Works by LNWD, Cynthia Hopkins, Ikechukwu Ufomadu and More Set for The Bushwick Starr's 2015-16 Season

The Bushwick Starr has just announced its 2015-16 Season of Programming.

The Season begins with its developing work program, the Propeller Project, which this year introduces a new piece by eclectic performance artist, LNWD, aka Linwood Young (The Ballad of Super Niggs, BIG FUN).

The Main Stage shows feature an ambitious and exciting line-up of world premiers from: award-winning music theater artist Cynthia Hopkins (This Clement World, Must Don't Whip 'Um), "cultural strategist" performer/choreographer Jaamil Kosoko (Black Male Revisited, other.explicit.bodies), downtown favorites Banana Bag & Bodice (Space//Space, Beowulf- A Thousand Years of Baggage), rising star playwright Clare Barron (You Got Older), and popular comedian / performance host Ikechukwu Ufomadu (Ike at Night).

The ongoing community events and festivals, Puppets & Poets, Brooklyn Gypsies, and Big Green Theater, will continue to present new collaborative work geared towards our Bushwick neighborhood audience.

And finally, the monthly Starr Reading Series will cultivate new plays in development from some of NYC's most exciting young playwrights.

All tickets will be on sale onine, ranging in price from $15-$18. Visit www.thebushwickstarr.org.

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PROPELLER PROJECT (program for developing work):

Dark Star: The Cosmic Event for Your Nerve by LNWD (aka Linwood Young)

August 27-29, 2015

Thursday - Saturday at 8pm

Featuring: SirCharles, Jendog Lonewolf, and DJ CH Rom

Eclectic Brooklyn-based performance artist and musician LNWD presents a three night concert event that invites the audience aboard the Dark Star ship to enjoy an evening of great music and throwing down.

MAIN STAGE production:

The Alcoholic Movie Musical! by Cynthia Hopkins

October 7 - 31, 2015 (*possible extension through Nov. 7)

Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8pm

Created and Performed by Cynthia Hopkins; Designed by Jeff Sugg

From the mind of acclaimed performance artist Cynthia Hopkins comes The Alcoholic Movie Musical!: an experiment in live musical filmmaking that draws equal inspiration from Trapped in the Closet and Dancer in the Dark. A comedy routine about alcoholism delivered by Ms. Hopkins rapidly evolves into an operatic description of her quest to create an outlandish musical film telling her life story, culminating in a live enactment of this impossible film that is hand-made, hilarious, and harrowing. Enhanced by the brilliant design of innovative video artist Jeff Sugg, The Alcoholic Movie Musical! manifests through the tensile strength of live performance, greater than the sum of its parts.

SPECIAL EVENT:

Imaging Justice for the Dark Devine by Jaamil Kosoko in association with anonymous bodies

November 12-15, 2015

Thursday - Sunday at 8pm

Featuring: King Britt, Kate Watson-Wallace, Jasmine Hearn, Joy Mariama Smith, and more

Together with his company, anonymous bodies, choreographer and performance artist Jaamil Kosoko explores issues of equity and inclusion within the theatrical space. Can we, together, create a freedom space void of fear that honors difference as a radical instrument of equity and inclusion? How do we translate these systems into a globalized infrastructure that moves beyond the restrictions of the theatrical space? Through a series of performative actions, installations, dialogues, offerings, medicinal practices, rituals, and readings, he will attempt to answer these difficult but vital questions in the company of invited scholars, curators, artists, and various communities of the dark divine.

ANNUAL FESTIVAL:

The 5th Annual Puppets + Poets Festival presented with Alphabet Arts

December 10-13, 2015

Cabaret for mature audiences, Thursday-Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm

Matinee for all ages, Saturday and Sunday at 3pm (Free)

An annual festival of experiments, collaborations, and hybrid performances blending poetry and puppetry, two of the world's oldest and most diversely practiced art forms.

COMMUNITY EVENT:

Yoleros by Alex Vásquez Escaño, presented with TEATRICA in association with Brooklyn Gypsies

December 17-19, 2015

Thursday - Saturday at 8pm

Yoleros is the story of three special lottery winners who embark on a journey to Puerto Rico, while facing their innermost desires, fears, and what the sea has to offer. Performed in Spanish with English supertitles.

MAIN STAGE production:

LONGYARN by Banana Bag & Bodice

January 13-30, 2016 (*possible extension through February 6)

Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8pm

Featuring: Jessica Jelliffe and Jason Craig

Based on the invented memoir of an adventurous and long-lived old woman towards the end of her life, LONGYARN begins its trajectory as a shaggy dog folktale of the meandering, outrageous tales of "Mother", juxtaposed by her two son's quotidian life of antagonistic boredom and aggravating inaction. The outlandish poetic adventures of her youth include tales of riverboat piracy, a stint as a professional wrestler, lost days as a crack addict working in an electronics factory and being raised by a family of cows, all told through a tenor of joyful hopelessness. LONGYARN is based on strong, peculiar & compelling women from history but the focal source material is the memoir of Peig Sayers, an old Gaelic woman who lived off the west coast of Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century. This highly boring book has been forced onto Irish schoolchildren for decades, resulting in Peig's being named the most hated woman in Ireland long after her death.

MAIN STAGE production:

I'll Never Love Again by Clare Barron

February 25-March 19, 2016 (*possible extension through March 26)

Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8pm

Directed by Michael Leibenluft

The Wenatchee High School choir sings out about the rapture and tedium of first kisses, first heartbreaks, and first cups of coffee. A play created from the playwright's actual 16-year-old diary (with music).

ANNUAL FESTIVAL:

The 6th Annual Big Green Theater Festival presented with Superhero Clubhouse

April 29 - May 1, 2016

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

An annual eco-playwriting program and green theater festival celebrating environmental education, sustainability in the arts, and community enrichment. Original plays written by 5th grade Public School students in Bushwick are performed by a professional ensemble using only green theater methods.

MAIN STAGE production:

Ike at Night by Ikechukwu Ufomadu

May 11-28, 2016

Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8pm

Featuring: Ikechukwu Ufomadu as Host, B. Brian Argotsinger as Sidekick, and Jonathan Jacobs (aka the Vintage DJ) as Bandleader

In Ike at Night, remarkable performer Ikechukwu Ufomadu, described as the son that Woody Allen and Frank Sinatra never had, plays host to an evening of late-night talk show entertainment. Each night is an all new mix of comedy, interviews, and music, featuring Jonathan Jacobs, aka The Vintage DJ, as the "bandleader", and B. Brian Argotsinger as Ike's side-kick. It was originally produced by OBIE-winning venue JACK, and played a sold-out run at The Public Theater's 2015 Under the Radar Festival.

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The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award winning non profit theater that presents an annual Season of new work in theater, dance, and puppetry. 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. The Bushwick Starr's mission is to help ambitious artists and ambitious audiences find each other. 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. Our past Seasons have included new work from groundbreaking artists such as Dave Malloy, The Debate Society, the TEAM, Half Straddle, and Witness Relocation.

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