PS 15 hosts youth theater

Off the Hook, a Falconworks program at Red Hook’s PS 15, continues to create original youth theater for 11-to-14-year-olds.

The latest performances took place in November. There were 15 participants and three different plays (acts). The playwrights, who also act, all live in Red Hook. 

The authors were Ilse Menke (The Tea), Leryri Crus-Ramirez (The News) and Abigail Romero-Montero (Intoxicated).

The first act featured a California vacation. There was talk about being on a girls’ football team, interaction with their coach and a drowning.

Off the Hook’s second act was about an alcoholic father and how he affected his daughter in school as well as her ability to sleep. The mother tried to make the daughter feel better by telling her how her father acted when she was younger. 

The mother told her daughter that she would ask her alcoholic husband to leave, which was followed by him promising to get better but not doing so. 

The third act was about climate change and how big of an issue it is today. They chanted “ban plastic made of fossil fuel” and talked about how plastic bags are harmful.

After all the acts had concluded, the audience had a chance to make suggestions on how the performance could have been changed. At first only young audience members under 12 participated in the interplay, and then director Reggie Flowers encouraged older people to speak up. 

One girl thought of a solution to save the girl from drowning. A woman noticed that in all three acts there were adults being neglectful and many agreed with her.

Off the Hook is a twice-yearly program that is one of Falconworks’s longest running education initiatives.

According to Flowers, who is the Senior Collaborator and founder of the Off the Hook program, the kids did a playwriting workshop with the program director, Meg Bouchard.

“After the workshop they took a trip to SUNY Purchase College and spent a grueling day writing an original play,” Flowers said. “We brought them back here, they met with some directors and actors and our amazing costume and set designer.”

Phase one of Off the Hook was where the kids spent eight weeks collaborating with adult mentors using theater to explore, analyze and empower their lives. They met once a week after school, in cooperation with Beacon programs at PS 15 in and South Brooklyn Community High School.

According to Bouchard, who is the Educational Director of Off the Hook after taking over for her mentor Flowers, there was a fusion between the kids using their imagination and also being autobiographical from their own lives when writing the plays.

Bouchard has been the Program Director for four years and was happy that the kids all had a great experience during the process.

Off the Hook’s philosophy is to discover a community vision from the eyes of youth which could become a basis for transformative community engagement. Monica Furman, Community Engagement Coordinator, explained how she attracts participants in the program.

“We attend other community events in the neighborhood, hold open houses and do email, social media and newsletters,” Furman added. “We use our already strong ore of current and former volunteers and participants to spread the word.”

The program is supported by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City Council Member Carlos Menchaca. This activity isn’t sponsored or endorsed by the NYC Department of Education.