For simplicity’s sake, this festival is called the Weasel Festival, although its full name is Bring a Weasel and A Pint of Your Own Blood. It was launched at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2006 to showcase new plays written and presented by graduates of Brooklyn College’s playwriting program. The festival is considered a cult event and was held for the 16th time in 2024. It was founded and created by experimental theater legend Mac Wellman. Read more about the twists and turns of this Brooklyn theatrical festival on brooklynski.info.
A Forge for Talent
New York has always been rich in theater festivals. There are some that are considered leaders, whose authority is beyond question, and the quality of their productions is never in doubt. Then there’s another group of New York theater festivals: the young but ambitious forums. These festivals often showcase some of the boldest new works you can see anywhere, but despite their quantity, they remain relatively on the periphery.
And then there are festivals that feel new every time, even though they’re well over a decade old. Why does this happen? Perhaps it’s because they’ve been so effective at flying under the radar. The Weasel and A Pint of Your Own Blood festival is a perfect example. It grew out of the Brooklyn College playwriting program, which in the last few decades has become a major force in the world of New York theater.
Under the leadership of Mac Wellman, the program created a steady stream of what can now be called great playwrights, such as Annie Baker, Young Jean Lee, Ken Urban, and Thomas Bradshaw. For example, Baker is not only known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “The Flick.” She has also written a series of plays set in the fictional town of Shirley, including “Body Awareness,” “Circle Mirror Transformation,” “Aliens,” and “Nocturama.” The other writers on this list have their own achievements as well.
The festival also serves as a showcase for new works by recent graduates, including playwrights like Erin Courtney, Sibyl Kempson, and Kristen Kosmas. In short, the Weasel Fest promises its attendees a chance to see what future stars are starting with and what they’re capable of at the beginning of their illustrious playwriting careers, to catch them, so to speak, on the rise.
The COVID Period
As the only department at the City University of New York that offers graduate programs in theater—acting, design, technical theater, directing, and performing arts management—Brooklyn College’s Theater Department leverages its location and the vast experience of its acclaimed faculty to provide students with a professional yet financially accessible arts education.
The Weasel Festival plays a significant role in this process. The festival has been a showcase for recent graduates of the Brooklyn College playwriting program for over 16 years. The festival typically features the production of four original short plays, created from a prompt generated by artificial intelligence and co-authored by recent graduates.
In 2022, there were some issues with holding the festival. All participants and artists had to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination before being admitted to the theater, or provide a vaccination record card at least two weeks after their final dose of an approved vaccine, or use New York’s free Excelsior Pass service. But despite these precautions, the festival, as always, went ahead and showcased new plays.
Playwright and Producer
We also can’t forget 2023, when after two years of transformation under the guidance of outstanding artists Haruna Lee, Dennis A. Allen II, and Elana Greenfield, the Brooklyn College playwriting team presented the 2023 Weasel Festival.
In that post-COVID year, at the initiative of recent Brooklyn College playwright graduates, the festival explored the theme of legacy. The participants collaborated with The Brick Theatre, which is considered a key incubator for innovative theater and performance art in Williamsburg. It was that year that they decided to independently organize and self-produce the festival.
After all, Brooklyn College playwrights have changed American theater with their rigorous formal innovation. The works of local graduates have been seen on and off Broadway, have won a Pulitzer Prize, and are produced by companies like A24. But this revolutionary work is not yet fully formed. It’s created by a community of independent artists, often without a safety net, which is why a public funding campaign, or crowdfunding, was launched.
The playwrights at that festival were unique voices in the New York and Brooklyn theater community. What’s more, they carried the flame of possibility-bending drama. The messages delivered from the highest level by masters like Sutter, Baker, and others are imbued with the qualities that have become a recognizable hallmark over the last few strange years.
As the Brooklyn College organizers themselves stated, the festival’s program was packed with excellent “scribes” who, as it happened, also became producers. They were smart, resourceful, and had accumulated valuable experience. Over 60% of the budget went to paying the people involved.
Since the Weasel Festival is an independent production, they believe that none of the co-creators should go uncompensated. The remaining 40% covered office and overhead costs, production, insurance, and the expense of archiving the work for future use.
Weasel Festival 2024
In 2024, the festival program was, as is tradition, written and presented by Brooklyn College graduates of 2024—Tracy Carns, Nurit Chinn, Lori Felipe-Barkin, Leslie Gauthier, Utkarsh Rajawat, and Madison Wetzell. They were assisted by other students and alumni of the playwriting department. For example, director Marissa Joyce Stamps, a 2023 graduate, co-producers and current playwriting students Kurt Chiang, Ann Marie Dorr, Claire Grazing, and Andrew Hardigg, as well as Nick Adams, who is a stage manager and graduated in 2023.
Mutual assistance has always distinguished Brooklyn College students. After all, could Mac Wellman have founded “Bring a Weasel and A Pint of Your Own Blood” in 2006 without the help of graduates from the program, specifically playwrights Erin Courtney, Kate E. Ryan, and Karin Kaitly Sayers?
All of the 2024 plays were inspired by “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” by the poet, artist, and iconoclast William Blake. The work served as a common source material provided by the organizers.
The Weasel Festival is an embodiment of the values of the Brooklyn College playwriting program. They believe that writing for the theater is not about finished thoughts and rigid rules but about continuing a kind of creativity that involves a constant conversation with the theater of the past.
Therefore, playwrights, directors, designers, and actors from Brooklyn College and the broader New York theater community are inspired to collaborate on new explosive works, whether to surprise or delight audiences, without whom, after all, all this work would be meaningless.
Sources:
- https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2012/08/the-2012-bring-a-weasel-festival-a-suite-of-new-plays-war-torn-absurd-and-sweet-072156
- https://thetanknyc.org/calendar-1/bringaweasel2022
- https://www.brooklyn.edu/bc-brief/brooklyn-colleges-bring-a-weasel-and-a-pint-of-your-own-blood-festival-comes-to-bam/