ALL ABOUT CREATING PERFORMANCE - SUMMER 2021

"Everyone deserves to be heard! We all have a voice! Our community should fight together!" - Lily from Bushwick Revolution

Everyone deserves to be heard and I'm so thankful that this group of brilliant young creators were able to use their voices this summer.

I know I'll never fully be able to express how special this round of Creating Performance was, but to have had the capacity to lovingly collaborate on a piece of theater in the face of the ongoing pandemic and other global difficulties was a saving grace.

Endless thank you's are in order. So to begin, thank you to (in no particular order) Carolina Pabia, Oscar Comunidad, Samyra Dyall, Jasmary Garcia, Alexandra Gonzalez, Alexsa Guillen, Achsa Hernandez, Leonardo Maldonado, Minelly Matamoros, Douglas Oviedo II and Christopher Segundo Salvador. These are the incredible young artists of this summer’s Creating Performance class at El Puente. And a very special thank you to Luis Munive, Nathalie Lebron, and Richard Vargas (the PHENOMENAL Co-Lead Teaching Artist this summer) over at El Puente for another summer of magic!

This year we worked as a true collective, sweating and working together at Grove Street Garden, throwing a community carnival at Hope Street Ballpark, and creating and performing Bushwick Revolution for the Summer Arts Festival at Maria Hernandez Park. Bushwick Revolution is a play with music that highlights issues a group of High School students are facing in their school and neighborhood, and what happens when an essential arts program gets taken away. 

The sensational Michelle J. Rodriguez was our first guest artist to work with us on music/lyric writing for theater. We concentrated on the role music plays in theatrical performance, especially in ones that promote activism and center social justice. Revolution/protest songs, and chants vibrated the rooms of El Puente and the path of our play began.

Our next guest artist, Agnes Borinsky, helped us hone in on dialogue that centered community care, empathy, connection and love. Inevitably sparks flew, inspiration grew, and the piece really took its shape.

We then worked on a production budget together (we’re talking robust and thorough collaboration here) and decided to hire a professional band and muralist to help bring our play to life. 

The result was a beautiful 10 minute piece that filled Maria Hernandez Park with sweet music, and a beautiful mural that was painted with the actual Bushwick community on the day of the performance. 

Our incredible music ensemble was Mariana Ramírez (Percussion,) Jaime Lozano (Keyboard,) John Murchison (Bass,) with Michelle J. Rodriguez Music Directing AND on vocals! Our main muralist was the MIND BOGGLING, JACK OF ALL TRADES TALENT Leonardo Maldonado, with design help from El Puente muralist designers.

To everyone mentioned above, thank you will never feel quite enough. This group was magic. The reason why so many of us are longing to get back to a rehearsal room, a theater, a performance space. 

We come together to collaborate, to lift our communities up and rally together to move towards change for the better. For the collective. This beautiful group did just that. Congratulations and a never ending thank you to the gorgeous, tender, and ABUNDANTLY TALENTED group of Summer 2021 Creating Performance. 

- Vanessa Pereda, Education + Community Director, The Bushwick Starr