New Brooklyn Theatre And The Feath3r Theory Announce Merger

New Brooklyn Theatre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to democratize the American theatre, has announced Raja Feather Kelly as its new Artistic Director. Kelly currently serves as the Founding Artistic Director of the dance-theatre-media company the feath3r theory, which has formally merged with New Brooklyn Theatre. He is the recipient of two Princess Grace Foundation Awards and most recently, the Breakout Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation and Dance Magazine's inaugural Harkness Promise Award. the feath3r theory shares the ethos of New Brooklyn Theatre in the mission to broaden space for unheard voices and repressed histories in theatre. Since 2009, the feath3r theory has been recognized as a unique cross-disciplinary theatre company that aims to challenge its audience and creators to interrogate and celebrate their shared relationship to human empathy and personal ethics as expressed in popular media.

"Raja Feather Kelly is one of the most innovative artists working at the nexus of dance, theatre, and media in the U.S. today. New Brooklyn Theatre is proud to join forces with Raja and the feath3r theory," says Chairman of the Board Jeff Strabone.

Raja Feather Kelly's choreography includes ten evening-length works that have been performed at various theatres in New York City, including Ars Nova, The Bushwick Starr, Danspace Project, and The Kitchen. His Off-Broadway credits include choreography for Suzan-Lori Parks, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Lila Neugebauer, Lileana Blain-Cruz, Rachel Chavkin, and Sarah Benson at the Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, and The Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. A 2017 and 2018 Princess Grace Award winner in Choreography and a Director for Soho Rep's 2018/19 Writers and Directors Lab, his honors include a 2018-2020 HERE Arts Fellowship, a 2018 Fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, and a NYFA Choreography Fellowship. He is a Connecticut College alumnus and holds Bachelor's Degrees in English and Dance.

Jeff Strabone, Chairman of the Board of New Brooklyn Theatre and co-founder of the organization, will continue to chair the board. He is Associate Professor of English at Connecticut College. As a civic leader in Brooklyn, he has served as president of the Cobble Hill Association and vice-chairman of Community Board 6.

New Brooklyn Theatre is appointing Rachel Pritzlaff as Executive Director. Pritzlaff currently serves as Manager of the feath3r theory and is the Founding Executive Director of Rivertown Dance Academy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to providing access to dance education without financial or cultural barriers.

New Brooklyn Theatre aims to democratize the American theatre, to broaden the space for unheard voices and repressed histories, to bring into the theatre those sometimes left out, and to use theatre to provoke much-needed public conversations. The company is committed to addressing pressing social issues, often in site-specific spaces that bring theatre directly to the communities it serves.

This video, edited by Laura Snow, is a reel of selected works by the feath3r theory over the past seven years. It places the works in context and in conversation with each other.

"There is a clear intersection between popular culture and empathy. We as humans, I think, have a natural inclination toward empathy, but it is becoming more and more difficult for us to do that. It might be thought that popular culture is the last place that one would look to have an empathetic experience, but I believe it is the first place we should be looking." -Raja Feather Kelly, Artistic Director of New Brooklyn Theatre

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