About the Show
In the winter of 1779, a woman named Elizabeth Burgin defied New York City’s British occupiers by helping hundreds of patriots escape from prison ships anchored offshore of what is now the Brooklyn Navy Yard. With a bounty on her head, she fled the city. A History of Launching Shipsjoins Burgin during her flight from the British and places her in the middle of a fantastical tale that echoes the gothic stories of Washington Irving. The play, written for the unique environment of The Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, tells the story of the three women who take Burgin in and hide her. Each woman seeks an escape from her own reality, and, together, they realize that the only way to freedom might be on a ship they build themselves.
This site-specific production will lead audiences through the three-floor museum over the course of the performance, stopping to watch scenes among BLDG 92’s exhibits. The Yard’s spirit and elements of its history act as seeds for the play’s mysterious story of four women isolated together inside the gates of a Naval Commandant’s home on the banks of an unnamed bay. Playwright Avi Glickstein has used the story of real-life Revolutionary heroine Elizabeth Burgin and archival materials from BLDG 92’s collection, as well as the gothic New York tales of Washington Irving, as a jumping-off point to create a uniquely American, ghostly tale of his own that echoes the Yard’s history as a center of innovation, reinvention, and sacrifice in service of a larger purpose.
The team
Playwright: Avi Glickstein
Director: Jessica Brater
Producer: Catherine Wallach
Performers: Elaine O’Brien, Kate Reilly, Sarah Sakaan, and Lindsay Torrey
Designers: Carolyn Mraz (set and props), Bevan Dunbar and Karen Boyer (costumes), Marika Kent (lights), Kate Marvin (sound and music)
Stage Manager/Assistant Director: Alyson Fortner
Consultant: Stacey McMath
Production Manager: Marika Kent
Graphic Design: Kevin Gillespie
In October 2012, Polybe + Seats produced a new site-specific show presented by the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, the Navy Yard’s new cultural center and museum. After having to cut our run short due to Hurricane Sandy, we were invited back to BLDG 92 for four more performances in March 2013.
Written by Avi Glickstein and directed by Jessica Silsby Brater, this specially commissioned play was the first-ever theatrical production at the Navy Yard!
As mentioned in the New York Times’ Spare Times column!
“Polybe + Seats’ A HISTORY OF LAUNCHING SHIPS takes preconceived notions about sea yarns, theatrical experience, and even one’s concept of time, and upends all. [It is] not merely a play, but a theatrical experience.”
– NYTheater.com
“The production reframes artifacts like giant anchors and blown-up nautical photography as stunning set pieces and finds dynamic spatial choreography in the building’s balconies, stairwells, and windows.”
– Culturebot
March 14-17
Thursday-Sunday at 8pm
BLDG 92
The Brooklyn Navy Yard
63 Flushing Avenue (at Carlton Street)
Brooklyn, NY