The prominent theatre festival returns for another year

For a city that boasts hundreds of theatrical productions each year, it stands to reason that New York should also host multiple theatre festivals. From Fringe NYC to Midtown International Theatre Festival to Brits Off Broadway at 59E59, there are always opportunities to check out edgy, underground, or international shows that might never play here otherwise.

But even in this crowded field, the carefully curated Under the Radar festival—co-produced by The Public Theater, Mark Russell, and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters—stands out.

“We focus on independent theatre from around the world and the U.S.,” says Russell, who has been with the festival for all of its eight years. “This is theatre that is made to tour and to move around. It’s contemporary artists who are trying to make a statement about what theatre is now and connect with an audience.”

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Tips for getting the most from FringeNYC

The fifteenth annual FringeNYC festival runs from August 12-28, and as always, it’s a smorgasbord of theatre, dance, comedy, and performance art. With so many shows to choose from, the festival can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some tips on how to become a Fringe expert.

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A teenage playwright joins theatre legends

Summer Shorts, the annual festival of new American short plays, has lined up a murderers’ row of playwrights for its fifth season. On deck are marquee names like Christopher Durang, Tina Howe, and Neil LaBute, and they’re sharing a bill with someone who might grace marquees in the future: Ruby Rae Spiegel, who turns 18 exactly a week after the festival begins at 59E59 on Aug. 4.

Spiegel is the youngest writer the festival has ever produced, but when John McCormack, Summer Shorts’ production manager, read her sly play Carrie & Francine, he wasn’t thinking about her age. “Ruby’s play felt different from anything else we read,” he says. “I laughed. But there’s something deeper there too. For me, a middle aged guy, it felt very much like the world of 13-year-olds today.”

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Galactic Girl in: Attack of the Starbarians!

A festival at the Brick asks what comics can do on stage

It’s just by coincidence that as a certain webslinger comes to Broadway, the Brick Theater in Brooklyn is hosting its first-ever Comic Book Theater Festival through July 1. However, even though it shares a medium with Spider-Man, the festival is designed to remind audiences that comics offer much more than superheroes.

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From revivals of old favorite to meetings with new artists, this year’s Fringe is already going strong

You’ve got to love the scrappiness of FringeNYC. As it presents over 200 theatre and dance productions, the festival always seems energetic and raw, like it’s running on excitement and artistic ambition.

However, it takes an enormous amount of work to create that bohemian vibe, and planning for this year’s festival began just weeks after last year’s ended.

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