White Bird Productions Fosters Collaborative Theatre with Youth Through Devising

White Bird Productions.

AT Education Monthly

September 22, 2026 Allison Considine Leave a comment

Back to School with Devising at White Bird Productions

Professional artists create intergenerational, collaborative theatre alongside kids at White Bird Productions.

By Allison Considine

The transition from summer to fall is always too swift, and as my maternity leave comes to an end, I’m finding myself easing back into back-to-school mode, grateful for the time I’ve had at home. Over the past few months, I spent many mornings strolling through Prospect Park with my baby and, much to my delight, listening to the joyful sounds of rehearsals by White Bird Productions at the Picnic House.

A few weeks ago, I watched the company’s 22nd annual musical theatre camp production, a devised show about bettering a corner of Brooklyn by removing trash and guerrilla gardening. A highlight was a group of tiny tulips singing “I’ve Got the Sun in the Morning” from Annie Get Your Gun .

“The model is professional artists creating theatre alongside kids, rather than making children’s theatre,” says Cordelia Istel, the artistic executive director. “It’s intergenerational, totally original theatre that’s student-driven and led, and professional artists bringing their whole creative skill sets to that collaboration.”

The activist, street-theatre-inspired work incorporates props and sets made from recycled and found materials, along with inventive cardboard puppets and tempera-painted backdrops.

“Because of the devised, original, collaborative-creation kind of pedagogy, kids who are going to be visual artists or designers or musicians or writers—there’s a place for all of them to plug in,” says Istel. “I feel really strongly about making sure everyone is aware of the importance and amount of work involved in all the different design, operational, and producerial roles that are as deeply creative as the more front-of-room roles.” (To that end, the company’s two program coordinators are former campers.)

The camp performances come together in just five days and run the gamut of themes. This summer’s projects included one celebrating the Liberty basketball team, another exploring Prince’s music, and superhero stories inspired by real-life Brooklyn tales. There was also the camp’s annual intergenerational project, in which teens interview nursing-home residents and other community elders about their memories of the borough, then use those stories to create a devised performance.

“Our job as a theatre program is to bring kids and adults and audiences into closer connection with the place they call home,” says Istel.

Now, the company is transitioning from camp to its after-school programming, which serves 60 students at two sites in Brooklyn. Students are gearing up for spooky season by designing and building a haunted house, which will culminate in a theatrical Halloween parade at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. As they create an enchanted-forest-inspired house, they’ll also learn about geology and Brooklyn’s natural features.

Istel also had wonderful advice for arts educators—and, really, anyone—for this time of year: “Think about your December self. As someone who chronically says yes to too many things—yes, let’s do that new site, or let’s do that new program, or let’s take that on. I always think my December self will thank my September self for saying no.”

Seeing children engage in theatre always makes me wonder what they’ll carry with them from these experiences—and how they might shape their future selves.

For a look at how an early theatrical experience can stay with an artist, check out this American Theatre interview with playwright Mfoniso Udofia, in which she talks about her earliest theatrical memory.

Godspeed to everyone getting back into the swing of things. May our December selves thank our September selves!

– Allison Considine

✏️ Around the Web ✏️

- The 2026 Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Teacher of the Year Award is Shawn Hann of Denver School of the Arts (DSA) in Colorado. - Check out the organizations and artists selected for the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America 2026 Aurand Harris Grant and Fellowship . - Love this post from student reporters about the life-changing impact of theatre. - Broadway performers look back at their high school playbills . - Carnegie Mellon University has named Kim Weild its new Paul Mellon Distinguished Professor of Drama. - CMU’s annual joyful welcome of its newest drama students is worth a watch. - As part of Playbill ’s back-to-school coverage, here’s the annual report of where Broadway performers in the 2025-26 season went to school. - Read how a student production of Ragtime! was cancelled—and how the students worked to save it. - In celebration of the Broadway League’s Kids’ Night on Broadway , Broadway stars wrote letters to their younger selves. - Have you seen the viral video of a high schooler’s Mary Poppins performance? I love this commentary on the moment—and its call for educators to make space for creativity.

📰 From the Archives 📰

A Florida ‘Awakening’ in the Wake of Tragedy

In memory of Duncan Sheik, I’m resharing this 2016 piece about a moving high school production of Spring Awakening .

More From American Theatre

New Work, Fresh From WWU’s Summer Test Kitchen

_Originally reported by [American Theatre](https://www.americantheatre.org/2026/09/22/back-to-school-with-devising-at-white-bird-productions/)._