fit. Maria and Jeremy both say that they look forward to working with the Still Waters in a Storm writers, mentoring them as they create plays from a fresh perspective. In addition to helping the young playwrights learn about environmental issues and green theater methods, Superhero Clubhouse, working with Education Director Joy Jones, will bring in guest experts to talk about numerous ecological issues.

The Big Green Theater group will meet every Tuesday at Still Waters for the next three months, and rehearsals of the new plays will begin in February. In addition to playwriting, the Still Waters artists will also be invited to participate in certain aspects of the production such as performing and/or helping design the pieces; the option is open for them to be involved at every level in bringing the plays to life.

William Shakespeare wrote prolifically about the natural world, about its power and beauty, and about our connection to the earth. Now, these young writers will follow in his footsteps.

For more about Superhero Clubhouse, visit http://superheroclubhouse.org.

As we enter our 2010-2011 season at the Bushwick Starr, we’d like to introduce some of our friends who will be working with us on our new Big Green Theater environmental education program.

This month, we’d like you to meet our writing partners, the Bushwick group Still Waters in a Storm.

This Saturday, Sept. 11^th at 7 PM, Still Waters in a Storm will present a very special event, What to Read if You’re Poor – a panel discussion about reading and writing, at The Performing Garage, moderated by The Wooster Group’s Kate Valk, with panelists including Russell Banks, Peter Carey, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Peter Hedges, Richard Price and Mark Rowlands. The suggested donation is $20.

Still Waters in a Storm is a reading and writing group led by Stephen Haff.  The group meets every Saturday afternoon at The Room, the group’s home in Bushwick; Stephen is also at The Room from 2 PM to 6 PM Monday through Thursday, when tutoring and homework help are available from volunteers, as well as “the simple offer of a place to find peace.”

The Room is spacious, quiet, and full of light. Books of all kinds are strewn across the big table that the young writers gather around. Everyone is encouraged to write for the better part of an hour, and then to read their own work aloud; the group listens to each reader, and then responds with “No praise and no criticism,” Stephen says, “just questions. We communicate our experience as we listen.” The Still Waters motto is “writing, reading and compassion.” Stephen also often chooses a book for the group to read aloud together. They have recently read books by authors Mark Rowlands, Russell Banks and Richard Price.

This October, the writers will begin weekly meetings with Big Green Theater teaching artists to learn about writing for the stage, and about the ideas behind green theater. They’ll also meet with scientists and environmental activists, who will help them learn about pressing local and global environmental issues. The young playwrights’ work will be produced at the Bushwick Starr in April 2011, with a professional group of actors, directors and designers bringing the pieces to life.

Two of the young writers, Curtiiz and Reeyaz, join the group every Saturday to write and read their work aloud, as well as listen to others’ contributions. Curtiiz started coming to Still Waters two years ago; she didn’t read her work the first day, but she’s been writing and reading ever since. “It’s non-judgmental and relaxed here,” Curtiiz says. Reeyaz joined Still Waters when his mom was helping him look for a math tutor; Stephen connected Reeyaz with a tutor who helped him, but Reeyaz stayed to write – and now he’s working on a monologue from Dialogues of the Dead, as an actor. He says that Still Waters is “a place to be yourself”. Curtiiz adds, “Come and see for yourself. It’s a place where everyone’s different, and everyone’s the same.”

Curtiiz and Reeyaz both say that they’ve thought about the impact people can have on the environment. This summer, they visited the Bushwick Starr’s new hydroponic rooftop garden – operated by Boswyck Farms. They are looking forward to learning about reducing, reusing, recycling, growing – and creating plays that will help them, and their colleagues, learn about the world around them.

Stephen Haff taught for years at high schools and colleges in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Vermont and Canada. At Bushwick High School in Brooklyn, he co-founded Real People Theater (RPT) with his students. Stephen used to make his living writing for the VOICE, AMERICAN THEATRE, BOMB, and other publications, and earned his Masters at Yale University.

Stephen spends Monday through Thursday afternoons from 2 to 6 and every Saturday afternoon at The Room – 286 Stanhope St., Ground Floor, between Irving and Wyckoff, in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Still Waters in a Storm always needs volunteers; if you’d like to help, contact stephenhaff@gmail.com.

This month, we’d like you to meet our Education Director, Joy Jones.

Joy is an actress, an Arts in Education Consultant, and Master Teaching Artist. She has experience in using theater and language arts to engage primary school, secondary school and adult students in performance and composition.

Hi, Joy. So, what does an Education Director do?

The first thing I’ll be doing with Big Green Theater is acting as liaison between the executive director and the teaching artists, and translating their needs to [Artistic Co-Directors] Sue Kessler and Noel Allain.

Next, I’ll be researching supplemental materials that the teaching artists may need. I’ll be finding New York scientists and environmental activists for the program, particularly in Bushwick, and reaching out to them. I’ll also source actual program materials, such as arts and craft supplies for costumes and sets, which will happen through Materials for the Arts – http://www.mfta.org.

So really, I’ll be managing the big picture, and acting as a sounding board for the teaching artists.

What are some of your ideas about green theater?

I think people should walk away from theater thinking “I know what that is, I know how to do that, and – that has meaning in my life”. It’s meaningful to recognize particular parts of the theatrical process or story, so when young people participate in making theatre, and they have a sense of ownership because it’s their work, they have a sense of connection to the community, and to the world at large.

I’m interested in reuse, in recycling, and of being conscious of the environment. I’m a city kid; I grew up in Washington, DC. You can become distant from the natural world: the turn of seasons, wildlife, or – you can think water comes out of a tap, or that food comes wrapped in plastic. Having a theater program that pairs thinking about the larger world with theater is a great match.

It can be difficult to be a city kid and contact nature; I sometimes remind people of the guy in Harlem some years ago who had a tiger in his apartment; he was found out because he had been scratched. It’s easy to dismiss that guy as a weirdo, but one way to think of him is as a naturalist, being attracted to natural phenomena.  You can see that he was interested in nature, but living in a small apartment, how could he bring himself into immediate contact with the natural world? Well, he got a tiger cub, and raised it in his apartment – and whatever you want to say about that choice, there was some impulse there to interact. A yearning to connect with the natural world.

In addition to advising The Bushwick Starr, Joy has trained teaching artists at PlayMakers Repertory Company (NC) and Smokin’ Word Hip Hop Theatre Company (NY).  Joy has taught in North Carolina, Washington DC and New York, with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Washington Shakespeare Company, Theatre for a New Audience, American Globe Theatre and The Shakespeare Society. Earlier this year she received a grant for Shakespeare Metes the Beat, a training workshop for educators on how to use pair hip hop and Shakespeare’s verse to teach composition and performance.  Joy has an MFA in Acting from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (2010) and Certificates in Arts in Education, Curriculum Development and Playwriting.

We are looking forward to a long relationship with Boswyck Farms, and plan to expand the farm to include a greenhouse and rainwater catch.  Our goal is to turn the farm into a more prominent learning center for our community, and implement a regular schedule for open-house workshops and demonstrations.