Irondale's Big Box Of Distractions: Kids Day Begins 2/14

The Irondale Project Ensemble is proud to announce the first of an ongoing series: Irondale's Big Box of Distractions: Kids Day at the Theater on Saturday, February 14TH at 1 PM. The event will be held at the Irondale Center (85 S. Oxford Street in Fort Greene). Each event will be between one and two hours long and will cost $10.00 for the first child and $5.00 for each child after that. Adults are admitted FREE with a child. Go to www.irondale.org for more information.

This first in the series will have a holiday theme for Valentine's Day. The Irondale Ensemble will sing love songs, both modern and ancient; perform love scenes, serious and silly; and work interactively with the audience to create wacky love letters and improvised scenes. All material is appropriate for children as young as six. The afternoon will culminate in a celebratory feast of red velvet cake and a cocktail of ginger ale (or juice), served by the actors.

This event will be the first in a series. "We plan to have at least one family Saturday every month," said Executive Director Terry Greiss, "And each one will have a different theme." On March 28th the ensemble will host a story telling performance/workshop, led by Brooklyn storyteller Tracy Cook-Person. On April 18th musician Walter Thompson will lead participants through an interactive musical workshop called Sound Painting. In May two very different sessions will be offered: a movement and dance workshop, featuring the theater troupe Blue Mouth on May 9, and a restaging of Irondale's famed production Celebrating Dr. Suess on May 30. "We really want these events to provide kids and parents with opportunities to experience new things-and also to experience joy. Each performance or workshop will end with a shared meal-cake seems appropriate for Valentine's Day, but maybe we'll have callaloo on the Story-telling day. It all depends on what the artist we're working with that day wants, and also with what's cooking in the neighborhood."

Although most Ensemble members reside in Brooklyn, the Irondale Center is a recent addition to the Fort Greene's dynamic streetscape. A mixture of beautifully refurbished brownstones, ethnically diverse restaurants, and a rapidly expanding cultural scene, the area has a comfortable, friendly feeling. The Irondale Center itself is steeped in local history. It's adjacent to the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, built in 1860, and originally known as the "temple of abolition," because of its abolitionist founders. In fact, the Center was, for many years, the Sunday School Annex to the famed Church, but when the number of congregants declined in the mid-twentieth century, the 7,300 foot space, with its staiNed Glass windows and soaring ceilings became a dusty storage space. "When we first saw the space," says Greiss, "It looked like the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark--just covered with old cabinets, boxes and debris. But the structure itself was so beautiful, it just spoke of limitless possibilities to bring people together."

For over two decades the Ensemble had carried out its dual mission in New York City: exploring the important issues of the day through performance, and using theater as an educational tool in schools, prisons, and shelters, but it never had a home of its own. "When the space was offered to us, we were more than ready to put down roots," said Greiss. "Community has always been very important to us. A permanent ensemble really is a community, albeit a small one. Now we have the opportunity to become integrated with the larger landscape."

"We are offering this series because there is a real need for high quality family entertainment, in this neighborhood. Of course," Greiss said, "part of why we want them to know us is because we want them to come and see our performances. We want to get young Brooklynites in the habit of going to the theater, since we believe that theater can change lives. We want to grow the Center into a place where people expect lots of different stuff to be happening all the time. We want the neighbors to feel that they can drop in whenever they feel like it, just to see what's going on."