Through time

Through Time is in it's fifth year of creating original theatrical events with refugees and asylees to address the issues these communities face in trying to find home.

In 2022, Notch was honored to work with St. Ann's Warehouse and The Walk to invite Little Amal to New York City. In 2020 & 2021, Notch worked with coLAB Arts, The Black Community Watchline, and RCHP-AHC, which helps resettle refugees from around the world in central New Jersey, provides home studies and post-release services to unaccompanied refugee minors, and assists people who have been subjected to human trafficking, creating original theater pieces with the diverse refugee communities served by these organizations. Check out the blog or read a Broadway World article about the collaboration's launch.

Currently, we are offering theater workshops for refugee youth in New Jersey in collaboration with Church World Services, an international organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement,
and disaster.

"We are all migrants through time"

-Mohsin Hamid, Exit West

In Fall 2022, Notch was honored to work with St. Ann's Warehouse and The Walk to invite Little Amal to New York City where (alongside 100 immigrant, asylee, and refugee youth) she met the Statue of Liberty. Little Amal is a 3.5 meter-tall living artwork, a giant puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl who has travelled over 9,000km across 12 countries to bring attention to the issues facing refugees, asylees and especially unaccompanied minors worldwide. Most recently commissioned by CWS for 2023 and 2024 to run theatre workshops and create original plays with/for refugee
and asylee youth.

Play History

A colorful poster advertising a block party and reading event on July 25th at Highland Park, New Jersey, featuring outdoor food, live music, and community stories, with event details and sponsors listed.

RECAP: Block Party & Reading of a Play

World Refugee Day

We presented a preview of the play featuring Portland Thomas, J. Richey Nash and members of the I-Rise staff

Screenshot of a virtual meeting with multiple participants, some with cameras on showing people in various indoor and outdoor settings.

Flyer for interfaith-rise after school Mondays with details about activities, schedule, mask mandate, rain cancellation, and health precautions.

I-Rise After
School Program

Notch had the pleasure of working with youth at the I-Rise After School Program

A young girl with braided hair wearing a colorful face mask and a cream-colored sweater, holding a small yellow chick outdoors in a garden.

A young boy wearing a Spider-Man mask holding a small chicken in a backyard.

Two children wearing masks and gloves, one holding a small chicken outdoors near a church with stained glass windows and a white picket fence.

A person holding a brown and yellow chicken on their arm, with children and adults in the background outdoors near a white picket fence and a church.

Creative Connections Celebration

In April 2021, we gathered a group of community members for the first reading of Through time (pets optional, of course), we took the audience on a journey through the script's vibrant world.

Two women sitting outdoors, wearing masks and holding papers, with a dog wearing a cone on its neck. The scene is in a garden area with houses in the background.

A screenshot of a virtual meeting with 11 women, each in their own video window, in a grid format. The women appear to be middle-aged or older, and the backgrounds vary from home offices to living rooms.

Story Circle Workshop

We held Story Circle workshops with the retiree community at RCHP and in February we read a first draft of a short play based on their stories and conversations.

Broadway World: "Ashley Teague and Susana Plotts-Pineda Join CoLAB Arts 2021 Cohort For New Brunswick Artist Residency."

by BWW News Desk on Dec. 2, 2020

"coLAB Arts has announced the 2021 cohort for its New Brunswick Artist Residency. These incredible social practice and socially-engaged artists will be working over the next year with and in service to local organizations and communities through oral history, workshop facilitation, studio practice, and socially engaged art making. Artist and organization pairings include: Daniela Ochoa-Bravo and Susana Plotts-Pineda in collaboration with Unity Square Neighborhood Revitalization Project and Rutgers University, Osimiri Sprowal in collaboration with SHELTER (shelternj.org) and Mercado Esperanza (mercadoesperanzanb.org), Ashley Teague and Notch Theatre Company in collaboration with Reformed Church of Highland Park - Affordable Housing Corporation (RCHP-AHC), and Jody Wood in collaboration with Elijah's Promise. These residencies are supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and a Rutgers University Research Council grant."