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These playwrights turned their Downtown Brooklyn apartment into a ‘decked out’ theater
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Mar 10, 2023
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José A. Alvarado Jr. for Gothamist
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Mar 10, 2023
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The new play “War Dreamer” is taking the stage this month at The Wild Project in Manhattan. But it first found its footing inside a Brooklyn apartment known as the Loading Dock Theater, taking its audience from a living room to a Humvee in Iraq.
The play centers on a United States veteran who’s returned from Iraq and is struggling with war trauma, ultimately spiraling into paranoia and conspiracy theories. It was the brainchild of Steven Gridley, who wrote and workshopped the play during the pandemic with his partner and star of the show, Erin Treadway. It found its voice on the fully designed set in their own Downtown Brooklyn apartment.
From the moment Treadway took the stage during a mid-February rehearsal, the kitchen at stage left seemed to fade as the theatrical lighting shone on stage. The living room and bedroom, located through a doorway behind the audience, suddenly seemed miles away.
Erin Treadway rehearses a scene.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for Gothamist
On the stage, two halves of a tire emerged from the ground along with a metal frame seat and a single headlight. A gas pump was attached to the right of the frame — along with a lampshade, and a rug on the floor between the seat and the front tire.
“It’s sort of all here,” said Gridley, who also goes by the pen name Leegrid Stevens. “I love the kitchen area because it's just there waiting for you when you're done. We put snacks out and drinks and people like to hang out and chat about the show afterwards.”
Stevens (seated) and Jacob Titus review notes.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for Gothamist
Treadway and Gridley, who both have day jobs working in finance, have been building out theaters in their living spaces for years. The idea first came to them a decade ago when the church that was letting Treadway use its basement for a show kicked her out a week before load-in.
“We ended up moving all our furniture to the side in our tiny studio and just putting the whole set up there and rehearsing there,” Treadway said. “And we were like, ‘You know what? I think we could kind of do this. What if we just keep the furniture pushed away and we make it a rehearsal space and we just do this here?’”
Eventually they built out a theater inside a studio apartment, complete with a grid for lighting equipment and risers for seating. That’s where Gridley put on his stage adaptation of “Miss Julie.”
“The stage manager and I called the show from our bed,” Gridley said.
Their current apartment — a large, windowless box of a room with a corner kitchen, a small living area and an attached bedroom — eventually became available. It was a blank canvas – their most elaborate yet.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for Gothamist
Some artists might prefer separation from their work, but Gridley and Treadway said having access to their craft at a moment’s notice has been key to their process.
On a recent Monday morning, Gridley said he woke up inspired.
“I was like, ‘Erin, what if you did this for this one scene?’ And she was like, ‘Can I wake up first and have some coffee before we start rehearsing?’” Gridley said. “I was like, ‘Well, oh yes, yes, let's have coffee, but just this one little moment, can we work on this?’ She's like, ‘Okay, fine. Alright.’ And so we rehearsed this one little moment at like 8 a.m.”
The dedication beamed through with each rehearsal. The lighting changed with each scene — yellow for when the main character experiences a flashback to Iraq and a shade of purple when she’s home. Music and strange, unsettling noises blared during intense war memories.
These subtle details were the result of having access to a stage complete with lighting and sound design equipment throughout the writing and workshopping process. And they were able to workshop those ideas in front of a crowd, thanks to Gridley and Treadway building three rows of raised audience seating into the space.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for Gothamist
Brooklyn-based playwright Andres Osorio said he first found out about the space when he went there to watch a play.
“I had no idea what I was walking into,” he said. “When I pulled up to an apartment building, I was like, what is this? This cannot be the right spot.”
He continued, “I think I had to buzz some apartment number, and I walked through the door and saw this great living room with a whole decked out theater and I thought it was so cool.”
Knowing how difficult it is to find space in New York, Gridley and Treadway said they allow other playwrights access to their setup for free. They’ve hosted reading series of other works and they’re also one of the venues that hosts the Exponential Festival, a monthlong festival dedicated to emerging artists working in experimental performance.
“They found a way to not rely on the invitation of institutions to facilitate their creative process,” said Theresa Buchheister, who runs the Exponential Festival as well as The Brick, an innovative theater incubator in Williamsburg.
Buchheister is no stranger to operating underground and DIY spaces – they’ve been involved in the scene for years.
“The access point is incredibly elitist to start a space,” she said. “I think it's impossible to have a fully legal space in New York.”
They added, “If you try to go about it in a 100% legal way, then you're gonna be stuck in construction and zoning hell for years and probably hemorrhage any sort of reserve of funding that you had.”
After seeing the Loading Dock’s theater, Osorio reached out about doing a reading series at the space that included his own play. Gridley and Treadway obliged.
“It was a really nice, intimate feeling,” Osorio said. “It was really important to put it up in front of an audience to see what jokes land, what do people get, what do they not get.”
Sam Tilles (center) and Treadway rehearse a flashback scene.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for Gothamist
Osorio said he had never presented his play – which was developed during the pandemic era of Zoom theater – in front of a live audience.
“We’re taught that theater can happen anywhere and for very little money, but the reality in New York City is that it's actually very hard to put stuff up,” Osorio said. “And at this stage in my career, it was extremely helpful to find a space that is free.”
With Gridley’s encouragement, Osorio submitted his play, “Erastes,” about the power dynamics in gay relationships between older and younger men, to local festivals. It will run in the Fresh Fruit Festival in May.
“[One thing] I'm super excited about being able to offer to other people is for them to be able to se their play, not in just a wooden room with chairs around with everybody lit, but focused with theatrical lighting on the actor,” Gridley said. “It's [got] good sound and you can have some effects in things like that. I think it really helps playwrights.”
José A. Alvarado Jr. for Gothamist
Tagged
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theater
brooklyn
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Catalina Gonella
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