Beginning tonight, A History of Launching Ships returns to the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s BLDG 92for four encore performances. Performance dates are March 14-17 at 8pm, including a Q&A with the playwright and director + artists whose work is currently on display in BLDG 92’s current “Reflections on Rosie” exhibit after the March 15th performance.
Purchase tickets through SmartTix by clicking here.
Here’s more about A History of Launching Ships from the website:
“A History of Launching Ships is the first-ever theatrical production at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This site-specific production will lead audiences through the three-floor museum over the course of the performance, stopping to watch scenes among BLDG 92’s exhibits. The Yard’s spirit and elements of its history act as seeds for the play’s mysterious story of four women isolated together inside the gates of a Naval Commandant’s home on the banks of an unnamed bay. Playwright Avi Glickstein has used the story of real-life Revolutionary heroine Elizabeth Burgin and archival materials from BLDG 92’s collection, as well as the gothic New York tales of Washington Irving, as a jumping-off point to create a uniquely American, ghostly tale of his own that echoes the Yard’s history as a center of innovation, reinvention, and sacrifice in service of a larger purpose.”
In the winter of 1779, a woman named Elizabeth Burgin defied New York City’s British occupiers by helping hundreds of patriots escape from prison ships anchored offshore of what is now the Brooklyn Navy Yard. With a bounty on her head, she fled the city. A History of Launching Ships, a new play by Avi Glickstein, joins Burgin during her flight from the British and places her in the middle of a fantastical tale that echoes the gothic stories of Washington Irving. The play, commissioned by Polybe + Seats and written for the unique environment of The Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, tells the story of the three women who take Burgin in and hide her. Each woman seeks an escape from her own reality, and, together, they realize that the only way to freedom might be on a ship they build themselves.
The one and a half hour performance will involve some walking and standing on the part of the audience; ramps and elevators will be available.
Show your program and get 10% off post-performance dinner and/or drinks at Putnam’s Pub & Cooker at 419 Myrtle Avenue (at Clinton Avenue).
photo credit: Stephen Yang
