• Our Sat. and Sun. 4pm matinees are free! Walk-ins are accepted, but we do encourage you to make a reservation in advance as seating is limited.

• Our Saturday evening show at 7pm is a Special Benefit Performance to support the growth of our annual BGT program.  Your $18 ticket will include the performance, as well as a reception to follow with refreshments and music.

• Please note: our box office opens one half hour before curtain

• RESERVE TICKETS HERE
  

  The BGT playwrights, actors, and leaders at the final draft reading in March 2013

Plays written by PS123′s 5th grade students: Raydiris Serrata, Marylyn Barrera, Destiny Diaz, Sonia Colon, Areli Ramirez, Jaden Anderson, Damian Coca, Jacob Ramirez, Patrick Lenihan, and Selena Medina

Directed by: Jeremy Pickard

Stage Manager: Sarah Hughes; Set Design: Michael Minahan; Costume Design: Preesa Adeline Bullington; Lighting and Sound Design: Jay Maury; Production Manager: Maria Portman Kelly
Featuring: Nanda Abella, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Katey Parker, Vanessa Pereda, Flor De Liz Perez*, Sam West
*Appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association

The BGT writing program took place at PS123 in Bushwick, lead by Teaching Artist Jeremy Pickard and supervised by PS123 Teacher, Tara Comastri

By now the 5^th graders have a strong handle on the concept of eco-playwriting and automatically integrate themes of conservation and environmental responsibility into their stories. Sometimes the ideas they come up with to solve the environmental problems in the play sound like a good idea for real life. In one group’s play, the characters decide to build a damn to protect their island from the encroaching trash dump floating in the ocean off their shores.

“We should put a water purification machine on the dam.”

“Yeah like a big  … a big filter!”

“Is that possible in the real world? It would be cool if we had that right?”

“Maybe this play would inspire people to really do that.”

The students are introduced to some key playwriting terms and discuss what it means to have “stakes” and for a character to use different “tactics.” Most importantly the students must answer the question of “what does your character want more than anything in the world?” After a brief discussion of what it means to have a Deus Ex Machina moment in a play, the students go back to writing and to tie up the loose ends of their stories. The drama and humor in their work comes to life at the end of class when they read their plays aloud to the group. They are all rapt listening to their fellow students plays and anxious to share their own.

By Libby Winters

Rehearsals are in full swing with Superhero Clubhouse captain Jeremy Pickard directing. The image above is of Jeremy rehearsing “The Plankton’s Escape”, by PS 123 student Jeremy Badia, with Katey Parker, Danny Gardner, and Flako Jimenez.  The set design (shown here in progress) is by Michael Minahan.

This week, the set is under construction at the theater. Here’s a photo of Ava Eisenson (BGT 2011 cast member) lending a cleaning hand during load-in last week.

And costumes and props are getting their final touches! This is a shot of Katey Parker fashioning an octopus from a plastic bag for “Expedition to the Gyre,” by Adrianna Placzek, Mariela Lopez, Delmy Morales & Jailee Mendo.

We can’t wait for you to come and see what we’re been busy creating for the last several months with the writers at PS 123, and the whole Big Green Theater gang. Visit The Bushwick Starr website for tickets and information on the shows, this April 28th and 29th.

See you at The Bushwick Starr!

Performances April 28 + 29, Saturdays at 4pm + 7pm, Sunday at 4pm

General Admission: $12.  PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

FREE for all kids under 18 and Bushwick, Brooklyn community members (*please bring proof of address to our Box Office)

The Bushwick Starr is proud to present our 2^nd Annual BIG GREEN THEATER Festival, created in collaboration with Superhero Clubhouse and Bushwick’s PS123 5^th grade students.

BIG GREEN THEATER (BGT) is an annual community based program that brings the youth of Bushwick directly in touch with the professional world of theater. For a four-month period every year, The Bushwick Starr works with a group of 5th grade students after school, teaching them a combination of playwriting and environmental education.  This in-classroom portion of our program is lead by Jeremy Pickard of Brooklyn based eco-theater collective, Superhero Clubhouse.  This year, we partnered with Bushwick’s PS123 5th grade class; a wonderful and lively group of 10-11 year-olds, who wrote the original environmentally themed plays being presented at the BGT Festival.  These plays are being performed by an ensemble of professional actors, directors, and designers using only green theater methods (recycled materials for sets and costumes, fluorescent and LED lighting, paperless programming and ticketing, etc.).

