Big Green Theater

Now in its’ 3^rd year, The Bushwick Starr’s Big Green Theater (BGT) program is a community-based, annual festival that combines an environmental education initiative with the presentation of a Green Theater production, bringing the youth of Bushwick directly in touch with the professional world of theater. For 3 months out of the year, our theater, along with project collaborators Superhero Clubhouse (SHC), works with a group of 5^th grade students after school at our local PS 123.  Alternating between teaching the students Playwriting and Environmental Education, our teaching artists and guest scientists—experts on climate change, pollution, and urban farming—help the young writers craft short plays based on local and global environmental issues.

Once the plays have been written, we begin rehearsals at The Bushwick Starr each April with a team of professional actors, directors, and designers lead by SHC to mount the student’s plays. We challenge our production ensemble to work within the Green Theater movement (recycled materials for sets, non-toxic paint, online playbills, etc.), including use of our energy efficient lighting system equipped with LED and fluorescent instruments. The students are invited to participate in creating the shows (i.e., giving feedback during rehearsals, contributing to design ideas, etc.), and observe the process of using eco-friendly approaches to making theater, and therefore, how to redirect any creative act by thinking “green.”  This annual program culminates in a week-long festival in late April. The performances are open to the public and free of charge.

Big Green Theater is a 4 month long endeavor, with the after school program taking place for 3 months from January - March, and the performance festival being staged and performed in April.  Working with our collaborators, Brooklyn-based environmental theater collective, Superhero Clubhouse, we provide teaching artists for the after school program, as well as “Guest Science Experts” to lead our weekly workshops.  We then assemble a professional creative team to design and implement the performance festival, as well as an ensemble of adult actors to perform the students’ plays. Our theater produces every aspect of the performance festival, from bilingual advertising, to event staffing.  BGT is a large-scale annual project that continues to grow.  Each year, we need more teaching artists, science experts, theatrical designers and performers, volunteers, and staff to ensure its’ continued excellence and service to the community.

One of our goals at The Bushwick Starr is to create opportunities for arts education in Bushwick where there is a need for creativity-based programs inside and outside of our local schools.  We believe that arts organizations like ourselves have a responsibility to invest in future generations by providing them not only with first hand experience in creative endeavors, but with opportunities for artistic expression.          

Big Green Theater came out of a desire to create a program that brings local kids into our theater and offers them a unique and interactive learning opportunity in the neighborhood. While attending monthly meetings with our local Community Board 4, we noticed a desire for improved neighborhood conditions both in terms of environment and health issues within the community.  This echoed our own interest in sustainable living as a model in our theater; values that are represented by our hydroponic roof-top garden (created by Boswyck Farms), our use of recycled/green cleaning and building supplies, and the fact that our electricity is supplied by sustainable sources like wind and hydro power.

This highly interactive neighborhood-based project continues to connect us with the vibrant community surrounding our theater. Big Green Theater is designed so that everyone who works on it is also touched by it; the students, their families, teachers, the Bushwick community, and the broader downtown theater audience.