In a time when Broadway is going through some of its darkest days, it seems fitting that one theater company is on the cusp of a wonderful new era. The 52nd Street Project, a nonprofit organization that pairs Hell’s Kitchen youth with theater professionals, will open a new facility this summer, and, in doing so, The Project will establish even greater opportunities for kids to feel good about themselves.
“We’ll have six times as much space and our own theater for the first time,” says 52nd Street’s Artistic Director, Gus Rogerson. “It’s more than exactly what we were looking for.”
Due to fortuitous community-orientated redevelopment in Hell’s Kitchen (which saw an influx of assisted- and mixed-income housing as well as accommodation for the elderly), The Project’s current residence at 10th Ave. between West 52nd and 53rd streets is being expanded. It will now form part of a four-story complex that other theater companies in the neighborhood will also call home.
New space does come at a cost though: The Project is currently on the homestretch of an $18-million capital campaign, with Rogerson describing the fundraising and logistics involved in marathon-like terms. The benefits, however, will be obvious explains Megan Cramer, 52nd Street’s Program Director because for the first time the organization will be able to conduct its programs, performances and administration all from the one location.
“It’s never a question of where our shows are—they’re right there, right in the neighborhood each time,” says Cramer, describing how the 150-seat theater will also allow different programs’ rehearsals to take place simultaneously. So too, there’ll be more room for study halls, computers, costumes and a new workshop where Project kids can construct assorted paraphernalia for the productions.
In the meantime one of The Project’s current performance spaces, the TBG Theater (on 36th St.) will host the company’s first production of the year, Don’t Be Late: Plays on Time. Cramer is happy though that the logistics of loading troupes of kids on and off subways between the 52nd Street office and theater spaces around the city will thankfully soon become a distant memory.
“When you’re working with kids, it can just feel a lot more complicated,” she explains. “But if we’re all in one central place, the ease of that is going to elevate the work.”
And it’s ultimately the work, rather than buildings or city planning, which has maintained an organization like 52nd Street over its 28-year history. Founded in 1981 by actor, playwright and MacArthur Fellow Willie Reale, the company has been a source of pride, success and community amongst the children of Hell’s Kitchen for decades.
“It’s a lot of sisters, brothers, cousins and friends basically,” says Rogerson of The Project’s ever-expanding family. “We have been in the neighborhood now for almost 30 years, so we’re a known entity for sure.”
The Project offers a series of programs for local kids (aged 9-18) where they’re matched with carefully selected theater professionals—Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand and Lili Taylor have all taken part—to put on original theater. Kids are able to write plays, which are then performed by professional actors Off-Broadway, as well as act in their own productions.
This month’s Don’t Be Late: Plays on Time is part of The Project’s “Two-on-Two” program, where the 12 children involved have already graduated from previous 52nd Street workshops. Essentially two kids (aged 13-15) are matched together and paired with a playwright and director; the playwright then writes a play for the kids who in turn act out the piece themselves.
“We take great pains in terms of how we match kids with each other and with adult directors and playwrights,” says Rogerson, explaining that the approach ensures that the collaborations are peaceful and productive for all involved. He also mentions that by and large the plays tend to be musical comedies. “In general we try not to make the subject matter too close to their own lives,” he says. “I think that also helps us to be more effective when working with them.”
Of the six plays being produced, Rogerson reveals that one is somewhat similar to Sartre’s No Exit: “They’re in this void and they’re trying to figure out whether or not they’re dead”; another work involves a two-man circus where hucksters and egomaniacs combine for assorted amusements; and a third play involves two sisters, only one of whom is attending a prom. “It’s all short form,” he says. “You basically introduce a big conflict, solve the conflict, sing a song and you’re done.”
While none of the participating industry talent claims celebrity status, they are still some of the best emerging talent, including Winter Miller (In Darfur); Graeme Gillis, Michael Lew and Sharyn Rothstein of the Youngblood Playwrights Group; Dierdre O’Connor (Jailbait, PBS’ “The Electric Company”); and Michael Bernard, a former Associate Artistic Director for The 52nd Street Project who has written for MTV, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Henson and others.
