New plays inspired by community gardens to premiere at Communal Spaces Festival

August 29, 2014 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Communal Spaces festival photo courtesy of The Motor Company

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The Communal Spaces Festival, now in its fourth year, will premiere eight one-act plays inspired by and performed in community gardens in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Clinton Hill. The festival will take place on the last weekend in August and the first two weekends in September. Previous festivals have included site specific performances in community gardens on the Lower East Side, East Village, Upper West Side and Harlem. In the past four years, 27 new works have been presented.

“Communal Spaces: A Garden Play Festival started as an attempt to merge the communal aspects of both gardens and theater, to see if plays written for particular public spaces – spaces of history and importance to the audience – could augment and heighten the experience of being in those spaces,” said the festival’s founder, Lillian Meredith. “This year, we’re including the surrounding areas – we’ll give out maps, tell people where they can get food or drinks or coffee, and encourage exploration of new neighborhoods. It’s about the gardens, it’s about the plays, it’s about the power and beauty of site-specific theater.”

The Communal Spaces Festival is being produced by The Motor Company, headed by Meredith and Christopher Norwood. Admission is free, no reservations required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis, and all plays run approximately 30 minutes.

Garden Locations:

Clifton Place Memorial Park and Garden — 1031-1039 Bedford Ave. (between Clifton Place and Greene Avenue)

Target Community Garden — 931-933 Bedford Ave. (between Willoughby and DeKalb avenues).

Classon Fulgate Block Association Garden — 474 Classon Ave. (between Monroe and Madison streets).

Garden of Hope — 392 Hancock St. (between Throop Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard).

All gardens are a short walk from each other.

Plays on Saturdays and Sundays at 1 p.m.

The Traditionalists (Drama)

Written by Patrick Shaw, directed by Lillian Meredith

Ryan dropped out of high school so he can train to be the next mayor, naturally. So how could he help three Traditionalists from the Edge Country find their disappeared children? His dad, the mayor, will know.

Location: Target Community Garden

Absolutely Somewhere (Drama)

Written by Nora Casey, directed by Will Dagger

A new house. An old dog. Shampoo. Everybody’s looking for something.

Location: Garden of Hope

Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Garden Sweet Garden (Comedy)

Written by Erin Buckley, directed by Jaki Bradley

“Bob and Lloyd used to live in Chelsea. Bob and Lloyd’s rent went too high. Bob and Lloyd can no longer live in Chelsea. Bob and Lloyd make alternate arrangements.”

Location: Target Community Garden

Poetic Memory (Drama)

Written by Georgette Kelly, directed by Lillian Meredith

This garden was created in memory of someone special. So was this play. In it, two friends grapple with the recent death of their dear poet-friend, and wonder what he’s up to now in poet-heaven.

Location: Garden of Hope

Saturdays and Sundays at 4 p.m.

Complete Me (Comedy)

Written by Angela Santillo, directed by Elizabeth Nelson

A beauty pageant, a step off, a 500-meter dash and a botanical clash. A collision of competition and one person has to judge them all and they are burning out…fast.

Location: Clifton Place Memorial Park and Garden

Washougal My Heart (Comedy)

Written by Clare Barron, directed by Dina Vovsi

It’s Victoria’s 25th birthday, and the whole gang is going cliff jumping for old times’ sake. But the cliff’s too small, the water’s too cold and someone beloved is missing.

Location: Classon Fulgate Block Association Garden

Saturdays and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Althea the Garden Cantata! (Comedy)

Written by Alexandra Bassett, directed by Chris Norwood

A riotous escapade that chronicles one very particular day in the life of Althea at age 16 and also at age 96.

Location: Clifton Place Memorial Park and Garden

Small Wars (Drama)

Written by Madeline Chilese, directed by Ilana Becker

Two lovers find themselves in the second American civil war. Both fight for different sides, both want each other back.

Location: Classon Fulgate Block Association Garden

Lillian Meredith is the founder and co-producer of Communal Spaces: a garden play festival and co-artistic director of The Motor Company. She is also a director, performer and native New Yorker dedicated to the creation and development of new work. Christopher Norwood is the co-founder and co-artistic director of The Motor Company. He attended New York University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in drama and speaking in the third person. Communal Spaces 2014 marks the company’s first production.