Our performance venue serves the neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn- a vibrant and diverse community that is currently lacking in environmental education. Our theater is committed to being a part of community environmental awareness, and this program is our way of actively working toward change through a creative and interactive process. With BGT, we are introducing a new model for arts spaces to provide community-driven green initiatives that serve a global cause.

“…it was a blast.  The seven short plays were filled with things that only imaginations belonging to a group of playwrights aged 7 to 13 could conjure: tap-dancing tornados, “Ghetto Superstar”-singing oysters, kid scientists-turned-cormorants, and a compost bed inhabited by sassy earthworms.” – Mother Nature Network

BIG GREEN THEATER is Directed by Jeremy Pickard; Lighting and Sound design by Jay Maury; Set design by Michael Minahan; Costume design by Preesa Bullington. Featuring: Flako Jimenez, Tina Mitchell, Katey Parker, Sam Traylor, Monica Santana, and Danny Gardner*

Plays written by 5th grade students, age 10-11: Jeremy Badia, Zukari Castillo, Emily Cordero, Dana Diallo, Bryana Diaz, Mariela Lopez, Devin Maldonado, Jailee Mendo, Brandon Miranda, Delmy Morales, Dolly Moriera, Adrianna Placzek

*Equity approved Showcase.  Appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.

Location: The Bushwick Starr theater: 207 Starr Street, Brooklyn, NY [between Irving and Wycoff] Directions: Via Subway take the L Train to Jefferson Street, exit at Starr Street, walk against traffic on Starr, and the theater is 3/4 of a block on the right. For detailed driving directions visit: www.thebushwickstarr.org/DIRECTIONS 

The BGT after school program is supervised by teacher Lauren Fahey, and run by Superhero Clubhouse leader Jeremy Pickard. The class meets twice a week, on Mondays and Tuesdays from 3 to 4:30 in the PS 123 classroom. Each Monday, an eco expert visits the class, to speak to the young writers about environmental concerns. Food expert Lee Mandel gave a presentation on urban farming. Green experts Jamel Evans and Rashid Littlejohn (aka Presice) used spoken word and rap to educate the class about going green. Dave Chameides, also known as “Sustainable Dave”, is a filmmaker who went a year without throwing anything away; he spoke to the class about waste. Sarah Pidgeon, from Solar 1, visited as the water expert,  and Katherine Allen, of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, was the expert on climate change. After Katherine’s visit, Lauren remarked, “She just converted all of those girls into becoming scientists!”

Tuesday is a writing day. The group starts with a warm up, and then writing begins with a brainstorming session, sharing memories of images and ideas from the day before. Jeremy then helps the kids focus those ideas into inspirations for plays. The students do all their own writing, in groups, with some guidance from adult guests -  members of Superhero Clubhouse, BGT cast members, and Bushwick Starr artistic director Noel Allain. The Tuesday sessions end with the new plays being read aloud.

In the second half of March, all the plays will be re-read, and a handful will be chosen to continue in development. Every young playwright will have some of his or her writing represented. The class will return to The Bushwick Starr, to hear drafts of the plays read before rehearsals begin. Then, BGT designers will create a “dream design” inspired by the pieces – sketching out what the plays have conjured for them. Those dream designs will serve as inspiration for the actual set and costumes. Recently, Superhero Clubhouse resident sound designer Eva von Schweinitz held a sound design workshop with the students, incorporating sound cues into the plays about water; the pieces were then read aloud while live sound cues were played.

“The students are really flexible and generous, upbeat and supportive,” Jeremy tells us. The creative energy that’s been flowing in the classroom has resulted in plays that include: two secret agents who have a debate about farming in the city, and begin a rooftop farm; three green superheroes who live with a magician who is a hoarder, and convince him to go green; and a play inspired by a dream about a city made of garbage, after waste expert Dave Chameides visited. After green experts Jamel and Presice spoke to the class about planting trees, “One of the students went home, and with her father planted three trees that very night,” Jeremy says.

Great things are happening at PS 123! We look forward to seeing you at the Big Green Theater festival, playing at The Bushwick Starr on April 27^th, 28^th and 29^th.

This year’s BGT program is well underway!  Students at our local Public School 123 are meeting with us twice a week to learn about the environment and write plays about the topics that inspire them.  Stay tuned for an inside report from the classroom where these wonderful kids are working, learning, and having Big Green fun!

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.