What 52nd Street kids find the most challenging, Rogerson explains, is showing the commitment to the various programs. “That remains the biggest challenge all the way through,” he says. “That entails all kinds of deeper things: you’re willing to be part of something bigger than yourself, to commit to something that you care about, to belong to something.”
Alternatively, Rogerson says the biggest challenge for the adult contingent is stamina, explaining that working with kids can be exhausting—“in a good way” —especially when participants aren’t accustomed to it. He goes on to mention though that ultimately what draws all the adult professionals to 52nd Street is the sense of fun and the fact that everyone is there because they want to be.
“Everybody volunteers, and there’s something meaningful about that,” he says. “Both the kid and the adult are bringing themselves. It’s not like they’re being paid, it’s just a very basic human exchange that occurs between them. And the stuff the kids write is exhilarating. They write extraordinary plays.”
That sense of exhilaration can be traced back to the founder Willie Reale. Although he stepped down from hands-on involvement 10 years ago, he says that there’s a purity within the organization that keeps it alive. “I think the thing that keeps it floating is there’s a pretty honest feeling about it,” he says. “The altruism is palpable. That draws a lot of people to it.”
A new facility will bring new challenges says Reale, like the responsibility of being able to reach and inspire more kids. Yet The Project’s stories of success also have their own ways of multiplying: Reale explains how one visitor was so impressed by the organization that he created a scholarship at the University of Michigan specifically for 52nd Street Project children. Reale also recalls Project kids who’ve gone on to Harvard and enjoyed success in television and on Broadway but he emphasizes that ultimately even the simplest stories of how The Project enriches the lives of Hell’s Kitchen kids have equal importance.
“That step where you push them out of the nest and they fly higher than you expect, that’s really glorious,” he says. “And there are other kids who you just bump into on the street, ten years hence, and they say ‘I gotta tell you, that was a really a bright spot in my childhood. I really want to thank you.’ That happens quite a bit. And that is just enormously gratifying.”
Don’t Be Late: Plays on Time is on at the TBG Theater January 30-February 1. For more info visit www.52project.org.
“We’ll have six times as much space and our own theater for the first time,” says 52nd Street’s Artistic Director, Gus Rogerson. “It’s more than exactly what we were looking for.”
Due to fortuitous community-orientated redevelopment in Hell’s Kitchen (which saw an influx of assisted- and mixed-income housing as well as accommodation for the elderly), The Project’s current residence at 10th Ave. between West 52nd and 53rd streets is being expanded. It will now form part of a four-story complex that other theater companies in the neighborhood will also call home.
New space does come at a cost though: The Project is currently on the homestretch of an $18-million capital campaign, with Rogerson describing the fundraising and logistics involved in marathon-like terms. The benefits, however, will be obvious explains Megan Cramer, 52nd Street’s Program Director because for the first time the organization will be able to conduct its programs, performances and administration all from the one location.
“It’s never a question of where our shows are—they’re right there, right in the neighborhood each time,” says Cramer, describing how the 150-seat theater will also allow different programs’ rehearsals to take place simultaneously. So too, there’ll be more room for study halls, computers, costumes and a new workshop where Project kids can construct assorted paraphernalia for the productions.
In the meantime one of The Project’s current performance spaces, the TBG Theater (on 36th St.) will host the company’s first production of the year, Don’t Be Late: Plays on Time. Cramer is happy though that the logistics of loading troupes of kids on and off subways between the 52nd Street office and theater spaces around the city will thankfully soon become a distant memory.
“When you’re working with kids, it can just feel a lot more complicated,” she explains. “But if we’re all in one central place, the ease of that is going to elevate the work.”
And it’s ultimately the work, rather than buildings or city planning, which has maintained an organization like 52nd Street over its 28-year history. Founded in 1981 by actor, playwright and MacArthur Fellow Willie Reale, the company has been a source of pride, success and community amongst the children of Hell’s Kitchen for decades.
