Flood Sensor Aunty returns!
Flood Sensor Aunty is a municipal comedy about a flood sensor desperate be a movie star, but is busy keeping her aunt’s chai shop afloat from rain gods clogging the bathroom pipes and culturally (in)competent permit inspectors falling in love. Halfway between really funny theater and culturally competent community disaster prevention, this show is about how the best way to protect yourself from flooding, climate change, and despair is through knowing your neighbors. Developed in deep partnership with NYC Emergency Management and trillions of community partners, thousands of audience members in public spaces like chai shops and boats and parks across all five boroughs leave nourished with bellies full of chai, tools for flood protection, and calls to action from community leaders. Check out robust coverage on Grist, Spectrum NY1, the CITY (!!!), the Queens Knight, Streetbeat, SI Live, WaterWire, and more.
This second installation had jam packed performances across ALL FIVE BOROUGHS for Earth Day 2025 - supported a NYSCA Artist Grant, Rebuild by Design, the Billion Oyster Project, Open House New York, the Waterfront Alliance, Chhaya CDC, Queens College, Wellesley College, Fordham University, Snug Harbor, Western Queens CLT, Nonprofit Staten Island, Long Distance Reads, and more!
📍 Travers Park, Snug Harbor Botanic Garden, Orchard Alley Community Garden, Queens College, Fordham University, Domino Square
Written and directed: by yours truly
Performer-devisers: Ray Jordan Achan, Kshithij Hegde, Isa Nicdao, Val Ramirez, and Alex Scelso
Community organizer-devisers: Jess Balgobin, Sara Bruno, and Janggo Mahmud
Talkback hosts: Matthew Sookram (Chhaya CDC), Sanghu Iyer (Department of Environmental Protection), Michelle Bascome and Rob Grosso (Nonprofit Staten Island), Furhana Husani (Waterfront Alliance), Natalie Vena and Maansi Shah (Queens College), Jill Cornell (NYC Emergency Management), Cody Ann Herrmann (Billion Oyster Project), Daphne Lundi (Urban Ocean Lab)
Documentation: Jesse Herndon
Sound design: Sriram Iyer
Sound techs: Maxi Glenn, Ban Lenz Belmont, and Liz Peterson
Tea: Miles Kirsch and the Tea Stand
Costume design: Moses Aina and Kshithij Hegde
Graphic design and illustration: Abbie Preston
Branding: Andrea Guinn
PR: Tabitha Gruendyke
