UNDER THE RADAR is New York City’s premier annual festival of experimental theater, featuring cutting-edge performances from around the world and across the U.S. The 20th edition of UTR will run from January 4-19, 2025 presenting over a dozen productions at various partner organizations across the city.
UNDER THE RADAR connects with the city, the nation, and the world through the voices of innovative multidisciplinary artists. The festival champions transparency, equity, and collaboration in creating new live works. It embodies global citizenship, fosters innovation, and provides a stage for new voices.
UTR history
The Under the Radar Festival began as a beta concept in January 2003 entitled Fresh Terrain: A Performance Art/Theatre Festival & Symposium, co-produced by the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Theatre and Dance and New York’s Performance Space 122. Featured artists were New York’s Richard Maxwell, Big Art Group, Ann Carlson, and Universes; Toronto’s da da kamera; Diana Szeinblum of Buenos Aires; and Austin’s Rude Mechs. The first NY edition was realized at St. Ann’s Warehouse in January of 2005 as a conference on presenting and producing new work. Mark Russell shifted the conference to be a 7-day theater festival, where the actual performances were the break-out sessions. The event was considered a success and received funding for two more years of meetings. Oskar Eustis, when he assumed the role of Artistic Director of the Public Theater invited Mark Russell and Under the Radar to be a part of his inaugural season in 2006. With the resources, legacy, and stature of the Public Theater Under the Radar expanded its length to 12 days. It continued its success and became an annual meeting point for producers, presenters, and their international counterparts interested in the burgeoning alternative theater scene thriving in New York at that time. The festival has always mixed international work with national and local artists, to give a spotlight on new artists and new global developments in the field. As it continued at the Public it became a destination festival for leaders from theaters and festivals hailing from Asia, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and Europe. It was quickly considered one of the most adventurous and significant festivals. An audience grew at the Public, expecting the festival as much as they relied on Shakespeare in the Park. Other festivals began to pop up surrounding RADAR, dealing with new opera, performance art, and experimental dance.
The Under the Radar Festival became known for providing a breakout platform for many artists. Introducing them to international presenters and a wider New York and national audience. The list of artists who enjoyed significant appearances in the festival includes: Tarrell Alvin McCraney, Cia Dos Tores, Guillermo Calderon, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Reggie Watts, Rachel Chavkin, Taylor Mac, Lemon Anderson, Back to Back Theater, Belarus Free Theater, Mark O’Rowe, The Bengsons, Kassys, 600 Highwaymen, TG Stan, Philippe Quenes, Pascal Rambert, Andrew Schneider, Lars Jan, Tim Crouch, Tim Etchells, Javaad Alipoor, Tania El Khoury, Chelfitsch/Toshiki Okada, Choir! Choir! Choir!, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Misha Choudry, Kameron Neal, Charlotte Braithewaite, among many others.
On June 1, 2023, the Public Theater announced that for financial reasons it could no longer produce the Under the Radar Festival, after 18 editions, 17 of them at the Public. There was an outcry online and in the press about the sudden closing of the festival. A memorial of flowers and notes appeared on the steps of the Public, mourning its loss to the field and to the city. Under the Radar was almost immediately revived in collaboration with the NYC production company ArKtype. The 2024 iteration of the Festival ran from January 5 to January 21, presenting more than 180 performances of 17 distinct productions at 11 different theaters across Brooklyn and Manhattan, along with a Symposium and an artistic pitch session. The 2024 season was a critical and commercial success, selling out the vast majority of its performances.
Staff
Festival Founder + Director
Mark Russell
Co-Creative Director/Producer-in-Residence
Meropi Peponides
Co-Creative Director/Artist-in-Residence
Kaneza Schaal
Festival Producer
ArKtype | Thomas O. Kriegsmann + Sami Pyne
Producer, Symposium + Coming Attractions
Iyvon E.