“It’s a lot of sisters, brothers, cousins and friends basically,” says Rogerson of The Project’s ever-expanding family. “We have been in the neighborhood now for almost 30 years, so we’re a known entity for sure.”
The Project offers a series of programs for local kids (aged 9-18) where they’re matched with carefully selected theater professionals—Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand and Lili Taylor have all taken part—to put on original theater. Kids are able to write plays, which are then performed by professional actors Off-Broadway, as well as act in their own productions.
This month’s Don’t Be Late: Plays on Time is part of The Project’s “Two-on-Two” program, where the 12 children involved have already graduated from previous 52nd Street workshops. Essentially two kids (aged 13-15) are matched together and paired with a playwright and director; the playwright then writes a play for the kids who in turn act out the piece themselves.
“We take great pains in terms of how we match kids with each other and with adult directors and playwrights,” says Rogerson, explaining that the approach ensures that the collaborations are peaceful and productive for all involved. He also mentions that by and large the plays tend to be musical comedies. “In general we try not to make the subject matter too close to their own lives,” he says. “I think that also helps us to be more effective when working with them.”
Of the six plays being produced, Rogerson reveals that one is somewhat similar to Sartre’s No Exit: “They’re in this void and they’re trying to figure out whether or not they’re dead”; another work involves a two-man circus where hucksters and egomaniacs combine for assorted amusements; and a third play involves two sisters, only one of whom is attending a prom. “It’s all short form,” he says. “You basically introduce a big conflict, solve the conflict, sing a song and you’re done.”
While none of the participating industry talent claims celebrity status, they are still some of the best emerging talent, including Winter Miller (In Darfur); Graeme Gillis, Michael Lew and Sharyn Rothstein of the Youngblood Playwrights Group; Dierdre O’Connor (Jailbait, PBS’ “The Electric Company”); and Michael Bernard, a former Associate Artistic Director for The 52nd Street Project who has written for MTV, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Henson and others.
What 52nd Street kids find the most challenging, Rogerson explains, is showing the commitment to the various programs. “That remains the biggest challenge all the way through,” he says. “That entails all kinds of deeper things: you’re willing to be part of something bigger than yourself, to commit to something that you care about, to belong to something.”
Alternatively, Rogerson says the biggest challenge for the adult contingent is stamina, explaining that working with kids can be exhausting—“in a good way” —especially when participants aren’t accustomed to it. He goes on to mention though that ultimately what draws all the adult professionals to 52nd Street is the sense of fun and the fact that everyone is there because they want to be.
“Everybody volunteers, and there’s something meaningful about that,” he says. “Both the kid and the adult are bringing themselves. It’s not like they’re being paid, it’s just a very basic human exchange that occurs between them. And the stuff the kids write is exhilarating. They write extraordinary plays.”
That sense of exhilaration can be traced back to the founder Willie Reale. Although he stepped down from hands-on involvement 10 years ago, he says that there’s a purity within the organization that keeps it alive. “I think the thing that keeps it floating is there’s a pretty honest feeling about it,” he says. “The altruism is palpable. That draws a lot of people to it.”
A new facility will bring new challenges says Reale, like the responsibility of being able to reach and inspire more kids. Yet The Project’s stories of success also have their own ways of multiplying: Reale explains how one visitor was so impressed by the organization that he created a scholarship at the University of Michigan specifically for 52nd Street Project children. Reale also recalls Project kids who’ve gone on to Harvard and enjoyed success in television and on Broadway but he emphasizes that ultimately even the simplest stories of how The Project enriches the lives of Hell’s Kitchen kids have equal importance.
“That step where you push them out of the nest and they fly higher than you expect, that’s really glorious,” he says. “And there are other kids who you just bump into on the street, ten years hence, and they say ‘I gotta tell you, that was a really a bright spot in my childhood. I really want to thank you.’ That happens quite a bit. And that is just enormously gratifying.”
Don’t Be Late: Plays on Time is on at the TBG Theater January 30-February 1. For more info visit www.52project.org.
