Trash. It’s dirty, smelly, and taking over our world. How did it get so out of control? And why should we even care?
Monday to Friday (9am-2pm), July 26 – August 6, 2021
Ages: 12-15, Free, registration required
Guided by the creative minds behind youth focused theater group Grand Pistachio, this unique summer camp will see your budding environmentalists explore these questions and more. They’ll go on field trips to interview sanitation officials and craft stories based on what they hear, create puppets from reusable materials and even create their own public art installation of trash!
This creative team of puppet theater makers are developing a series of experiences (live performance, installation, recorded episodes, workshops, immersive dramas and camps) for young audiences called City of Trash, that makes visible the invisible work of sanitation, honoring sanitation professionals who keep society healthy and safe. These experiences will help young people expand their trash consciousness by exploring the benefits and dangers of waste management, the cultural secrets trash reveals, and the lacking environmental justice of sanitation.
Grand Pistachio’s mission is to open new ways for young people to view each other, the world, and their role in it, creating original theater for young people utilizing larger-than-life forms of puppetry, mask, and music to highlight the stories of everyday people. These are people typically left out of cultural records and history books, but whose stories help young audiences build empathy, see resilience in action, and understand how their own stories fit into a historical context. Through that lens we explore the hardships of Lower East Side immigrant families in Layer the Walls, the untapped poetic potential within ourselves in Blown Away By Poetry, and the dangers of sanitation workers in City of Trash. Grand Pistachio’s work has toured nationally reaching thousands of young people annually.

- Hudson Hall’s programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York Legislature.