The Bushwick Starr Reveals 2025-26 Season

The Bushwick Starr has announced its upcoming 2025-26 Season, which features premieres from three artists: David Cale, La Daniella and Michael Oluokun, plus our ongoing Starr Reading Series, Education & Community programs, and star-studded annual Gala. Tickets will be available at thebushwickstarr.org.

BLUE COWBOY

Written and performed by David Cale

Directed by Les Waters

Previews begin Oct. 14, official opening Oct. 18

A writer from New York travels to Ketchum, Idaho to work on a film script set in Sun Valley. His plans and life take a wildly unanticipated turn after he has a chance encounter with an elusive ranch hand at the town’s annual "Trailing of the Sheep Festival". Blue Cowboy, the new solo work from David Cale, is the frank and sexually explicit story of two men from very different worlds. One who is open about his life, and the other whose life remains a self-imposed mystery to everyone around him, but who both share a profound need to intimately connect to another human being. Cale tells the story in his signature style full of vulnerability and blunt confession.

The Starr Reading Series

Curated by Machel Ross, Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone and William Burke

Running December 1-12

The Starr Reading Series celebrates and explores new plays from a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, approaching writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. We are proud to continue to offer this ongoing series to our audiences FREE of charge.

GOOEY’S TOXIC AQUATIC ADVENTURE

Concept, Book & Lyrics by La Daniella

Music, Arrangements & Additional Lyrics by Ben Langhorst

Directed by Sammy Zeisel 

Presented in association with ¡Oye! Group

Previews begin Feb. 4, official opening Feb. 7

Gooey’s Toxic Aquatic Adventure is a new puppet musical that follows Gooey, an orphaned sorta mermaid living in Newtown Creek and searching for love. Amidst the backdrop of a near apocalyptic Brooklyn, Gooey embarks on an epic journey to entertainment and tech giant G’wond’rLand’s Theme Park. Along the way Gooey encounters a smart-mouthed streetwise rat named Scabby, an animated suitcase, a radical socialist parakeet, a couple of wiseguys, and the truth of how she came to be. Situated somewhere between My Fair Lady, Frankenstein, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and The Toxic Avenger, Gooey disgusts and delights in equal measure as it examines the difficulty of finding true belonging in a gentrifying New York City.

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT

Written and performed by ​​Michael Oluokun

Directed by Andrew Scoville in association with Myles Madden

Previews begin April 29, official opening May 2

A mad scientist named Michael presents a workshop on "thinking about", a technique for untethering yourself from linear thought and expanding your mind's ideation possibilities. Using notebooks and a whiteboard as a guide, Michael and the audience become co-conspirators in the creation of comedic chaos. Through a series of jokes, crowd games, monologues and a real “thought experiment”, Michael leads the audience down a winding road of absurdist and associative thought that leads us back to what really matters: our connection to ourselves and the people around us.

Ongoing Education & Community Programs:

SUMMERS AT THE STARR - August 2025

Our inaugural Starr summer programming is here—bringing the creative heat to Eldert Street all August long! Emphasizing local artists, we've curated events featuring the best of Brooklyn. All events are FREE and open to the public. Events include: Starr Bazaar local vendor market, Movie Mondays screening bold short films made by Brooklyn-based filmmakers, and a participatory project/performance as part of the DOWN TO EARTH FESTIVAL - New York City's First International Festival of Multidisciplinary Creation in Public Space. Summers at the Starr schedule available here.

BIG GREEN THEATER

Now in its 16th year, Big Green Theater is an eco-playwriting program for public elementary school students in Bushwick/Ridgewood that uplifts the imaginations of young people most impacted by our new climate reality and brings their ideas to life on stage. BGT aims to inspire students to manifest a sustainable and just community by using the power of their creative voice.

CREATING PERFORMANCE

In partnership with social justice nonprofit organization, El Puente, Creating Performance is an after-school program in practical theater-making for local teens and young adults. Students learn all aspects of creating performance-based works, including acting, writing, design, and technical skills. They collaboratively develop pieces dealing with topics and issues that directly affect them and their communities.

SENIOR STORYTELLING