Photos: Needs More Work Productions Concludes Run Of Climate Play COUNTERINTUITIVE

Needs More Work Productions, one of New York City’s leading immersive theatre companies, has wrapped its acclaimed presentation of Counterintuitive at the Moore Jackson Community Garden in Woodside, Queens. Check out photos of the production. 

Part of the international Climate Change Theatre Action festival, the project represented New York City among more than 20 participating countries connecting local communities to their environment through live performance.

Produced and directed by founder Sivan Raz and featuring Camille van Putten, Emily Phelps, and Elizabeth Fox, Counterintuitive offered an imaginative journey through time and meaning to examine the modern climate crisis. With site-specific staging and a philosophy of hopeful activism, the ensemble transformed the community-garden setting into a space for reflection, humor, and dialogue about humankind’s role in environmental change.

Audience members praised the production for its “beautiful insight” and “mind-bending imagery,” with one calling it “an absolutely wonderful performance... like audio paintings for the ears.”

The presentation marked the fourth collaboration between Needs More Work Productions and the Moore Jackson Community Garden since first connecting through Climate Change Theatre Action two years ago. In alignment with the festival’s manifesto, the company paired the performance with real-world environmental advocacy, highlighting the community garden’s ecological efforts.

“Theater can be a lot of fun,” said Raz, “but we artists have a huge responsibility. Our shows have the power to change hearts and minds, and we have to make sure the impact we make is a positive one.”

Counterintuitive featured short plays including Undertow by Keith Barker, Six Polar Bears Fell Out of the Sky This Morning by Alister Emerson, Here in the Long Now by Isla Cowan, A Letter from the Ocean by Caridad Svich, and Us in the Past by Nathan Ellis.

Needs More Work Productions previously participated in the 2023 Climate Change Theatre Action festival, presented an encore at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row this past March, and was featured in the printed play anthology. Raz also discussed the initiative during the “Politics on Stage” panel at the 10th annual BroadwayCon.

A filmed version of Counterintuitive will be released free on the company’s YouTube channel in the coming weeks.

Photo Credit: Paul Carrington III