Month of Rest 2024

*PlayCo Staff and "Resters" at St. John's Park.

At PlayCo, we've been digging deeper to understand the role of theatre and theatre artists (besides putting on shows and performances) and working to find ways to activate ourselves in a role of service + healing for our community. In our conversations with audience members, colleagues, and theater makers, people have expressed the need for ways and opportunities to gather, to rest, recharge, and reconnect to themselves and nature.

PlayCo's MONTH OF REST is a month-long slate of virtual and in-person free individual and communal events that encourage rest, dreaming, and doing less (or, what our staff members fondly refer to as “anti-programming”)

April 2024 was MONTH OF REST’s fourth iteration, and we focused on activities that brought us closer to nature in more intentional ways. Check out highlights from our events below!

Group Nap (Virtual)

Friday April 12th at 2:00pm - 3:00pm

You are invited to join us on zoom, where Carolina Đỗ (PlayCo's Associate Director for Community Engagement and Resident Napper) will guide you through a body relaxation exercise and then a 25 minute nap.

Sound Bath

SATURDAY April 20 at 12pm

Bring yourself, warm clothing, a water bottle, and a yoga mat. The sound bath will be an hour-long meditation. Sam Xu will lead us in a workshop utilizing gongs tuned at a series of vibration frequencies that resonate with the moon and other planets in our solar system.

About Sam Xu: Sam Xu is a Brooklyn Based actor and sound healer originally from Datong, Shanxi, China. Devoting her practice to the power of collective healing, Sam has performed hundreds of sound baths alongside a group of gifted sound healers for numerous art institutions and community spaces such as MoMA, ICA Richmond, Socrates Sculpture Park and more.

A group walk through Shakespeare Garden in Central Park

Sunday April 21 at 4pm

Join us for a nice leisurely stroll through the 4-acre space and observe nature as well as plaques that carry quotes from Shakespeare that reference plants. Please feel free to bring a friend (or 2), sunscreen, and water.

Spruce up St. John’s Park in Crown Heights

Tuesday April 30 11:00am-2:00pm

We'll be helping to get the park in shape for spring by engaging in various horticulture activities such as weeding, mulching, and tidying up the garden beds!

Carolina Đỗ and Ben Holbrook mulching St. John's Park

PlayCo staff and "Resters" cleaning up St. John's Park