About White Bird Productions | Theater, Nature, Community

Mission

We create theater that brings us all into closer connection with our environment, with its histories and natural geographies, and mobilizes us to meet its most urgent challenges.

What We Do

Our After School and Summer programs empower kids of all ages.
For over 30 years, our theater classes across Brooklyn have created spaces of safety, belonging, and joy that prioritize self-expression, not perfection.
We partner with local organizations on the front lines of the environmental justice movement
Supporting their work the best way we know how – with giant puppets, original music, and live performance.
We run residencies for artist-parents
As well as theater-makers developing environmental justice-related projects.
We champion new work
That reveals Brooklyn’s untold histories, illuminates the impact of public policy on its residents, and moves us to take action to ensure its future.

Who We Are

When we say community-building is core to our mission, we mean it.

30%

of our Summer staff were once students.

80%

of our Summer + After School staff has worked at White Bird for over 5 years.

90%

of our leadership team has worked at White Bird for over 10 years.

100%

of our Teaching Artists are theater or educational professionals with over 7 years of teaching experience.

Our Staff

Cordelia Istel

Artistic Executive Director

Cordelia Istel is an organizer, educator, and producer with nearly two decades of experience working at the intersection of cultural programming and community organizing. She recently served as Interim Executive Director for The Industry (an experimental opera company founded by Yuval Sharon), and as Arts for LA’s Director of Organizing. Previously, she worked as a labor organizer for SEIU Local 721, as Director of Programs & Operations for White Bird Productions, as Manager of the Met Opera’s Education Department, and was part of the collective that launched the United States Department of Arts & Culture.

Lorrie Harrison

Education Registrar

For eight years, Lorrie served as the Director of Education, overseeing the summer theater workshop and afterschool programs. She managed the Picnic House, and is known for her innovative ideas and weekly themes. Lorrie is now serving as the Education registrar.

Barbara McGouran

Office Manager & Bookkeeper

Barbara works as White Bird’s bookkeeper and office manager. She oversees registration payment processes, web development, and payroll transactions.

Kathryn Dickinson

Founding Artistic Director Emerita

Kathryn Dickinson birthed White Bird Productions in 1987 at the legendary SOHO Theater, where she produced and acted in “Terror America” by John Istel. In the early years of her role as Founding Artistic Director, Kathryn commissioned and presented works by playwrights Lynne Nottage, Regina Taylor, Melissa Gibson, Melanie Goodreaux, and musicians/composers/lyricists David Pleasant, Janice Lowe, Scott Lilly and Marjorie Duffield. When her daughters were young, Kathryn began Creative Theatrics in Brooklyn, where she collaborated with professional theater and puppetry artists to create an after-school and summer education programs that continue to affect hundreds of young theater-makers in Brooklyn each year. Born in Mississippi in 1960 to a Methodist minister father and educator mother, Kathryn continues to be committed to how theater explores and engages with racism and critical social justice issues and movements of our time. She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University’s theater program, received a Masters in Environmental Conservation Education at New York University, and a Masters of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary in NYC.

Summer & After School Leadership

Marisa Fram

Mark Gallagher

Leah Levine

Melanie Maria Goodreux

Scott T. Lily

Janice Lowe

Our History

For over 30 years, White Bird Productions has been producing plays, commissioning new work, collaborating with musicians and choreographers and offering children’s theater classes in Brooklyn. In 2017 White Bird Productions celebrated its 25^th Birthday as a 501(C)3 non-profit theater company. Based in the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York’s South Oxford Space in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, White Bird Productions has a particular interest in the urban landscape, and how the residents and the natural environment of New York complement and collide with one another. Ensemble developed work exploring these issues includes Villagers (John Istel) at St. Mark’s Church in the Bouwerie, COMBUSTION: The Politics of Trash at BAM (Kathryn Dickinson), and Islands: An Urban Archipelago (David Pleasant and Dickinson) at Blue Heron Arts Centre.

In 2002, in response to the devastion of 9/11 of the people and places of NYC, the Boro Tales project sought to create a healing theatre piece for family audiences that celebrated our urban environment. Boro Tales: Brooklyn at the Blue Heron Arts Centre and BRIC Studio in downtown Brooklyn and Boro Tales: Manhattan at HERE Arts Centre brought together playwrights Lynn Nottage, Jeffrey M. Jones and Camila Jones, Melissa James Gibson, Len Jenkin, Marjorie Duffield, Onome Ekeh, Jenny Lyn Bader, David Ashkenasi and John Istel to re-imagine fairy tales in their home borough of New York City. And, in the spirit and magic of the urban playground, Artistic Director worked with its teaching artists to develop and perform NEVERLAND: The World of Games at BRIC and HERE.

