The Brick presents

Created by Leonie Bell with LOCAL GRANDMA

Thurs - Sat, Oct 1 - 3 at 8 PM +  Sun, Oct 4 at 5 PM 

Thurs - Sat, Oct 8 - 10 at 8 PM + Sun, Oct 11 at 2 PM* 

Thurs - Sat, Oct 15 - 17 at 8 PM + Sun, Oct 18 at 5PM 

* This performance includes a special live streaming performance via The Brick YouTube Channel filmed live by Zanni Productions. (8 PM CET & 11 AM PST ) 

579 Metropolitan Ave 

Brooklyn, 11211 United States

$20 - 50 sliding scale

Tickets at bricktheater.org

Text: Leonie Bell

Direction: Leonie Bell + Celia Krefter

Costume Design: Karen Boyer

Lighting Design: Celia Krefter

Props Design: Jonathan Schatzberg

Set Design: Forest Entsminger

Sound Design: Leonie Bell

Fight Direction + Gore Design: Bailey Van Schepen

Stage Management: Akvinder Kaur

Run Crew + Screaming Title Maid:  TBD

Press and Marketing: Privy Collective 

Producing Team: Leonie Bell + Celia Krefter

A LOCAL GRANDMA Production 

Leonie Bell

CHEEKS

Theodor Gabriel

Julliette Holliday

John R. Howley

Marcella Murray

Hanna Westi 

Im Dunkeln sieht man besser (transl. You can see better in the Dark) is LOCAL GRANDMA’s third full-length production!
 
This is our first three-weekend production with a large cast and full design team. 

It will feature returning and new collaborators and take place at the Brick again, which has been an artistic home to Leonie for seven years now. 

@leonbellstein @local_grandma_party

cw: Death, fog, gore, strobing lights, suicidal ideations

This project is a bilingual consideration of generational loneliness, reimagined familial structures in the face of loss, the escapism of 1920s cabaret in pre-war Germany, and the post-WWII reckonings between survivors and their former perpetrators. 

Its characters are lonely, enraged, and searching for something: for family, for revenge, redemption, for a good time. They are on the verge of a transformation. 

Interspersed with dark humor, mistranslations, and a general hue of absurdism, it features pseudo-historical characters (i.e. a contemporary horde of mean school girls who carry out hits, Harriet, an accountant-gone-theater-producer who is out for revenge), acapella choral singing (i.e. undead death nurses singing transition hymns), a lot of quick-changes, and fake blood.

In its content and context, Im Dunkeln sieht man besser is part of a longer line of inquiry into cultural identity, heritage, and self-determination within individual and communal narratives. As

someone who grew up in post-wall Berlin, Germany, I am still very much digging through the

baggage of my origin story and cultural identity. 

The piece is also a continued exploration of the formal, aesthetic, & dramaturgical elements I

have long been drawn to. It has text in German & English that is scripted + partially improvised

and abstracted + quotidien, highly-physical sequences that feature physical comedy +

multi-genre dance, acapella songs, and disruption of the fourth wall.

We currently have enough funds to cover 65% of our production costs!

Our production costs include artist fees, materials (i.e. glitter curtains, fake blood + intestines, beehive wigs, mean school girl costumes, and more!) and other production costs (e.g. transportation, crowdfunding fees, laundry services, etc.).

We are very excited and grateful to have received our second NYSCA grant (New York State Council of the Arts) for Im Dunkeln sieht man besser. 

In addition, this project is being supported by a grant from the Mental Insight Foundation. 

Additional income will come from: 

+

Our LOCAL GRANDMA bingo party fundraiser (September 20th! RSVP via our website!) 

+

LG merchandise (e.g. tie dye LOCAL GRANDMA shirts, and glasses chains, stickers!)

We are crowdfunding for $7,000 to go directly towards our artist fees! 

All donations made to this campaign are  tax-deductible!

