LOCAL GRANDMA is a free-form theater company devoted to irreverent humor, rigorous play, and causing a ruckus.
LOCAL GRANDMA creates and produces live performances, multimedia videos, and other interdisciplinary, genre-fluid projects.
LOCAL GRANDMA is based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn, NY and led by German-American artist Leonie Bell.
LOCAL GRANDMA is passionate about intergenerational, cross-cultural narratives & process-oriented practices that center equitable artist compensation and multi-hyphen artistic experimentation.
LOCAL GRANDMA got its name when Leonie saw an interview with an older woman on local television whose title card just read “LOCAL GRANDMA.”
To date, LOCAL GRANDMA has produced six projects, three theater productions and three multi-media films and has worked with over 60 local and international artists and shared work with over 1000 virtual and in-person audience members. SchmidtSmithSchmidt, LG’s second larger-scale production, premiered at the Brick in Brooklyn, NY on December 7th, 2023. Next, LG will create the third and final tv episode of the multimedia series We Live to Die: The Grieving Widows Club for May 2024.
LOCAL GRANDMA’s upcoming project aspirations include a multi-generational penpal puppetry film project with Brooklyn-based seniors and elementary school students, in which the seniors tell stories and the elementary students theatricalize them in the form of puppetry short films with the participants voiceover.
Every neighborhood has a local grandma. Every neighborhood needs a local grandma.
LOCAL GRANDMA says: Don’t forget your local grandma!
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Fellow LOCAL GRANDMAs include:
Ali Andre Ali + Olivia Bernábe + Caroline Burkhart + Maria Camia + Rawya El Chab + Lianne Elsouki + Sarah Finn + Julliette Holliday + Jesse Koehler + Akvinder Kaur + Celia Krefter + Sifiso Mabena + Marcella Murray + Tzena Nicole + Hanna Westi + many more illustrious clowns
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LOCAL GRANDMA has received support from Brooklyn Arts Council, Target Margin Theater, Mental Insight Foundation, NYSCA, Mr. Pancks’ Fund at the Chicago Community Foundation and 125 private donors.