Producer, Marketing + Public Programs
Bryn Herdrich
Director of Development
Kendall Masson
Marketing + Communications Strategy
general population
Copy Writer + Partner Organization Marketing Coordinator
John Seroff | GreenHouse Publicity
Digital Engagement + Social Media Lead
FAILSPACE
Press Representation
Blake Zidell & Associates | Blake Zidell & Adriana Leshko
Director of Production
Brian Freeland
Website Design
Abby Browde
Producing Fellow
Joy Chen
Dramaturgy Fellow
Anastasia Ellis
Artist + Presenter Services Fellow
Carolina Hurtado Castro
Public Programs Fellow
Margot Anderson-Song
Mark Russell, festival founder + director
Mark Russell has been working in the downtown dance/performance and theater world for over 35 years. From 1983-2004 he was the Executive Artistic Director of Performance Space 122. He brought the space from a low-tech artist rental space to a world-renowned presenting institution committed to developing the work of New York City artists. In January 2005 Russell launched the Under the Radar Festival at St. Ann’s Warehouse. UTR focuses on theater-based contemporary performance. The festival moved to the Public Theater in 2006 and became a centerpiece in the New York City theater season; mixing international performances with national and local artists. Russell has been involved with many artists over his career, creating opportunities for them to grow and reach wider audiences. He is now involved in re-imagining The Under the Radar Festival for a new generation.
Meropi Peponides, co-creative director/producer-in-residence
Meropi Peponides is a theater maker, dramaturg, podcast producer, writer and co-founder of Radical Evolution Performance Collective. She has been co-creating and producing theatre for the past 18 years with a focus on devised ensemble work, new plays, site-specific work and community-based performance. Her work explores cross-cultural affinity and seeks to disrupt cultural hierarchies by drawing inspiration from and lifting up BIPOC and nonwestern traditions. From 2014-2023 she was the producer and then co-director of Soho Rep. While there, she produced 18 off-Broadway productions, most world premieres, that were awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel Award, and numerous OBIE Awards, among others. Upcoming with Radical Evolution: National tour of Canciones, an immersive, site-specific play with music and The Hunger Project (working title, commission from Soho Rep). Other organizations with which she has collaborated include The Foundry Theatre, The Movement Theatre Company and The Public Theater. She also organizes with Artists Co-Creating Real Equity (ACRE), Justice Committee, and Artists Against Apartheid.
Kaneza Schaal, co-creative director/artist-in-residence
Kaneza Schaal works in theater, film, and opera. She believes theater is a model for participatory society and fundamental to a functioning democracy. By creating performances that speak many formal, cultural, historical, aesthetic, and experiential languages she seeks expansive audiences. Schaal’s work has shown in divergent contexts, from NYC galleries, to courtyards in Vietnam, to East African amphitheaters, to European opera houses, to US public housing, to rural auditoriums in the United Arab Emirates. Domestically her work has shown at The Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Los Angeles Opera, Detroit Opera, LA Philharmonic, The Shed, Walker Arts Center, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, REDCAT, The New Victory Theater, and New Orleans Center for Contemporary Art. Schaal is Guggenheim Fellow, and recipient of Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, United States Artists Fellowship, SOROS Art Migration and Public Space Fellowship, Ford Foundation Art For Justice Bearing Witness Award, and she directed the 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar.
ArKtype, producer
ArKtype is recognized as among the world’s leading supporters of new, experimental work. Established in 2005 by producer Thomas O. Kriegsmann to support the finest in emerging and established artists based in NYC and worldwide, we support risk in live performance – creating an ever-shifting mechanism for the fulfillment of artists’ visions for new work, international collaboration, production and touring. The company has grown to encompass renowned artists from twenty-five different countries at any given time, limitless genres and commercial and non-profit support structures for a variety of spaces. Realizing the infrastructural demands of the artist in an environment of limited funding and financial support for creative endeavors, ArKtype aims to balance infrastructural support with creative growth, allowing the artist a long-term relationship with a producing entity based on establishing the artist’s continued presence in the national and international regional theater, festival and arts presenter communities. More information at arktype.org.