7 performers

1 co-director + co-producer

1 stage manager

1 assistant stage manager/ run crew

1 lighting designer

1 set designer

1 props designer

1 costume designer

1 fight director + gore designer

1 photographer 

A team of of two videographers and one sound engineer for the multi-cam live stream

Our Press and Marketing team

Load in + load out support

Leonie Bell is a German-American theater artist from Berlin, based in New York. Leonie’s pieces feature live song, genre-fluid dance and physicality, and frequently include voluntary audience participation and communal rituals. She creates highly physical, dark humor theater landscapes populated by pseudo-historical, multilingual narratives that often center matriarchal lineages and imagine nature as a main character. In NYC, she has presented work at Target Margin Theater, Performance Space NY, BAM, The Whitney Museum, The Brick, Center for Performance Research, and other venues. Leonie produces much of her work through her free-form theater company LOCAL GRANDMA. She is an alumna of the Clubbed Thumb Director’s Fellowship, Mabou Mines Resident-Artist-Program, and BAX Upstart Program. leoniebell.org / @leonbellstein

CHEEKS is a clown who appreciates all that is stupid and beautiful. She’s thrilled to be back for her fourth collab with LOCAL GRANDMA! She’s appeared internationally at Théâtres de la Ville du Luxembourg, and in venues across NYC (Caveat, BCC, BK Art Haus, MoMA PS1). Catch her clowning around at The Idiot’s Hour. @cheeeeeekss

Theodor Gabriel is a multinational theater producer, performer, and dramaturg. Most recently he helped create a queer festival at WildHeart Center in Wallkill, NY. He has presented work at FEST in Skillinge, Sweden, an international theatre conference merging performance practice, ecology, and social transformation. Recent collaborations include Petty Tyrant (Carla Kissane, Shakespearean Cabaret); The D Project, an adaptation of Women of Trachis conceived and directed by Ivan Talijancic (WaxFactory); and TRACES, a Sophie Calle retrospective created by Rachel Jendrzejewski and WaxFactory and presented at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University. theodorgabriel.com / @theodor.gabriel

Julliette Holliday is a Brooklyn based, Black, multi-hyphenate artist. As a theatre-maker she has collaborated with The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, The Tank NYC, The Miranda Family Fellowship, and more. In her creative writing, Julliette explores themes of displacement, disembodiment, intimacy, and racial/ethnic belonging. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, her creative nonfiction and poetry has received support from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Kenyon Writers Workshop, McCormack Writing Center, and VONA. Currently, she teaches acting, improv, devising, and musical theatre across NYC public schools with All The World Collective. @jullietteh

John R. Howley is an actor best known for his lead role in Bleeding, a Cineverse feature named one of The New York Times’ “Best Genre Movies of 2025.” He will next be seen

as the leading man of the upcoming television series Perfect Sundays and the feature

film Helen & Edgar (from the creators of The Moth Radio Hour). Recent theatre credits

include: The Edge of the World (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Timon of Athens (The

Elif Collective), Hamlet (NY Circus Project), The One Good Thing (Seven Angels

Theatre). John is a graduate of Columbia University and is proudly represented by ATB

Talent and 3G Management. johnrhowley.com / @johnrhowley

Marcella Murray is a New York-based theater artist from Augusta, Georgia. She is a playwright, performer, collaborator, and puppeteer. Murray’s work is heavily inspired by the observed ways in which people tend to segregate and reconnect, themes of identity within a community, and forward momentum in the face of trauma. Her work has been seen at Performance Space NY, Abrons Arts Center, Mabou Mines, Dixon Place, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Chez Bushwick, Detroit Institute of Art, The Brick, French Institute; Alliance Française, The Loading Dock, La MaMa, UNC Chapel Hill/Carolina Center for Performing Arts, UW Madison, MCA Chicago, and BAM. Murray is a co-curator of the Object Movement Puppetry Residency and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. @marcirenee04

Hanna Westi is a diversely trained singer, actress and dancer based in New York City,

originally from Hamburg, Germany. She is a graduate of the American Musical and

Dramatic Academy (AMDA) Integrated Program. Hanna has been a permanent cast member of the Galli Theater New York. She also recently took on the role as Associate Director of the monthly running Chasing Dreams NYC Cabaret Series and has previously danced with Rumbamena Dance Company. Hanna has also proven to be a passionate teaching artist for children and teenagers. Hanna’s recent credits include New Year - One Vision - Two Concerts by Hanna Westi at the Reepschlaegerhaus, SchmidtSmithSchmidt by Leonie Bell at the Brick Theater, Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots and Beauty

and the Beast by Johannes Galli at the Galli Theater NY. hannawesti.com / @hanna.westi

Karen Boyer designs and builds costumes in NYC.  Past and recent collaborators include Object Collection, harunalee, Pan Asian Repertory, Target Margin Theatre, Little Lord, Meta-Phys Ed, choreographers Catherine Galasso and Sarah Dahnke, and filmmakers Ben Finer and Aaron Schimberg.  BFA: Maryland Institute College of Art.   MFA: NYU Tisch School of the Arts. karenrachelboyer.com / @karenrboyer

