The Bushwick Starr to Host 6th Annual BIG GREEN THEATER Festival This April

The Bushwick Starr is proud to present BIG GREEN THEATER (BGT), an annual eco-playwriting program and green theater festival celebrating environmental education, sustainability in the arts, and community enrichment. In its 6th year of BGT, student playwrights from PS 305 and PS 075 are tackling the theme of extinction.

BIG GREEN THEATER is a beloved community based program that brings the youth of Bushwick directly in touch with the professional world of theater. For a four-month period every year, The Bushwick Starr conducts an afterschool program with local 5th grade public school students, teaching them a combination of playwriting and environmental education. The young writers, a wonderful and lively group of 10-11 year-olds, devise a series of short "eco-plays" inspired by what they're learning, which are then presented at the BGT Festival. The plays are performed by an ensemble of professional actors, directors, and designers using only green theater methods (recycled materials for sets and costumes, fluorescent and LED lighting, paperless programming, etc.).

The theater is committed to being a part of community environmental awareness, and this program is The Bushwick Starr's way of actively working toward change through a creative and interactive process. With BGT, the Starr is introducing a new model for arts spaces to provide community-driven green initiatives that serve a global cause.

"The plays are little gems of creativity: From talking worms, to singing cormorants, to hurricanes personified as characters, they burst with imagination and show a deep concern for the world and the creatures that inhabit it. At The Bushwick Starr, Superhero Clubhouse crafts eco-theatre with Brooklyn students, fighting climate change one play at a time." -- American Theatre Magazine

BIG GREEN THEATER is Directed by Jeremy Pickard; Lighting design by Jay Maury; Sound design by Eben Hoffer; Songs Composed by Julia May Jonas; Set design by Michael Minahan; Costume design by Preesa Bullington; Production Manager: Poe Saegusa.

Performances play The Bushwick Starr theater: 207 Starr Street, Brooklyn, NY [between Irving and Wyckoff]. Via Subway take the L Train to Jefferson Street, exit at Starr Street, walk against traffic on Starr, and the theater is 3/4 of a block on the right. For detailed driving directions, visit www.thebushwickstarr.org/DIRECTIONS. Ticket reservations can be made at www.thebushwickstarr.org.

Superhero Clubhouse (SHC) is a sustainable collective of theater artists and environmental advocates. We believe that individuals possess the power to make positive change, and consider those working for the betterment of the earth to be heroes of our time. We make original eco-plays via a collaborative, green and rigorous process. Through the creation of allegorical mythologies, experiments in storytelling and science-inspired events, we work to ignite environmental conversations among audiences and communities in order to revolutionize theater and save the world.

SHC is an equal partner in the BIG GREEN THEATER program. Each year, we collaborate with SHC's "Captain", Jeremy Pickard, and his troupe to develop and implement the kids' writing portion, as well as bringing their words to the stage by creating the culminating performance festival. SHC has years of experience with creating youth-based green theater as a means for environmental education. We are thrilled to have them lend their expertise and creativity to this program.

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 Clare Barron, Dave Malloy, The Debate Society, the TEAM, and Half Straddle.

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