At our performance in Richmond Hill, Queens. Photo: Cameron Blaylock
Flood Sensor Aunty - written and directed by yours truly - is about a flood sensor working at her aunt’s chai shop who really wants to be a movie star. Halfway between really funny devised theater and 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. Our first four performances are supported by NYC Emergency Management as part of National Disaster Prevention Month, FloodNet, Chhaya CDC, Street Works Climate Art Festival, Huntington Art Works, and Culture Push, so all performances are free and audiences left with bellies full of (oat milk) chai, doubles, flood alarms, headlamps, and calls to action about legalizing basement apartments. This show was co-written with a team of fifteen devisers (partly performers with deep experience in movement and theater work and partly community organizers working and living in the neighborhoods we’re performing). Highlight: our first performance was interrupted by a wedding, and the groom’s baraat (with a dhol and tassa outcompeting our actors for noise) lasted the entire second act.
Audience of 100+ at Qahwah House in Astoria, Queens. Photo: Jesse Herendon
Our first performance was in Richmond Hill, Queens, as part of the Urban Design Forum’s Local Center - community organization Chhaya CDC has been working with two urban design teams to transform a sleepy park into a new space for arts and culture in South Queens - an area of the city with many artists, poets, performers, musicians, and no community spaces or stages - and we were honored to be the first performance and joined by over 100 audience members. Our second performance was at Travers Park in Jackson Heights, Queens, as part of the Street Works Climate Art Festival, where we were also joined by over 100 audience members crowding into our space. Our third performance was at Qahwah House in Astoria, Queens, where we were joined by community leader Rana Abdelhamid, the rain, and over 200 audience members, and our fourth performance was at PYO Chai in Floral Park, Long Island.
Credits: This project is funded and supported by NYC Emergency Management, Huntington Arts Council, StreetWorks, and Culture Push, and is featuring performances by Val Ramirez, Isa Nicdao, Ray Jordan Achan, Alex Scelso, and Spoorti Hegde, graphic design by Kruttika Susarla and Abbie Preston, documentation by Sarah Drepaul, Jesse Herndon, Cameron Blaylock, and Andre Fernandez, and sound design by Sriram Iyer. For this project, I’m working with community leaders working across housing justice, disaster preparedness, and placemaking in the neighborhoods we’re performing, who are both helping spread the word about the performance and joining the devising process, Jess Balgobin, Mehrnaz Tiv, and Janggo Mahmud. Guess what… you get a billion photos because the performance was the best play you’ll ever see!
