IN THE FOOTPRINT: THE BATTLE OVER ATLANTIC YARDS

“I love doing this play as much as it hurts my heart to be in it.”

This is Colleen Werthmann, a member of The Civilians, on their new production, In The Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards. Focused on the controversial housing project in Brooklyn, In The Footprint tells the story of Atlantic Yards, which, if seen to completion, will result in 16 high-rise buildings and a sports arena, across 22 acres in Prospect Park and Fort Greene.

Unlike your standard regional theater company, The Civilians specialize in “investigative theater,” but they aren’t simply ripping plots from the headlines. To perform a work that justifies the passion on each sides of the development of Atlantic Yards, the actors approached those involved with the urban planning project, interviewed them and performed their interviews as monologues for the rest of the company. Then director Steven Cassos edited down their transcripts and newly hatched characters into a succinct, complete work.

“Most of the people aren’t recognizable names—these are neighborhood residents, affected by the impact of this huge project. People who are very passionate about the impact it’ll have on the community … hopeful or dreadful,” says Werthmann, after noting that both Jay-Z and Mayor Bloomberg make appearances in the script.

The themes of In The Footprint apply to any major city that’s experienced significant urban development. “A lot of people who lived in these neighborhoods aren’t necessarily aware of the good stuff activists are doing, like keeping a corrupt housing developer from putting up a shady halfway house in your neighborhood or preventing the municipal water supply from into a dumping pond,” says Werthmann.

“New York, like many cities, is constantly in flux, and I found it really simultaneously satisfying and harrowing to engage with that topic on so brutal a level.”

[In The Footprint: The Battle for Atlantic Yards. Wed 1.19.11-Sun 1.23.11. Paramount Theatre, 555 Washington St., Downtown Crossing, Boston. 7:30pm/14+/$39. artsemerson.org, thecivilians.org]