The Bushwick Starr Announces 2017-18 Complete Schedule

The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to announce our 2017-18 Season of Programming. We kick things off with a new show by Larissa Velez-Jackson (Yackez, Star Crap Method), which will bring Bushwick community seniors into direct artistic collaboration with one of NYC's most exciting dance artists. Our Fall Main Stage is a world premier by Obie award winning Heather Christian (Mission Drift, North), co-produced by West Yorkshire Playhouse and featuring a truly all-star line-up of collaborators including Andrew Schneider, Sasha Brown, and Eric Farber. 2018 brings ambitious and exciting world premiers from: Milo Cramer and Morgan Green of the exciting young theater ensemble New Saloon (Minor Character) presented in association with Clubbed Thumb, award winning poet/comedian/musician/web series creator Darian Dauchan (Obamatry, Texaco's Last Stand) co-produced by All For One Theater, and downtown cabaret cult favorite Erin Markey (A Ride on the Irish Cream, Our Hit Parade). Our annual community programming includes a new partnership with El Puente, as well as the 8th year of our Big Green Theater festival. We will also be teaming up with WP Theater, in association with New Georges, to present the Off-Broadway debut of our sold-out hit from last season, [PORTO] by Kate Benson, which will run Jan. 29-Feb. 25 in Manhattan. And finally, our free Starr Reading Series will cultivate new plays in development from some of NYC's most exciting young playwrights.

All tickets will be on sale through our website, generally ranging in price from $20-$25: www.thebushwickstarr.org.

SEASON KICK-OFF:

Zapatografía / Shoegraphy (with an illogical jazz ballet) by Larissa Velez-Jackson

September 6-10, Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 4pm

Featuring Larissa Velez-Jackson, in collaboration with the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center community. Dramaturgy by Gabriel Rivera, Scenic Design by Gabriel Rivera and Larissa Velez-Jackson, Lighting Design by Lillie De and Larissa Velez-Jackson.

Zapatografía / Shoegraphy is Larissa Velez-Jackson's most conceptual solo dance to date that involves her signature use of humor in its most minimalist form. Created in collaboration with members of the local Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center, Zapatografía / Shoegraphy addresses the dichotomy between the longtime working class residents of Bushwick and its burgeoning arts community. It captures the tenuous nature of language and meaning when objects, words, gestures, costumes, pregnant pauses, song, dance, and diverse cultures are placed next to one another.

MAIN STAGE production:

Animal Wisdom by Heather Christian

Directed by Mark Rosenblatt and Andrew Schneider

Co-produced with West Yorkshire Playhouse

October 11 - November 4 (*possible extension)

Previews Oct. 11 - 13 at 8pm
Official opening Oct. 14 and runs Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8pm (except 10/18 benefit perf. at 7pm)

Performed by: Heather Christian, Eric Farber, Sasha Brown, Fred Epstein

Designed by: Andrew Schneider (art direction / light), Eric Farber (percussion / design), Stowe Nelson (sound design)

Animal Wisdom is new music-theater piece by Obie Award-winning composer and performer Heather Christian (The TEAM's Mission Drift & The World is Round, BAM), in collaboration with acclaimed artist/ performer Andrew Schneider (YOUARENOWHERE - 2015 OBIE award, 2016 Drama Desk nom.), director Mark Rosenblatt (Associate Director, West Yorkshire Playhouse), and her genre-defying group, the Arbornauts. Heather talks to dead people. Animal Wisdom is a folk-blues opera written from theoretical or actual (you decide) conversations with the dead performed alongside poorly remembered Methodist hymns from the 1800's, hyperbolized family mythologies, and gothic Catholic masses. It's a working man's Requiem performed by sinners and science nerds for believers and non-believers alike.

MAIN STAGE production:

Cute Activist by Milo Cramer

Directed by Morgan Green

In association with Clubbed Thumb

January 9 - February 3, 2018

Created by New Saloon, featuring Madeline Wise and Ronald Peet with Lighting Design by Amith Chandrashaker, Set Design by Meredith Ries, Video Design by Ray Sun, and Puppet Design by Amanda Villalobos.

Cute Activist is a playfully fabulist, wildly satirical, anti-romantic comedy, that asks questions about the way activism fits - or doesn't fit - into our daily lives. In a spooky town in mythical Connecticut where inequality reigns, and activists wield an awesome, sorcery-like power, a shadowy ring of part-time waitresses part-time rebels do battle with a baroque and tyrannical local Landlord.

MAIN STAGE production:

The Brobot Johnson Experience by Darian Dauchan

Directed by Andrew Scoville

Co-produced with All For One Theater

February 14 - March 17, 2018 (*possible extension)

Previews Feb. 14 - 23

Official opening Feb. 24

Written and performed by Darian Dauchan. Stage Managed by Aaron Gonzalez, Scenic design by Raul Abrego, Lighting design by Sarah Johnston, Sound design by Matt Stine, Projection design by Kate Freer, Dramaturgy by Jesse Alick

One hundred years from now a race of Hip Hop androids known as Brobots will form a unit, The Tribe Called Space Quest, to spread their message of peace, love, and dopeness all over the universe. Through live looped vocals, rhymes, and beat-boxing, they perform the origin story of the first of their kind. They call it The Brobot Johnson Experience, a Sci-Fi Hip Hop solo concert that defies both space...and time. The show is written by and stars Darian Dauchan, an award-winning solo performer, actor, and poet who has appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway, and abroad.

ANNUAL FESTIVAL:

The 8th Annual Big Green Theater Festival
presented with Superhero Clubhouse

April 27 - 29, 2018

Friday at 7pm, Saturday and Sunday at 1pm + 4pm (Free)

Big Green Theater is an annual eco-playwriting festival for Bushwick 4th and 5th grade students that culminates in a professional production of student plays, fully staged and sustainably designed. The most complex environmental issues of our time are tackled in this collection of hilarious short plays by thirty wildly imaginative young playwrights, their words and songs brought to vivid life by an ensemble of downtown NYC's brightest.

MAIN STAGE production:

Little Surfer by Erin Markey

Directed by Jordan Fein
May 16 - June 2, 2018 (*possible extension)

Music by Emily Bate and Erin Markey

A girl group's Mass on the body's refusal to breath during times of pleasure and the thrill of pranks.

About The Bushwick Starr:

The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award winning non profit theater that presents an annual Season of new performance work. We are an organization defined by both our artists and our community, and since 2007, we have grown into a thriving theatrical venue, a vital neighborhood arts center, and a destination for exciting and engaging performance. We provide a springboard for emerging professional artists to make career-defining leaps, and we are a sanctuary where established performance companies come to experiment and innovate. We are also a neighborhood playhouse, serving our Bushwick, Brooklyn community's diverse artistic needs and impulses. Our past Seasons have included new work from groundbreaking artists such as The Mad Ones, Clare Barron, Dave Malloy, The Debate Society, the TEAM, and Half Straddle.