Before March of 2020. Before May of 2020. Before quarantimes and every theater in America taking the two year shut down to prioritize equity. Before remote school and before mandates and sit-ins, before protests and vaccination drives, B’DAT knew we needed to change.
B’DAT began with eight kids in the 61st Street cafeteria making our very first play, The House of Blue Leaves. In the first five years the department grew and established itself in the city as an open and affirming training program for students of all identities, regardless of previous experience, training or ability. The only requirements: show up, be nice, make art. And they did show up. Students started choosing Beacon as an alternative to performing arts schools. Students transferred to Beacon to be part of our department. And what was once a tiny theater club making plays in a storage room, emerged a huge department in a new space earnestly trying to sustain itself.
B’DAT has always been a refuge for interdisciplinary artists of all stripes who thrive in collaborative projects. But in five years after the move to 44th Street and prior to the pandemic the student body ballooned, demand for more performance opportunities outpaced our ability to deliver. Yet fear of not having enough resources to sustain our program, and meet all student needs, led to compromising our ideals in the programming itself.
And thus despite having a fifteen year history of producing work that other high schools would not touch - Spring Awakening, Passing Strange, Caroline, or Change - our reputation and enthusiasm soured. It was time to refocus.
It’s kind of bonkers to think that In the fall of 2019, before the chaos of 2020 changed everything forever, B’DAT chose Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub’s Twelfth Night for many reasons beyond the obvious.
It is simple.
It is playful.
It is built by and for people of color, women, queer folk and community. It is intentionally and UNPRETENTIOUSLY inclusive. When the Public Theater Public Works summer offering developed this Twelfth Night the cast included several hundred players from community centers, dance schools, drama departments and churches. There was a little something for everyone and it was a dang hit!
