The Starr Reading Series is a way for us to expand our community while we celebrate and explore the plays of the city's most exciting playwrights. We feature the work of a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers who are approaching writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. We are proud to continue to offer this ongoing series to our audiences FREE of charge!
The Bushwick Starr is grateful to partner with CPR – Center for Performance Research in co-presenting and hosting our annual Starr Reading Series as we build our new permanent home in Bushwick!
2023-24 Starr Reading Series
December 6, 12 and 13, 2023
February 27, 28 and 29, 2024
March 5 and 6, 2024
at 7pm
Tickets are FREE!
Register for Readings by clicking on show titles
At:
CPR – Center for Performance Research, 361 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
December 6, 2023
Earth is Not One of Your Lil Friends
written and directed by Nia Calloway
A reclamation of body, space, and pleasure told from an eco-feminist point of view by way of poetry, music, soundscapes, & dance.
December 12, 2023
Have You Ever Thought About...
by Michael Oluokun
directed by Myles Madden
Comedian and Professor Emeritus in Bisexual Studies, Michael Oluokun, welcomes you to a comedic crash course in the portentous power of proliferous pondering. Come thru!
December 13, 2023
I must belong somewhere
by Lily Gonzales
directed by Borna Barzin
A classroom presentation and archival practice for my childhood. A story that is true, I think mostly true. A queer collage that dissects identity formation, violence, and memory.
February 27, 2024
WHILE WE'RE HERE
by Deneen Reynolds-Knott
directed by Dina Vovsi
When the Hummingbird Triangle, a field in a small town, transforms into an anonymously donated rain garden, a chorus of detractors emerge to commence a stealth mission to reveal the secret donor. WHILE WE'RE HERE is an exploration of suburban paranoia, the privatization of good deeds and the uniting properties of negativity.
February 28, 2024
GODSPUNK
written and directed by Aeon Andreas
A maximalist, experimental, transgender, transexual, gay, gothic farce. Our host is having a party! They didn’t know we were going to have a party. But as it turns out, we’re having one, whether you like it or not. This party has everything: uninvited guests, fabulous dancing, lots of gin, a tart, a pimple, a mysterious and strange mechanic (he was invited), a telephone with sentience, and abject faggotry. All we can do is wait for it all to spiral.
February 29, 2024
lil nagins: a photorealist rendering of the Tutor Time near Yardley, PA circa 1999
by Utkarsh Rajawat
welcome to daycare!!! don't fckng kill anyone!!!!!
March 5, 2024
MOTHER/ROAD
by Avi Amon
directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant
A multimedia musical meditation on grief, memory, and borders, using the cassette tapes my parents brought when they immigrated to this country... as keys to other dimensions. Examining that journey from Istanbul to the U.S. as the nexus between past and future generations, this piece seeks to dissect what things we carry with us; what fragments of identity we barely remember; and the weight of what is left behind. And hopefully, we’ll create pathways for our daughter to sing with her ancestors.
March 6, 2024
THIS BUG IS GAY
by Genevieve Simon
directed by Katherine Wilkinson
How do you translate your body? Do you secretly know you’re the least favorite child? Why do some words taste so good? How horny was Franz Kafka? What joy can we find by releasing the need to be understood? And how many blueberries can you fit in your mouth at once? All this and more at THIS BUG IS GAY, a solo queer cabaret in German, starring Gregor Samsa from Kakfa’s The Metamorphosis. You disgust me. You’re delightful. Let's be bugs together.
BIOS:
Nia Calloway (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist and astrologer who traverses the worlds of theatre, poetry, music, dance, and the healing arts. Through the combination of written word, sound experimentation, and explorative movement, she aims to create spaces of healing and introspection for her audience. Driven by the desire to relate the natural world and the cosmos to our bodies, Nia’s art serves to heal and reorient our collective stories around female bodies, QBIPOC bodies, and especially Black femme bodies.
Michael Oluokun (any pronouns) is a writer, comedian, actor and featherless biped who performs all around New York City.
Lily Gonzales (they/them) is a writer from Texas, based in NYC. Their work has been supported by The John F. Kennedy Center, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire Theater, Colt Coeur, and Latinx Playwrights Circle, among others. Currently, they are a resident with AlterTheater Ensemble in San Rafael, CA. B.A UT Austin, Theater & Dance / English
Deneen Reynolds-Knott’s plays include SHOEBOX PICNIC ROAD SIDE: ROUTE ONE, (World Premiere at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Fall 2021), BABES IN HO-LLAND (2020 BAPF, Upcoming 2024 Production, Shotgun Players), and PARTICULARLY MEDDLESOME ANCESTORS ( 2023 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist, 2022 Ingram New Works Festival, Nashville Rep).
