FEBRUARY 4-21, 2026
At The Bushwick Starr

Concept, Book & Lyrics by La Daniella
Music, Arrangements & Lyrics by Ben Langhorst
Directed by Sammy Zeisel 
Presented by The Bushwick Starr in association with ¡Oye! Group

FEATURING:
Amanda Centeno, La Daniella, Sushma Saha, Jon Schneidman, and León Ramos Tak

CREATIVE TEAM:
Scenic Design: Cat Raynor, Costume Design: Hahnji Jang, Lighting Design: Kyle Stamm, Sound Design: Kathy Ruvuna, Puppet Design: Gaby Febland, Props & Assistant Scenic Design: Jonathan Schatzberg, Music Director: Jon Schneidman, Choreographer: Maya Quetzali Gonzalez, Associate Sound Designer: June Ricks, Stage Manager: Sarah Jones, Assistant Stage Manager: Anica Acuña

Line Producer: Leigh Honigman
Associate Line Producer: Leah Plante-Wiener

ADDITIONAL STAFF:
Devin McCallion Fletcher (Production Manager), Jay Maury (Technical + Design Director), Colleen Combs (Assistant Technical Director), Chavon Patterson (Box Office Manager), Jen Williams (House Manager), Justin Allen (House Associate)

CREW:
Production Electrician: Cat Dawes
Wardrobe Supervisor: Noah Willis-Hogan
Costume Assistant: Kayla Hom
Sound Mixer / Operator: June Ricks
Scenic: Joaquim Stevenson-Rodriguez, Maggie Heath, Bonnie Puk, Kaylyn Kilkuskie, Isaac De Marchi
Lighting: Jacqueline Scaletta, Amara Payton McNeil, Bonnie Puk
Sound: June Ricks, Olivia Martinez

Bushwick Starr Staff

¡Oye! Group Staff

SUPPORT + DEVELOPMENT:

Gooey’s Toxic Aquatic Adventure was developed through Lincoln Center, Peabody Essex Museum, Hubbard Hall, and Bethany Arts Center.

Gooey’s Toxic Aquatic Adventureis made with support from: the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, The Puffin Foundation, Puppeteers of America, the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund through A.R.T./New York, and Materials for the Arts.

BIOS:

Amanda Centeno (Performer) is glad to be back at the Bushwick Starr for the first time since Big Green Theatre's 2018 show. She has worked with various companies, including Ma-Yi Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Realm, Ars Nova, Pan Asian Rep, The Flea, The People's Theatre Project, The National Playwrights Conference at The O’Neill, Powerhouse at Vassar, New York Theatre Workshop, Speakeasy Stage, and Berkshire Theatre Group. Her short film, Disaster Panties, was screened at Cucaloros and The Asian American Film Festival, where she was nominated for Best Screenplay in the shorts division. She is a current member of the Mercury Store Acting Company. Upcoming: Vanilla (short film)

La Daniella (Performer, Concept, Book & Lyrics, she/her)  is an AfroDominican/Nuyorican playwright, actor/performer and teaching artist from Bushwick, Brooklyn, where her family has lived since 1968, so she's especially proud to have her playwriting debut right here at The Bushwick Starr. As a playwright, her work has been supported by The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Bushwick Starr, New York Theater Workshop, The New Group, Checkmark Productions, United Solo Festival, Barrington Stage Company and San Diego Repertory Theater. Her play Get Your Pink Hands Off Me Sucka and Give Me Back (FKA Columbus Play) won the 2020 Burman New Play Award, was a finalist for the 2022 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and made the 2025 Kilroys List. As an actress, she is best known for her role as Zirconia on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black. For the last 3 years, she's been a teaching artist with Future River's Big Green Theater eco-playwriting program. La Daniella is a graduate of Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama. Website: LaDaniella.com

