For This Brooklyn Theater Troupe, Community Gardens Are Co-Stars

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — One local theater troupe is not only bringing theater to Bed-Stuy's legendary community gardens, but integrating the gardens into the plays.

This summer, on three sunny weekends in August — the last of them, Aug. 27 to Aug. 28 — "Communal Spaces: A Garden Play Festival" celebrates its sixth year of staging plays in public gardens around Brooklyn.

The (free!) festival's 2016 bill features six short plays, all of which will be performed in four different neighborhood gardens in Bed-Stuy: Heaven's Gate, Hart to Hart, First Quincy Street and 462 Halsey.

"Some of the gardens are haphazard while others are more manicured," according to Communal Spaces. "They are like jungles, or barbecue hangouts, or hidden magical places. The plays reflect the unique feeling of their gardens, and turn the venues themselves into characters."

In other words — each play is written specifically for the garden setting in which it is performed.

"It's never going to be perfect," Lillian Meredith, one of the festival's producers, told Patch. "There's going to be a fire hydrant exploding over there, or a car horn beeping, or people playing live music, or whatever, and you sort of have to just roll with it. And to let it go, I think, is a huge part of making public art."

Hear more from Meredith in our video interview, above. And below, browse the festival's schedule for Aug. 27 and Aug. 28.

"Afterlife"

• Written by Fergus Scully
• Directed by Lindsey Hope Pearlman
• Saturday and Sunday, 12 p.m., at Heaven’s Gate Community Garden (169-171 Hart Street)
• Even though St. Peter welcomes him with open arms, Joey Hardknocks can't seem to enter heaven... so Angel Prince guides him on a journey through memory and pain, until Joey is underneath the Purple Rain.

"The Angry King Sees a Show"

• Written by Mara Nelson-Greenberg
• Directed by Sanaz Ghajar
• Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. at Hart to Hart Community Garden (104-108 Hart Street)
• King Rumpus wants to propose to Alise at her work-place, but his plan goes awry when it becomes clear that Alise can't stand the sight of him.

"The Wedding Party"

• Written by Catherine Yu
• Directed by Anna Lublina
• Saturday and Sunday, 2:30 p.m. at First Quincy Street Garden (397-401 Quincy Street)
• It's the day of a wedding but the groom is missing and the bride isn't sure if true love exists. Will there even be a wedding?

"An Invitation to a Panicking"

• Written by Paul Cameron Hardy
• Directed by Ellie Sachs
• Saturday and Sunday, 3:30 p.m. at First Quincy Street Garden (397-401 Quincy Street)
• Topsy, Popsy, Flopsy and Bert try their hands at an outdoor invocation.

"Through a Thing"

• Written by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff
• Directed by Jeremy Bloom
• Saturday and Sunday, 5 p.m. at 462 Halsey Community Garden (462 Halsey Street)
• A play about the strange, geographic language we use to describe our feelings.

"462 Halsey"

• Written by Phillip Howze
• Directed by Lillian Meredith
• Saturday and Sunday, 6 p.m. at 462 Halsey Community Garden (462 Halsey Street)
• Who can remember, when what was is no longer?

More information here.