The year was 2014 and Alexis Spiegel just earned a master’s degree in fine arts in playwriting. Her passion for theater and working with children led her to establish and conduct an improvisational theater course at different public schools in Brooklyn.
By 2017, she began tutoring youth in literacy, all while writing plays. She began to feel
limited and the need to self-produce, so she created the Flatbush Theater Project for middle-school children and teenagers.
The theater project began in 2020 with 3 students at an event space in Ditmas Park.
But Spiegel was, “…really longing to create something that's housed and homed, [where] kids can come there all the time.”
So, in May 2022, Spiegel leased a storefront at 1101 Church Ave. to have a permanent place for the program.
“The reason that Flatbush community theater exists is because I wanted to find a brick-and-mortar home for those students…,” said Spiegel.
The 13-week program runs twice a year during the spring and fall, and its main goals are to help students develop improvisation, theater and social-emotional skills. Most of the children in the program begin with little to no theater experience, says Spiegel. During the first five weeks of the program, the children are taught theater techniques, and the remaining weeks are used to rehearse for a production that showcases the things they learned.
Kelah Winfield joined the theater’s staff earlier in 2022 as the executive assistant, line director and co-teacher, and she says she has seen significant development in the children in the program.
When Winfield was younger, she grew her confidence levels through the theater. She saw similarities in one of the program’s students who admitted to having social anxiety. According to Winfield, the program’s activities have helped this student grow their confidence.
“If they learn [these things] from a young age, then they're likely to carry those traits throughout the rest of their life. And it's helped me and I'm positive it will help them,” said Winfield.
Dr. Philip A. Alexander, Arts in Education Director at the Brooklyn Arts Council, an organization that supports artists through grants, said that theater programs for children are useful because of the collective learning opportunities children receive.
“Theatre making provides a host of benefits for teenagers. Too often teenagers have no opportunities to develop an artistic craft or develop an expressive voice in a supportive setting,” said Dr. Alexander.
Through the theater, Spiegel created a pilot internship program in collaboration with a few high schools in Brooklyn, and she hopes to create more opportunities for the community. She is looking to establish theater programs for adults and young children, and productions hosted by the theater.
The playwright is brainstorming other ways she can serve the community, but the only answer she has given herself thus far is that she can only do more if her funds allow it.
Spiegel used significant personal finances to lease the now-theater. Each student in the program pays $1700 in tuition plus a $50 production fee. Depending on life circumstances, some students may pay less. Currently, there are only 5 high school students enrolled in the program, and their tuition does not cover all the theater’s expenses.
While paying rent and utilities, Spiegel is also working on completing construction to the
black box theater that can seat about thirty to forty people. She has already added theater curtains and lighting and electricity to the theater’s basement.
The theater is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a non-profit organization that helps artists and art organizations by providing fundraising tools. This sponsorship allows people to make tax-deductible donations to the theater and Spiegel is looking forward to these donations so that they can use them for the expansion of her programs. She is also working on making the theater a non-profit organization and applying for grants that will help her meet her budgetary needs.
Though the Flatbush Community theater is still in its beginning stages, Spiegel hopes it will accomplish great things in the next 5 years.
In 5 years, she hopes that the “…Flatbush Theater Project is thriving, that we're fully equitable and accessible, that we're drawing students from schools, [and have] thriving classes of maybe eight to 10 kids every time,” said Spiegel.
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