Sushma Saha (Performer) Broadway: 1776 (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Interstate (NYMF). Off-Off Broadway: You Must Wear a Hat (Interstitial), Presencia (Bushwick Starr), 7 Minutes (Waterwell), Girlfriend (Drama League). Regional: Fun Home (Huntington), Maybe You Could Love Me (Theatre Mu), Interstate (Mixed Blood), The Wolves (ATL). Sushma Saha (pronoun inclusive) is a queer South Asian-American multi-hyphenate artist (actor, singer, dancer, voiceover artist, model, & songwriter) based in NYC. She won ‘Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role’ at New York Musical Festival for playing Henry in “Interstate” by Melissa Li & Kit Yan. Working on their debut EP “This Isn’t About You”. Instagram & TikTok: @sushmasahahaha

Jon Schneidman (Performer, Music Director) is a New York-based music director, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, and Yankee enthusiast. Favorite credits include High Fidelity (Refuge Theatre Project), The House Theatre of Chicago's Nutcracker, Avenue Q, Little Shop of Horrors (Mercury Theatre), and the three separate times he has played "Piano Man" at a friend's wedding/bachelor party. Jon also serves as the music director at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, where he is reminded every day why this all matters. Special thanks to Mom and Dad for their endless support, Alex and Mariah for keeping his head on straight, and MK for everything else. Camelot.

León Tak (Performer, he/they) is a New York–based actor and singer and a recent graduate of NYU Graduate Acting. Select credits include Figaro/Faggots (Baryshnikov Arts Center) and The Seat of Our Pants (The Public Theater) IG: @leontak

Sammy Zeisel (Director) is a director, filmmaker, and teacher residing in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA in Directing from Yale, where he was awarded the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize for excellence in directing. Recent work includes The Undercity, an original puppet pageant created with Gaby FeBland (Jim Henson Production Grant 2026); The Seagull (Quinnipiac University); Abby Paj Tries to Stay Alive, a solo performance about prepper culture and depression (The Neo-Futurists); and a workshop of Tremolo, Regan Moro’s queer reimagining of The Seagull (Fault Line Theatre). He has worked with institutions such as The Civilians, Rattlestick Theater, Museum of the Moving Image, Steppenwolf Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater, Lookingglass Theater, and Actors Theater of Louisville. Next up, he will be directing James La Bella's Deliver Us! in Brown University's Writing Is Live Festival. He is an alumnus of Northwestern University and was the Directing Fellow at Rattlestick Theater 2025/26. He is a lecturer at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. Representation: Bonnie Davis at Bret Adams, Ltd. Website: sammyzeisel.com. He would like to thank this extraordinary team of artists, his family (biological and otherwise), and, of course, Ella P.

Sarah Jones (Production Stage Manager) is Brooklyn-based, Baltimore-bred stage manager, producer, and administrator, delighted to return to the Starr with GOOEY! Select stage management & producing credits: Quince (ASM; The Bushwick Starr), oh, Honey (PSM; Ugly Face Theatre), Road Kills (Associate Producer; Good Apples Collective), The Trojans (PSM; the cell theatre), A(U)NTS (Line Producer; The Brick Theater), Half Life (SM; Moxie Arts NY), milk thot (SM; Abrons Arts Center). Upcoming: Dear John (HERE Arts Center), La Périchole (Manhattan School of Music), and some things she can't tell you about yet! They are a proud CUNY Baccalaureate graduate via Hunter College. 

Cat Raynor (Scenic Designer) is a production designer for stage and film.  Recent design credits include Predictor (AMT), Dilaria (props) (DR2), You Don’t Have to Do Anything (HERE Arts), FISH (Signature Theatre), The Undercity (Culture Lab), The Vicky Archives (The Tank), The Brightest Thing In The World (Yale Repertory Theater), Brainsmash (59E59), As You Like It, (The New School).  She previously worked in the art department of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Cat holds an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama and a B.A. from Kenyon College. More of her work can be seen at catraynor.com 

Kyle Stamm (Lighting Designer) is excited to be making his Bushwick Starr debut! Select lighting design credits include Gutenburg, Million Dollar Quartet (Playhouse on Park); Fifth Planet (Hunter College); Falcon Girls (Yale Repertory Theatre); Ariodante (Boston Barqoue), Cactus Queen, Uncle Vanya, Julius Caesar (Yale Drama); Arlington, The Royale, The Betrayal Project (Yale Cabaret); Sweeney Todd, Fun Home, Phantom of the Opera, Six Characters, Indecent (Weston Drama Workshop); Frozen, Grease, The Wizard of Oz, In the Heights (Framingham High Drama Company). Kyle is a graduate of Ithaca College (BFA) and the Yale School of Drama (MFA) and lives in New York City. kylestammdesign.com | @kylestammdesign

