Project Description
ART MEETS ACTIVISM MEETS CRITICAL THINKING
In a time of growing political divides and misinformation, BRTW brings content to educational institutions that fosters students’ media literacy by incorporating current events and history into performance, narrative construction, and writing. Our workshops introduce students to a topic through an article, study, or review. Students then identify the actions, characters, and given circumstances that contribute to the content they’ve consumed. Through this approach, students key into multiple positions, separate facts from opinions, and use this information to craft narrative.
Educators and administrators can also invite BRTW to perform an original piece. With this option, educators can commission BRTW to create an original performance piece for their students or invite the BRTW writing team to update an existing piece. After every performance, BRTW hosts an in-depth talkback with audience members, which can address the plot-lines and characters as much as the inspiration, historical references, and relationships to the subject matter they’re currently studying.
Originally commissioned in 2016, performed in 2017
FRUIT is a genre-bending series of vignettes that follows 4-5 actors. Over the course of 80 minutes, actors shift into various characters- some of whom are larger than life while others are crushingly human- and tell intertwining stories of desperate souls coming to terms with their sexual histories, identities, traumas, and choices. Specifically crafted to take an audience through a complex but crucial understanding of consent, privilege, intersectionality, and sexual health in 2016, FRUIT followed sexual repression, joy, and violence in a series of short scenes spanning drama, poetry, comedy, and music.
Originally commissioned and performed in 2015.
REVOLUTION is BRTW’s first play, originally commissioned in 2015 to follow a would-be group of revolutionaries as they attempt a violent coup for Black Liberation. In a genre-bending series of vignettes thrusting 4-5 actors into more than a dozen wildly different characters, REVOLUTION is a sprint through contemporary Black political and social movements. With an unflinching approach to the ways in which white supremacy and oppression within our own communities often most alienate, violate, and marginalize Black women and LGBT people, intersectional inclusion is a cornerstone of the piece that directs how the story of the REVOLUTION unfolds.
While REVOLUTION is BRTW’s oldest piece, it has also morphed the most to reflect the concerns of the moment in which it is staged. The most November 2018 performance told the story of the REVOLUTION in 65 minutes in a series of scenes featuring drama, comedy, absurdism, spoken word, and rap.
Developed in a residency at The Tank in Manhattan, NYC in 2017. Premiered at JACK in Brooklyn, NYC in 2019.
AFTER SWARM is a spiritual sequel to REVOLUTION, following a marooned group of the revolution’s survivors. AFTER SWARM reveals the surprising ideological origins that spawned the revolution and delves into their beliefs, rituals, and devotion to a single, charismatic figure. Coming to JACK in February 2019, AFTER SWARM will be available to colleges and universities in Spring 2019.
Workshops
- No Travel Surcharge within NYC
Workshop + Performance
- No Travel Surcharge within NYC
Performance
- Performance and 30 minute talkback
SUPPORT BRTW TODAY
BRTW exists to disrupt any and all oppressive systems that marginalize Black people using narrative and performance as a methodology to recenter Black people and experiences. With economic, social, educational, healthcare, housing, and political injustice facing our community, BRTW aims to tackle the issues that impact us while becoming a beacon for Black opportunity within the arts.