New Brooklyn Theatre

New Brooklyn Theatre is a theatre company based in Brooklyn, NY that specializes in producing socially relevant work in New York City and internationally. It was founded in 2012 by Artistic Director Jonathan Solari, Jeff Strabone, and Sarah Wolff.[1][2] The New York Times has called it "a flash point for the fusion of theatre and politics."[3] It is now under the artistic leadership of Raja Feather Kelly.[4]

The Slave Theater

New Brooklyn Theatre was founded to restore the historic Slave Theater at 1215 Fulton Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.[5] In August 2012, the group launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $200,000 for a down payment on the building. Despite being one of the first crowdfunding campaigns to attempt to raise money to purchase a building,[6] the group failed to reach its goal. The campaign drew praise and criticism from residents of the neighborhood.[7]

As of February 2015, the group claims to still be in negotiations for the building[8] with Fulton Halsey Development Corporation, a real estate development company that purchased the building in February 2013.[9]

Edward Albee's The Death of Bessie Smith

On January 9, 2014, the group produced its first full production, Edward Albee's The Death of Bessie Smith in Interfaith Medical Center, a Bed-Stuy hospital that was scheduled to close on the play's final performance. The playwright granted permission for the rarely produced play to be performed because of its social relevance.[10] The production, which was directed by the company's Artistic Director Jonathan Solari, incorporated post-show conversations with City Council members, Public Advocate Letitia James, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, New York state senators, state assembly members, and activist artists like Harry Belafonte.[11] After two extended runs, elected officials and hospital staff have credited the production with keeping the hospital open.[1]

Other works

In June 2014, in response to the 2014 Elk River chemical spill, the group performed a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People on a custom built floating stage on the Elk River.[12]

The group was invited by Harvard University to build a new Turkish production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard in the Yedikule region of Istanbul.*[13] This play aimed to draw attention to the destruction of historic gardens in the area.[14]

Read Revive Reclaim, a reading series in Bed-Stuy, presented four forgotten plays by African-American playwrights and asked audiences to choose which play would the company would produce a full production of.[3]

  • The New Century, "Man in love" Christina Anderson.[15]

References
  1. Flock, Elizabeth. "A Close Call, and Then a Curtain Call", BKLYNR, New York, 1 May 2014.
  2. Horwitz, Simi. "Another Opening", Crain's New York Business, New York, 19 August 2012.
  3. Morgan, Richard. "New Brooklyn Theater Casts Audience in Crucial Role", The New York Times, New York, 4 July 2014.
  4. "Dance News: New Brooklyn Theatre And The Feath3r Theory Merge To Form A Combined Company". www.dance-enthusiast.com. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
  5. Crogan, Lore. "Buyers line up for Bed-Stuy's famed Slave Theater; one auction date averted, another looming", New York Daily News, New York, 16 August 2012.
  6. Cameron, Christopher (2012-09-01). "Crowd Funding | Kickstarter | Equity Investments". Therealdeal.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  7. Collins, Keith. "Whose Bed-Stuy is it?"[Usurped!], The Brooklyn Ink, New York, 2 October 2012.
  8. Faces, Manny. "JD Williams, the New Brooklyn Theatre, Tenuto.fm & Platformz on The Manny Faces Show." Interview. Audio blog post. Manny Faces. 13 Feb. 2015.
  9. Plunkett, John. "How Gentrification in Bed-Stuy Almost Killed a Black Community Theater", Complex Magazine, New York, 17 March 2014.
  10. Hartecolis, Anemona. "A Play Is Set in a Hospital, in Two Ways", The New York Times, New York, 8 January 2014.
  11. Morgan, Richard. "In Hospital, Treatment Takes Center Stage", The Wall Street Journal, New York, 7 February 2014.
  12. Lynch, Bill. "Brooklyn theater company adapts classic play to address W.Va. water crisis", The Charleston Gazette, Charleston, 11 June 2014.
  13. DeBenedetto, Paul. "Bed-Stuy Theater Company Goes International For Summer 2014 Season" Archived 2015-06-05 at the Wayback Machine, DNAInfo, New York, 1 May 2014.
  14. Kiger, Rumeysa. "New Brooklyn Theater highlights fate of Yedikule gardens" Archived 2016-01-12 at the Wayback Machine, Today's Zaman, Istanbul, 23 August 2014.
  15. "New Brooklyn Theatre events, shows, and tickets". Retrieved 12 March 2016.

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