Hahnji Jang 장한지 (Costume Designer, they/them/형)   
Hahnji uses their passion for the fiber arts to upcycle garments and offer affordable styling outside the limiting gender and size binaries of capitalism. They are on a continual journey to rematriate the closets of the individuals and institutions around them. They created the Transcendent Punk Costume Closet to redistribute unwanted costumes in an effort to make the theatre industry more sustainable, while sharing resources with the queer community in New York. Hahnji.com @transpunkcloset

Kathy Ruvuna (Sound Designer) is New York based sound designer. Recent credits include Five Models in Ruins, 1981 (LCT3), Cold War Choir Practice (Clubbed Thumb), Mary Gets Hers (Playwrights Realm), Trouble in Mind (Hartford Stage), Bernarda’s Daughters (The New Group), Amani (National Black Theatre), Dark Disabled Stories, Self Portraits (Deluxe) (Bushwick Starr), The Janeiad, Night Shift Before Christmas, Sweat (Alley Theatre), Pipeline, Radio Golf (Everyman Theatre), Read to Me, Clyde’s (Portland Stage), In the Southern Breeze, Ni Mi Madre (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater) Circle Jerk! Live (Fake Friends). M.F.A. in Sound Design, Yale School of Drama.

Gaby Febland (Puppet Designer) is a puppeteer, playwright, and illustrator. She is the co-founder of Foreshadow, an experimental shadow puppetry company that has performed at Lincoln Center, the La MaMa Puppet Festival, the Carnegie Hall Weimar Festival, Green-Wood Cemetery, and the Puppet Showplace Theater (Boston). Her rat pageant play, The Undercity, also directed by Sammy Zeisel, recently received a Jim Henson Foundation Production Grant. Previous puppetry design credits: The New York Nutcracker (Lincoln Center), The Spinner (La MaMa), The Undercity (Culture Lab LIC), You Can Take It With You (New Perspectives), Gundog (Silencio Theatre Projects). She'll be touring to Bali this summer with Devour the Moon, a new shadow play she developed in collaboration with Foreshadow and Gamelan Dharma Swara.

Maya Quetzali Gonzalez (Choreographer) is a Texas-grown, Brooklyn-based artist. She has developed, directed, and choreographed work at La MaMa, SheNYC, The Tank, Judson Arts, and The Brick. She is an Associate Member of SDC, a board member of IndieSpace, and a 2026 Access. Movement. Play. (AMP) Residency Artist at Movement Research. As an associate/assistant, she has worked at Playwrights, Signature, MCC, Roundabout, and on Broadway. Maya has been a FORGE Fellow, a member of Roundabout Directors Group, and an artist at UCLA’s’ Dancing Disability Lab. BFA: NYU. mayaquetzali.com

Jonathan Schatzberg (Props & Assistant Scenic Design) is a Brooklyn-based designer for theater and film. His work has been featured across basements, attics, nooks and crannies, as well as in music videos, commercials, short films, and feature films. Select works: TRAD (Exponential Festival), Floating Carousel (Woodstock Film Festival), “Call Me a Liar” (Tribeca Film Festival), Slaughter City (A.R.T./New York). Upcoming: Baby Butcher Choke For Free (The Brick). Say hi! @jonschatzberg / jonathanschatzberg.com

June Ricks (Associate Sound Designer) is an audio engineer, poet, and musician from Tulsa, Oklahoma. You can catch her playing with her band The Clots around Bushwick. This is her first credit as Associate Sound Designer.

