What Will the Neighbors Say?

"New to the Neighborhood: Emerging Artist Incubator"
Artistic Discipline: Performing Arts
Category: Creative Equations Fund: Justice, Equity, & Sustainability
Grant Year: 2024
Location: Bushwick

What Will the Neighbors Say? is an investigative theatre company that provokes questions through untold stories. Founded by a collaborative cohort of international artists, the Neighbors present overlooked social, cultural and historical narratives that challenge the audience to reflect on the current moment. Through a combination of original plays, arts education workshops and dynamic community gatherings, the troupe encourages rowdy and rigorous debate at the theatre and throughout the Neighborhood. The Neighbors fight for a more empathetic world by presenting risky, provocative theatre. They spark conversations and facilitate greater understanding. Championing their community's capacity to explore ambiguous and nuanced themes, we create morally complex genre-bending work that challenges audiences before, during and after a presentation. Armed with the understanding that meaningful conversations require varied perspectives, they build Neighborhoods across borders to facilitate new connections throughout our communities. New to the Neighborhood: Emerging Artist Incubator is a new residency program for theatre artists from underserved communities in Brooklyn created by the Neighbors. Designed to uplift voices that have been underrepresented in the theatre scene in the borough and beyond, the program is scaffolded to financially support, meaningfully develop and professionally exhibit work by emerging, early-career playwrights whose work reflects their mission.