Through the What Will the Kids Say? initiative, the Neighbors have provided free arts education for young people aged 5-17 via their flagship theatre-for-young-audiences musical, the "Untitled Shape Show," in Providence, New York and Toronto. The Neighbors have also provided free arts education to young people at Central Falls Summer Camp in Rhode Island and at El Puente Presente Youth Leadership Center in Brooklyn, amongst others. They are currently educators in the Barrington Stage Company’s PMP program, an intensive, six-month theatre program that offers at-risk youth in Berkshire County a safe place to tell their stories, learn theatre and improvisation techniques, and develop conflict resolution skills. The Neighbors both have NYC DOE clearance.
The Neighbors have taught their primary source devising methodology at Marymount Manhattan College, CUNY Queens College (where they were Adjunct Faculty and Artists-in-Residence for three years), the Wuhan Institute of Design and Science, Ohio State University and the National Alliance of Acting Teachers. They are also Artists-in-Residence at the Espacio de Culturas at KJCC at NYU for the 2024/2025 academic year. Other higher education experience includes curating and hosting the 2022 Applied Theatre Convergence at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, "A New Intimacy." The Neighbors have also worked with interns from CUNY and NYU, providing course credit.
Photo by Pablo Calderón-Santiago.
Over the past seven years, the Neighbors have curated and led a number of free Public Arts Education Projects for a range of communities. This work has included free public writing workshops with partners such as the Brooklyn Public Library, the Queens Public Library, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Dumbo Improvement Disctrict’s "Six Foot Platform" program, the Queens Memory Project and the Queens College Gender, Love and Sexuality Alliance (GLASA), as well as creative writing initiatives with organizations including THE CITY newspaper, the Interfaith Centre of New York and Let's Re-imagine.
The Neighbors are always thrilled to engage with new communities in meaningful ways, whether through arts workshops, youth programming or higher education partnerships. If you are interested in bringing the company to your Neighborhood, please email outreach@wwtns.org.
participant in CUNY Queens College Course
participant in the Untitled Shape Show
Established in 2017, “storytime” is a free night of storytelling and live music for the Neighborhood, held at various venues throughout New York (most recently, the Cell Theatre in Chelsea). Each event features a specific theme (such as “Uplifting Black Stories,” “Not A Day Goes By” or “Waiting”) curated by the visiting musicians (including Eleri Ward, Kathryn Allison and Amyra León) and hosts (including Abby Feldman, Xavier Reyes and Ayla Sullivan). Any audience member who is willing to tell a story is welcome to, creating an authentic and powerful collective experience. This event has so far served over 3500 folks in the New York and online, and was recently recognized with a $15k NYC Department of Cultural Affairs CDF Grant.
Every June, the Neighbors curate a fundraiser for other non-profit organizations, programming high quality events that serve their community and expand their creative circle. Since 2017, they have raised over $8500 from these events, benefiting organizations including Planned Parenthood, PERIOD, Gays Against Guns, The Audre Lorde Project and Stop AAPI Hate alongside artists including Alan Cumming, VICE, Sing Out, Louise!, Theydy Bedbug, Lena Horné, Clara Olshansky and Yvette Lu.
The Neighbors have produced and moderated symposiums in collaboration with Kori Rushton’s IRT Theatre, including "People as People: A Symposium on Diversity" and "Agency in Storytelling: A Symposium on Privilege, Visibility and Influence." In addition, the Neighbors are proud members of the IndieSpace Artist Committee and have sat on grant panels, roundtables and discussion groups with partner organizations such as A.R.T./New York, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Queens Memory Project and BRIC Arts and Media. In addition, the Neighbors host free mixers for their Neighborhood, including their annual Holiday Party.
Inaugurated as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Neighbors’ free Digital Arts Programming was designed to allow all members of the their global community to continue to engage with them and one another. With events ranging from scene studies to music jams to poetry workshops, the two initial seasons served hundreds of participants across the US, South America and Europe. The program has subsequently expanded into ongoing digital components for a range of Neighbors’ programming, including productions, community events and fundraisers, amongst others. This long-term digital engagement allows the Neighbors to increase accessibility as they continue to engage and serve their global community.
participant in the Digital Arts Series
participant in "storytime"
For our current communtiy events, please see our Shows & Events page
