As the most densely populated area of New York City and one of most culturally diverse places in the country, it’s easy to see why Brooklyn would have a thriving arts scene. But with so much going on in the bustling borough, it can be hard for a traveller to know where to score tickets.
Let’s take a look at some of Brooklyn’s best artistic offerings, so you can know where to best get your theater fix.
The Brick
Described by The Gothamist as “one of the city’s most reliable sources for smart, funny, and surprising performance,” The Brick Theater features an eclectic and award-winning slate of diverse performances and festivals perfect for those looking for something a little different or off the wall. Housed in a building that’s been everything from an auto body shop to a yoga center, audiences enter The Brick through a wooden garage door to take their spot in the 70-seat performance space.
Winners of many New York Innovative Theatre awards, the Brick also features the one-of-a-kind New York Clown Theater festival, and well as the Game Play festival, which focuses on combining aspects of video game art with performance - including one show that took place entirely via text message on audience member’s phones.
Theatre for a New Audience at Polonsky Shakespeare Center
For the Shakespeareophiles out there, the Theatre for a New Audience has a focus on creating sophisticated retellings of the Bard’s classics alongside more recent shows, in an effort to create a cross-centuries conversation between Shakespeare and his modern colleagues.
The New York Times called TFANA “the most sophisticated purveyor of revivals in the major off-Broadway leagues,” and their success led to the honor of being the first American Shakespeare company to take a performance to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Not content with just entertaining audiences, the company also schedules “TFANA Talks,” free post-show dialogues amongst scholars and artists to discuss the evening's performance.
The Billie Holiday Theatre
Founded by Franklin A. Thomas, the Billie Holiday Theatre was created to be a cultural epicenter in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the largest black community in New York. The 218-seat theatre recently completed a $4.1 million renovation to help better fulfill its mission of performing plays and musicals focusing primarily on Caribbean and African-American writers.
Samuel L. Jackson, Tichina Arnold, and many other prominent black performers count themselves amongst the theater’s alumni.
Smith Street Stage
Not a theater but rather a theater company, Smith Street Stage has performed Shakespeare in Brooklyn’s Carroll Park every summer since 2010, putting the Bard’s work before over 2000 people every year. Smith Street Stage endeavors to create unique and modern retellings of Shakespeare, like a five-person version of Romeo & Juliet, a Richard III set in the business world, and a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream reviews called the darkest, and at the same time most comedic, rendition of the play ever attempted.
They also focus on making Shakespeare accessible for all, as they have a growing audience of children who join them every summer to appreciate the Swan of Avon.
St. Ann’s Warehouse
Originally housed in the Church of St. Ann of the Holy Trinity, St. Ann’s Warehouse has changed locations several times over its existence, finally landing in the historic Tobacco Warehouse building nestled in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Warehouse features multiple spaces; the main performance space is home to an eclectic selection of American avant garde theatre, while the smaller black box space plays host to distinguished visiting companies from around the world. St Ann’s bills itself as the “Intersection of Theatre and Rock & Roll,” and has featured performances from artists like David Bowie, Lou Reed, Aimee Mann, and Nick Cave.
It’s also home to the Puppet Lab, an experimental puppet and object theater space funded by the Jim Henson Foundation that yearly produces “Labapalooza!,” a mini-festival of puppet shows.
The Bushwick Starr
The Bushwick Starr believes that “live theater is essential to preserving our generation’s ability to connect, engage, and participate in the present moment,” and as such have made it their mission to focus on new, high-quality experimental works in a warm, inviting and intimate environment.
The black box space hosts shows that challenge traditional perceptions of theatre and performance, creating an immersive experience to engage their audiences in a way few theaters can. The Starr also features the Starr Reading Series, an always free series which allows local playwrights to put their works-in-progress in front of audiences to aid in their development, and allows the audiences to be exposed to new and challenging theatre without burdening their bank accounts.
The Gallery Players Theatre
The premiere off-off-Broadway theater in Brooklyn, the Gallery Players Theatre is best known for producing well-known plays and musicals but scaled down to a more intimate and immersive space. The theater proudly schedules wide-ranging seasons; its current slate features musicals from A Chorus Line to Spring Awakening and straight plays like Steel Magnolias and Agatha Christie’s Appointment with Death.
Perhaps the theater’s most important work, however, is the Peanut Gallery, a children’s theater program that teaches kids the ins and outs of musical theater, including performance, singing, and dance, then challenges them to craft their own original show borrowing songs from famous Broadway standards.
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