Theater for the New City Foundation, Inc.

Programs: The theater nurtures and develops writers for the american stage. The theater does only new work - all premiers. It produces a playwright more than once, as the writer gains strength over a period of time. It does full-length plays, many with music and song and choreography. Each year, the theater produces between 30-40 new american plays by both emerging writers, established writers, and theater companies that have no permanent home. The resident theater produces 20-30 new american plays per year, providing a forum for both new and mid-career writers to experiment with their work and develop as artists. For newer writers within the resident theater program, the theater offers an emerging theater program that commissions and produces 10 plays by fledgling writers each year. The newest division of the resident theater program, new city, new blood and scratch night are reading series for worthy plays in earlier stages of development.

presenting theater - the presenting theater program is the theater's vehicle to providing a showcase for performing groups without a permanent base. Each winter, the presenting program hosts bread and puppet theater, the oldest continuing experimental theater company in america and the thunderbird american indian dance concert and pow-wow, which offers ritual and social dances from 17 tribes throughout the united states. This is the only native american dance concert and pow-wow in the east where native americans can see the dances of each other's tribes. Native foods and crafts are sold in the lobby.

street theater - the annual summer street theater is a free operetta-for-the-streets that tours 13 locations in all 5 boroughs of new york city. Begun in the early 1970s and embodying the grassroots ideals of that decade, street theater aims to raise social awareness in the communities it performs in, creating civic dialogue that inspires a better understanding of the world beyond the communities' geographic boundaries. Street theater plays to an estimated 25,000 people each summer.

community festival - the community festival program is a result of the theater's strong commitment to the community. Consisting of the village halloween costume ball and the lower east side festival of the arts, it gives low-income neighborhood residents and curious out-of-towners alike the opportunity to experience some of the artistic diversity of new york city for free. The halloween ball showcases over 450 artists and performers at a multi-level theatrical event, spill out onto the street, whose performances are free to the public. The lower east side festival of the arts is a free three-day weekend long extravaganza celebrating the cultural and artistic diversity of the lower east side. Arts in education - the theater's arts in education program is the only theater-training program developed specifically to foster communication and self-esteem in at-risk and limited english proficient students. It has served p. S. 20, jhs 64, the regents family shelter and the catherine street shelter, and currently consists of a free after school theater workshop for low-income lower east side children.