Experimental theatre festival Under the Radar has announced the programming for its 2025 iteration, which will be its 20th anniversary. The festival will run January 4–19, 2025, and features 33 shows around New York City. Highlights of the programming include A Knock on the Roof, a play set in Gaza by Palestinian artist Khawla Ibraheem; Show/Boat: A River, a reimagined new version of the classic musical Show Boat from Target Margin; and a new political play from Robert Schenkkan called Old Cock.
Said UTR founder and artistic director Mark Russell in a statement, “This festival looks to the future of the international/national performance/theatre world. It reflects the vitality and abundance of contemporary theater happening in New York City, and around the world. Though this is our 20th year, it is also the beginning of a new Under the Radar, re-imagined and re-energized for today.”
The new program represents a comeback of sorts for the festival, which last year was on the brink of closure after its longtime host, the Public Theater, announced it would no longer help produce the festival. Russell then took the festival to other theatres around town and brought it back in a new, itinerant version. The festival will now be presented at 24 venues around the city. It is run by Russell, alongside new co-creative directors Meropi Peponides of Radical Evolution and Kaneza Schaal, and producers Thomas O. Kriegsmann and Sami Pyne of ArKtype.
Other highlights from UTR 2025 includes:
- Cuckoo, from South Korean artist Jaha Koo about living in a high tech society
- A puppet musical called Dead as a Dodo from Wakka Wakka
- A family-friendly show called Little Murmur about growing up with dyslexia, from U.K. companies Aakash Odedra Company, Lewis Major Projects, and The Spark Arts for Children.
- Marie Antoinette by American performance artist Ann Liv Young that is billed as an intimate "eating experience."
- Murder Room by American playwright Anne Washburn, about the current state of the theatre industry.
Alongside the festival programming, UTR is commissioning new works for the first time: Nile Harris, Jenn Kidwell, and Alex Tatarsky. UTR will also host the Symposium at The Commons located in NYU's John A. Paulson Center, an annual gathering of international performing arts leaders, and a festival hub at ArtXnyc, which will have pop-up performances, live music, and more.
Visit UTRFest.org.
