BUSHWICK STARR
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Mission Statement
The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award winning not-for-profit theater that presents an annual season of new performance works. 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. We provide a springboard for emerging professional artists to make career-defining leaps, and we are a sanctuary where established artists come to experiment and innovate. We are also a neighborhood playhouse, serving our Bushwick, Brooklyn community's diverse artistic needs and impulses.
About This Cause
Originally founded as a developmental space by Noel Allain and Sue Kessler in 2001, The Bushwick Starr has grown from a rental theater to a cutting-edge, essential New York venue with an annual budget over $1.2m. Each year since 2009, we have curated seasons of new work in theater, music, dance, and performance, supporting approximately 500 artists annually with our dynamic co-producing model. We also act as a crucial cultural hub for the intersecting communities in our rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood, opening our doors to audiences of 6000+ from Bushwick, Brooklyn, and beyond. The Starr fulfills our mission-driven commitment to Bushwick by widening access and inspiring engagement with the arts, particularly with low-income families and communities of color in our largely Latinx and Black neighborhood who face acute risks of displacement. Arts education has been central to these efforts since 2010 with the launch of the Big Green Theater environmental science and playwriting program. Today, four free specialized programs in public elementary, middle, and high schools as well as local senior centers serve 120 students aged 9 to 90 each year. In addition, we provide 10% or more of our annual ticket capacity at low or no cost to youth, artists, and seniors for whom price may be a barrier to participation. The Starr aims to radically design a community arts model, and thereby redefine the public understanding of what it means to serve as a community arts space. The Bushwick Starr directly reflects its local arts scene while significantly impacting the theater at large. We have nurtured the early work of artists that went on to receive recognition on and off Broadway, including Tony winner Rachel Chavkin and nominee Dave Malloy and Broadway playwright Jeremy O. Harris, Drama Desk winner Lila Neugebauer, and Obie Award winners The Debate Society. We remain committed to identifying the next generation of theater-makers: most recently, Tow Fellows Diana Oh and Jillian Walker; Van Lier Fellow Haruna Lee; and SDCF Award winner Raja Feather Kelly.