In 2005, White Bird Productions produced the Barbie Project, which brought together performing artists to explore their childhood memories/experiences with Barbie and Ken dolls. In addition, the flying south series, which has included Cooking With Lard by Cindy Hanson and Cheryl Norris (2004), a series of political monologues American Blues (2004 & 2008), and a production of Kathryn Dickinson’s Borne of Conviction (2010), is a program that explores, develops and produces theatre about the American South.

White Bird sponsors Rudy’s Collaborative as a young company in residence, with the most recent TABLE Play “City of Ladies” performed in a NYC apartment. In 2010, Rudy’s developed its first original piece, Forgeries of Jealousy, performing at Irondale Center. Rudy’s develops site specific pieces in Brooklyn (This is my Real Life in Brooklyn brownstone and SLOW DOWN with the Performing The Streets Festival).

White Bird Productions has been proud to receive major funding for many of these projects from New York City Environmental Fund (Hudson River Foundation), Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Arts Relief Fund, Cultural Council Foundation, Community Arts Partnership Program (project of Brooklyn Academy of Music), CASA from New York City, Brooklyn Arts Council, family foundations and private donors.

List of Past White Bird Productions

1987	1st production Terror America and A Public Service By John Istel at the OHIO Theatre.
1989-1998	White Bird Playwriting Contest for plays that engaged with an environmental and ecological theme, event or issue. Playwrights include: Lynn Nottage, Shem Bitterman, Robert Siegel, Lissa Benyon, Eliza Anderson, Bob Mayberr, Steven Somkin.
1989	Incorporated as White Bird Productions, Inc. Ambulance of Love by John Istel at Perry Street Theatre
1991	Evelyn Dances by Cynthia Hanson at Synchronicity Space
1992	Night in Tunisia by Regina Taylor – Reading at Ohio Theater
1990	Villagers By John Istel at St. Mark’s Church
1992	Received its 501 (C) 3 not-for-profit status
1995	Combustion: The Politics of Trash By Kathryn Dickinson at BAM — Leperq Space
1997	Combustion: The Politics of Trash By Kathryn Dickinson at BAM — Hillman Studio
2000	Islands: An Urban Archipelago by David Pleasant & Kathryn Dickinson
2002	Boro Tales: Brooklyn at HERE Arts Centre The Little Matchgirl By Lynn Nottage Rapunzel By Melissa James Gibson Twelve Brothers By Jeffrey M. Jones & Camila Jones Snow White By Onome Ekeh Lucky Hans By Marjorie Duffield & Danny Ashkenasi Dancing Princesses by Marjorie Duffield & the Performance Team
2003	Boro Tales: Brooklyn at BRIC in Brooklyn
2004	Cooking With Lard by Cindy Hanson & Cheryl Norris at HERE Arts Centre
2004	Neverland: A World of Games at HERE Arts Centre & BRIC
2005	Boro Tales: Manhattan at HERE Briar Rose By Len & Zoe Jenkin The Fisherman’s Wife by Jenny Lyn Bader Hood By Welker White, Delphine Dhilly and Performance Team
2005	American Blue at HERE — A Festival of New Works & Commentary about Blue State/Red State sentiments.
2005	The Barbie Project at the OHIO Theatre (An Adult look and stories about Barbie & Ken dolls)
2008	American Blues and Passion at South Oxford Space
2010	Born of Conviction at Irondale Center By Kathryn Dickinson, Directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni
2010	Hosted Rudy’s Collaborative Forgeries of Jealousy at Irondale Center
2010	Hosted The Human Company Against the Dying of the Light, Directed by Kelly Hanson
2011	Presented Rudy’s Collaborative This is My Real Life — site specific apartment in Windsor Terrace
2013	Experimental Mobile Unit Performances (EMU: A New Performance Program for Teens – Program Director: O’Hagan Blades) Connecticut Muffin, Key Food & a Stoop, Directed by Daniel Levin Park Slope United Methodist Church Garden, Directed by Laura Barnett & Mark Greensfield South Oxford Space (Alliance of Resident Theatres/NY), Directed by Michael Leibenluft Two Boots Restaurant in Park Slope, Directed by Mark Greenfield
2013-14	Performances Creative Theatrics Summer Theater Workshop and After School Program (Moby Dick, Shakespeare, Puppetry, Musical Theater Mix-Up, Rock Opera, and More!)
2015	Table Play: City of Ladies, Rudy’s Collaborative at Crown Heights apartment
2017	Word Cabaret at Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Gallery: “WORK SHIFT(s): 3 Stories about Labor, Love, and Loss.”