Forest Entsminger is a NYC-based scenic designer. Credits include Dad Don’t Read This (Greenwich House Theater, St Luke’s); Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen (Torn Page);Time Passes (Target Margin, IRT, Mabou Mines); Meow! (Loading Dock); Faust (Heartbeat Opera); Cankersore Paradise,The Threepenny Opera (Lenfest Center); Two Girls, The Monkeypox Gospel (Ars Nova); Sweet Bird of Youth (Barn at Lee, Provincetown TWF); Meaghan Robichaud is the Greatest Show on Earth, I want to hold onto something beautiful and empty, u are the dream, Horsefacts.gov/, Babies on the Street, Goldhaven, Sleeping Car Porters (The Brick); The Salvagers (Yale Rep). M.F.A. - Yale School of Drama. bentscenic.com / @forestbents

Celia Krefter is a director, choreographer, writer, musician, and lighting designer who creates original works of dance-theatre. Current and recent works: HOW TO BE NORMAL AND REGULAR (Brick Aux), Math Live! (Collapsable Hole), MUDPIT (Movement Lab), Everything Changes, Nothing is Lost (Brick Aux). Celia is a repeat collaborator with companies including Experiments In Opera, LOCAL GRANDMA, and Object Collection. Celia is from Hamburg, Germany and Cape Cod, MA, and plays accordion in the musical duo the Outdoor Cats. celiakrefter.art / @galactic_celia

Jonathan Schatzberg is a Brooklyn-based designer and fabricator for theater and film. His work has been featured across basements, attics, nooks and crannies, as well as in music videos, commercials, shorts, and features. Select works: The Body of Mary: A Play in Three Acts (of God) (The Gym at Judson); Baby Butcher Choke for Free (The Brick); Gooey’s Toxic Aquatic Adventure (The Bushwick Starr); TRAD (Exponential Festival @ Loading Dock Theatre); Floating Carousel (Woodstock Film Festival); “Call Me a Liar” (Tribeca Film Festival). Upcoming: LBJ: The Play (Paradise Factory). Say hi! jonathanschatzberg.com / @jonschatzberg

Bailey Van Schepen is an NYC-based fight director from Northeast Texas who has dedicated their career to giving actors from all mediums, all walks of life, and every corner of the world the opportunity to find control in out-of-control situations. She began her journey as an acting student at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, then went on to work as a teaching assistant at NYU under fight master J. David Brimmer. Bailey has attended Summer Sling’s Fight Director workshop and has broadened the scope of her toolbox drastically by learning from professionals such as Tonya Lynn, Jon Rubin, and many more. They have also traveled abroad to train with the renowned Roberta Carreri at Odin Theatre in Denmark, and it was there that she introduced actors from different corners of the world to the works of stage combat - some of them for the first time. baileyvanschepen.com / @baileyvanschepen

LOCAL GRANDMA is a free-form theater company that creates and produces live performances, multimedia videos, and other interdisciplinary, genre-fluid projects. LG is based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn, NY and hosted by German-American artist Leonie Bell. Leonie started LG in 2020 as a support structure to help her produce her own work on a larger scale after showing it in mostly one- or two-night festivals. LG features a fluid combination of new and returning artists per project. To date, LOCAL GRANDMA has produced four projects, two multi-weekend theater productions, and two multi-media films. LG has worked with over 80 local and international artists and shared work with over 1300 virtual and in-person audience members. In 2025, they launched their first sliding scale workshop series featuring two clowning workshops hosted by Hannah Mitchell. localgrandma.org / @local_grandma_party

The Brick Theater is a ground level garage converted into a theater. There is a permanent ramp to the performance area, which is a little less than a foot up from the ground level. The bathroom has a grab bar and an ADA compliant door width, but the ground is somewhat uneven inside of the bathroom.

The seating at The Brick Theater is most commonly set up with chairs on the floor and on three levels of risers that have a 4-10″ rise. The seating at Brick Aux is most commonly chairs of varying sizes set up on the floor. Please reach out to info@bricktheater.com at any time with questions, concerns, or requests.

Content warnings for shows in each space are posted on the website. If you would rather ask questions in advance of being in the space or if you would like to enter in advance of house opening due to our seating not being assigned, please reach out to info@bricktheater.com.

If you are interested in this work and able to support, any amount will help us! 

+ Stay updated +

Follow us at @local_grandma_party or subscribe to Leonie’s mailing list to stay updated on the show!

More info at localgrandma.org  

Im Dunkeln sieht man besser  is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the Mental Insight Foundation.