Thomas O. Kriegsmann (President) specializes in new work development and touring worldwide. His past work includes projects with Kaneza Schaal, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Daniel Fish, Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin, Yael Farber, Anna Deavere Smith, Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar, Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, John Cameron Mitchell and Tony Taccone. Recent premieres include Justin Peck & Sufjan Stevens’ ILLINOIS, 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s A THOUSAND WAYS, nora chipaumire’s NEHANDA, Sam Green’s 32 SOUNDS w/ JD Samson, Bryce Dessner’s TRIPTYCH (EYES OF ONE ON ANOTHER) directed by Kaneza Schaal, John Cameron Mitchell’s THE ORIGIN OF LOVE, Kaneza Schaal & Christopher Myers’ CARTOGRAPHY, Sam Green & Kronos Quartet’s A THOUSAND THOUGHTS, Big Dance Theater / Mikhail Baryshnikov’s MAN IN A CASE, Toshi & Bernice Johnson Reagon’s PARABLE OF THE SOWER and Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater’s NOT BY BREAD ALONE. Ongoing collaborations include Bryce Dessner, Sophia Brous, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Sam Green, Timothy White Eagle, Andrew Schneider, Big Dance Theater, John Cameron Mitchell & Amber Martin, and Compagnia T.P.O. Premieres include Sufjan Stevens & Justin Peck’s ILLINOISE, Bryce Dessner & Kaneza Schaal’s UNTITLED OCEAN VUONG PROJECT, Sam Green’s UNTITLED TREES DOCUMENTARY PROJECT, and Penny Arcade’s autobiographical epic THE ART OF BECOMING. He is a founding member of CIPA (The Creative & Independent Producer Alliance).
Sami Pyne (Producing Director) is passionate about demystifying and decluttering the production process for creators. Through ArKtype, she’s had the pleasure of producing work with artists including 600 Highwaymen (A Thousand Ways, The Following Evening), Bryce Dessner (Dream House Quartet), CHRISTEENE (The Lion, The Witch, and the Cobra), John Cameron Mitchell (Cassette Roulette), nora chipaumire (NEHANDA, dambudzo), Sam Green (32 Sounds), Sophia Brous (Invisible Opera) and Timothy White Eagle (The Indigo Room, Indian School). In her independent practice, Sami is dedicated to making the creative process more accessible for emerging artists who are developing new work. Recent independent producing credits include Jeesun Choi’s To the Ends of the Earth / 땅끝까지 at JACK, Alex Hare and Julia Izumi’s Capricorn 29 at The Tank, Jen Pitt’s TRASH BODY MONKEY HOUSE at New Ohio’s Ice Factory Festival, Christina Tang’s TRAFFIC at The Brick’s Exponential Festival, and Keenan Tyler Oliphant’s Kyk Hoe Skyn die Son [Look how the Sun Shines] at Clubbed Thumb’s Winterworks. Sami received her MFA from Columbia University in Theatre Management and Producing, served as an observer for the Asian Producers Platform (APP) 2024 Camp in Malaysia, and is a proud Advisory Committee member of the Creative & Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA).
OPPORTUNITIES
VOLUNTEER
Under the Radar is building a team of friendly volunteers to support the festival leading up to and throughout its upcoming 20th edition as festival reps. Reps are crucial in coordinating festival access and engagement, as well as helping audiences navigate the festival lineup at participating theaters across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. As a rep, you will have the opportunity to facilitate access to a wide range of artistic minds and theatrical experiences. Volunteers will be needed from November through the duration of the festival (January 4th – January 19th, 2025). Time commitment varies based on availability.
Interested? Fill out this form.
CAREERS
Thank you for your interest in Under the Radar. While we have no current positions available, please check back, as this space is frequently updated.
