Bushwick Starr Bought $2.2 Million New Home


A permanent neighborhood presence is a logical next step for the experimental theatre, puppeteering and dance space that serves as an incubator for the Tony-nominated playwright’s work. Jeremy O. Harris (“Slave Play”) and Daniel Fish, who directed the Tony-winning Broadway reenactment of “Oklahoma!”.

Kessler and Allain had been renting out the Starr Street penthouse they had converted into a black box theater since 2001, when it served the now-defunct experimental theater company Fovea Floods. Allain “There was no money” He told The New York Times In 2014, and the neighborhood “looked like a battlefield.”

“He was helpless, adventurous, and maybe a little naive,” Kessler added.

But Bushwick Starr, which opened a few years before the neighborhood earned its next big thing status and kombucha-on-tap bars, is back home. The metal front door, painted brick, and wooden support pillars were grubby but elegant—and oddly welcoming. It was a bright spot on the Off Off Broadway chart in 2010-11.

Kessler and Allain, who started working full-time in theater around 2012, are finally able to afford their own space. (Although Kessler says there are a few things he’ll miss about the Starr Street rooftop: the “fantastic” cityscape and the hydroponic garden on the roof deck.)

The theater, which expects to operate on an annual budget of approximately $1.5 million, announced a three-year, $10 million capital campaign to raise funds for the purchase and renovation of the space, as well as for expanded programming. Allain said he already has $6 million committed from the city, private foundations and individual donors, but they rely on the campaign to raise the remaining $4 million.

Meanwhile, Allain and Kessler have a full season of shows, including four productions scheduled for 2021-22, all of which will be staged at other venues while the Eldert Street area is under construction.



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