Anica Acuńa (ASM) is a 2027 MFA Stage Management candidate at Columbia University and a graduate of Vassar College. Select credits include Baby Teeth (PSM), BAKKHAI (PSM), Something Rotten! (ASM), SpongeBob The Musical (PSM), The Colored Museum (ASM), and Hurricane Diane (PSM). Hope you enjoy the show! @anicaacuna

Leigh Honigman (Line Producer) is an independent producer of new works by Queer and femme voices. Select recent: I want to hold... (Exponential Festival, 2026); The Barbarians (La MaMa, 2025); MEOW! (Exponential Festival, 2025); Babies on the Street: The Show (The Brick Theater, 2024); you don’t have to do anything (HERE Arts Center, 2024, NY Mag Best Theater of 2024); would you set the table... (Brick Theater, 2023); NO GOOD THING DWELL IN THE FLESH (ART/NY Gural Theatre, 2023); Of the woman came... (Normal Ave, 2019); The Ugly Kids (Fresh Fruit Festival at The Wild Project, 2018). Upcoming: Meaghan Robichaud Is... (The Brick Theater, March 2026). LBJ: The Play (Paradise Factory, 2026), more TBA. join the family: www.honigman.space @matzah_brawls

Leah Plante-Wiener (Associate Line Producer) is a Brooklyn-based playwright/performer/producer originally from Montreal. She is one half of noise theatre duo laialeah with Eulàlia Comas, with whom she runs the DIY performance venue box machine. She is also the Director of Promotion and Documentation for the CATCH Performance Series. Recent works: leah plante-wiener & leigh honigman present (Target Margin), MOBILE WASH FEMALE LOCKER ROOM (box machine), The Philosophy of Wrong (Life World), REPLICATION BABY (CATCH Takes the Hudson at PS 21), Cankersore Paradise (Columbia University), Gutbelly (Columbia, Vino Theatre) the electrologist (CATCH 76 at the Chocolate Factory, The Tank), watching you watching me watching you (The Tank). Upcoming: Baby Butcher Choke For Free (The Brick.) MFA: Columbia University. leahpwrites.com // @leah.annia

About The Bushwick Starr
The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award-winning non profit theater that presents an annual Season of new performance work.  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 performance companies come to experiment and innovate. We are also a neighborhood playhouse, serving our Bushwick, Brooklyn community's diverse artistic needs and impulses. Our past Seasons have included new work from groundbreaking artists such as Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Ryan J. Haddad, Whitney White, Jeremy O. Harris, Heather Christian, Diana Oh, The Mad Ones, Daniel Fish, Haruna Lee, and the TEAM.

About ¡Oye! Group
¡Oye! Group is a Bushwick-based creative incubator for artists, students, and community members of all ages, both local and immigrant to New York City. Our work is grounded in the act of listening that gave us our company name: we curate art that sparks a dialogue over the political and social issues that our community tells us are critical to them. We present an eclectic mix of theater, dance, poetry, music, video installations, and film through festivals and productions. We work with emerging artists to create, play, and grow in an environment that challenges and supports them, and we engage youth and adults alike through high-quality arts education that provides them with the tools to generate forward-thinking art that compliments the work on our stages.

SPECIAL THANKS:
Riya Lum Szelong, Jeffrey Wallach, Ryan Haddad, Jordan Fein, dots., Mele Borges, Greg Corbino, Here BK, Aigner Mizzelle, Danté Jeanfelix,  Alex Gibson, Mercury Paint, Materials for the Arts, lim mui, Christian De Jesus, Under The Radar, Muz Muz, Newtown Creek Alliance, The Natural Love Company

THANKS TO OUR CROWDFUNDING DONORS:
Alisha Bhowmik, Amy Hancock, Anonymous, Antonia De Jesus, Barbara Schiffrin, Brooke Reynolds, David Lindsay-Abaire, Debbie Rimler, Jamal Rashad, Jackson Bryer, James Wyrwicz, Jeanette Wall, Jeff Bryer, Kate Bryer, Kelly Karbacz, Kyle Kuchta, Lindsey McDowell, Michael, Michelle Strauss, Neil Wiener, Richard Tobin, Sasha Nieves, Shayna Christovale, Susan and Steve Etkind, Susan Ingenito, Uzo Aduba, Victoria Wilson

SPECIAL PROJECT SUPPORT:
McKenna Quigley Harrington

Artwork by Brenna O’Brien