Aeon Wade Andreas (they/he) is a trans-masculine, trans-disciplinary, maximalist director/performer working in the fields of theater, film, dance, and drag. As a director and drag artist (named God Complex), most of their work focuses on queer transformation. Through the use of Presence, performed ritual, and faggotry, Aeon attempts to hold opulent darkness and abject joy in the same hand. Culturebot calls Aeon "Always Rapturous." Friends call them "hot and difficult."
Utkarsh Rajawat Utkarsh Rajawat is following the call of Rasha Abdulhadi, who they know of through “Notes on Craft” by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, to use their bio to uplift resistance efforts against the US-sponsored, Israeli genocide of Palestinians. You can contribute to the movement by donating food baskets, e-Sims, endorsing PACBI, attending an action, engaging in BDS, calling your representatives. I hope more institutions are moved to full-throated support, with their words, their resources, their (divestment from Israeli) money, as Palestinian people like those of The Freedom Theatre have been asking for. You can contact PACBI@wawog.org if you have questions or concerns, including legal ones, about your cultural or academic organization’s commitment. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Avi Amon is an award-winning, Turkish-American composer and sound artist. Recent work includes music, songs, and sound design for projects at: Ars Nova, Disney, HBO, Hulu, The Kennedy Center, NYTW, Oregon Shakespeare, PAC, The Public, Target Margin, and Tribeca Film Festival, among others. Avi is the resident composer at the 52nd Street Project and teaches at NYU. www.aviamon.com
Genevieve Simon (they/them) is an Equity actor and writer who speaks imperfectly fluent German. They're a 2023-24 New Georges Audrey Resident and a 2023 Semi-Finalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship. Genevieve’s work has been supported by Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Puffin Foundation, The Brick, The Tank, Arts on Site, Shadowland Stages, and The Parsnip Ship.
A note from our Curators:
“We continue to carve out a special place for artists to explore and develop their raw ideas and impulses. The Starr Reading Series is centered on adventure, exploration, mystery, risk and discovery. We are passionate about giving artists support and room to do their thing-- whatever that “thing” is.”
Machel Ross, Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone and William Burke
The Reading Series is by-invitation-only due to staff capacity. The best way to be invited is to help us to get to know you and your work. So come check out Starr shows and readings, introduce yourself to us, invite us to showings of your work, etc. If you have any questions, please email us at srs@thebushwickstarr.org.
Past Participating Playwrights:
Renee Roden, John Budge, Stacey Rose, Brian Lawlor, Julia Jarcho, Jenny Schwartz, Megan Murtha, Jessica Almasy, Mallery Avidon, Clare Barron, Eliza Bent, Frank Boudreaux, William Burke, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Erik Ehn, Ben Gassman, Kathryn Hathaway, Hansol Jung, Paul Ketchum, Maya MacDonald, Christina Masciotti, D.J. Mendel, Gregory S. Moss, Paz Pardo, Jonathan Payne, Max Posner, Chip Rodgers, Normandy Sherwood, Mark Sitko, Ariel Stess, Katie Ka Vang, Leah Nanako Winkler, Moe Yousuf, Phillip Howze, Kate Attwell, Kate Scelsa, Eboni Booth, Karinne Keithley, Casey Llewellyn, Zoe Geltman, Haruna Lee, Jillian Walker, Cara Scarmack, Nina Segal, Ramiz Monsef, Agnes Borinsky, Javier Antonio González, Ignacio Lopez, Lisa Clair, Melisa Tien, Kate Dakota Kremer, Corinne Donly, Whitney White, Jeesun Choi, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Carlos Sirah, Jonathan Payne, Diane Xavier, Seonjae Kim, Georgina Escobar, Raquel Almazan, Nia O. Witherspoon, AriDy Nox, Alexis Roblan, Lucas Baisch, Nazareth Hassan, Ren Dara Santiago, Nora Sørena Casey, Julia Izumi, Ro Reddick, Nkenna Akunna, Amara Brady, Ife Olujobi, Marissa Joyce Stamps, Alba Delia Hernández, Divya Mangwani, Daniella De Jesús, Maya Lawson, and Jesús I. Valles