New Georges advocates for an intergenerational ecosystem of exuberant theatrical minds, furthering fierce new works along with long-term wellbeing, expanding aesthetic boundaries and gender equity in tandem.
Our work is relational, not transactional. By meeting artists where they are and empowering them to see us as creative collaborators, we readily spot and support critical junctures in their process or body of work. In our relaxed, participatory culture, we kindle an uncommon level of dreaming, experimentation, and trust.
As a pivotal home and launchpad for now two generations of artists, we see our impact in every corner of the culture: in theater communities, classrooms, and productions nationwide, in program bios and ongoing collaborations, in TV writers’ rooms, on film sets, on bookshelves, on Broadway. It is perhaps most poignantly felt in submissions from young artists whose work reports the loving influence of those who have come before.
How we work and think is indivisible from our core values: experimentation, community, flexibility, ambition… and beer.
For more on our values and to find our given circumstances: hit up WHO WE ARE.
For more about the kinds of plays and artists we love and look for: click to KNOCK ON OUR DOOR.
To dig deeper into our past and present: scroll through THE RECORD.
Our activities fall into two categories: THEATER PROJECTS and ARTIST PLATFORM.
A Theater Project is just about anything we make that an audience gets to see.
Productions at New Georges expand or contract to meet the needs of each project. They are programmed project-to-project (rather than as a season) and presented by ourselves alone, in co-production, or in partnership.
Projects can also include participants in our artist service programs for affiliated artists who are producing their work themselves, and whatever else might emerge from our programs or community: a proof-of-concept test, a workshop, an audio play, a UR experience, a cabaret, an installation, or something absolutely new that defies prior notions of what is “finished,” what is a “sitdown,” what is a “run,” what is “live.”
We especially love to make things we’ve never made before–or seen before!–or that simply seem impossible. Thanksgiving dinner as 10-person football game? Alligator wrestling in a water-filled pit? How ‘bout a party in a spreadsheet! Sign us right up.
Read more about THEATER PROJECTS we’ve got in the hopper.
New Georges’ development pathways, services, and other touchpoints represent an Artist Platform, scaffolding that frees artists to evolve, experiment, and play.
Our open-ended programs all began as responses to artists telling us what they need. Rooted in collaboration and creative workspace, they’re about getting up from the table and out from behind music stands to work in 3-D; supporting new kinds of processes and means of expression; introducing artists to collaborators; and keeping it all low-pressure to encourage experimental muscles. Measures of impact include pleasure in the process, depth of experimentation, new approaches ventured, next-step opportunities, and collaborations made and strengthened.
Read more about the programs and services that comprise our ARTIST PLATFORM.
New Georges was founded in 1992 by Artistic Director/Producer Susan Bernfield and two other women actors confronting a scarcity of substantive roles to play. Producing plays by women, we felt, would create opportunity and herald new perspectives. We figured once we met one woman playwright, they’d lead us (of course!) to many more. It rapidly became evident that no such network or community of women playwrights existed–though from what artists told us, it wasn’t for lack of need.
The rest, as they say, is history. Peruse our searchable archive and discover what happened next. And next. And now! It’s all in THE RECORD.
Top: Judith Greentree, Christina Kirk, Matthew Montelongo in GOD’S EAR by Jenny Schwartz, directed by Anne Kauffman, 2007. Photo: Jim Baldassare
Photo atop The Record: Boo Killebrew in MOTEL CHERRY by Peggy Stafford, directed by Meghan Finn, 2012. Photo: Heather Phelps