Festival Programme
All New Talent. All New Work. Always Ars Nova.
ANT Fest is our annual festival of All New Talent showcasing new work from New York’s most adventurous emerging artists.
Every summer, Ars Nova throws open our doors to the next wave of pioneering theater, comedy, music and hybrid theater-makers who fill our stage with their most dynamic ideas.
Saw ‘em First @ ANT Fest!
These artists took a chance and did a one-night-only show during ANT Fest... and that was the starting place of a long standing relationship with Ars Nova. See who pops up next!
2010 Andrew R. Butler | Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future, 2018
2011 Tansy Tan Dora | Eager to Lose, 2013
2012 James Harrison Monaco | Travels, 2024
2014 Jennifer Kidwell & Scott Sheppard | Underground Railroad Game, 2016
2017 nicHi douglas | (pray), 2023
2024 ??? | !!!
And you may also have seen...
Avi Amon, Andrew Bancroft, Michael Breslin, Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Dylan Dawson, John Early, Patrick Foley, Deepali Gupta, Ryan Haddad, Jeremy O. Harris, raja feather kelly, Jo Lampert, Grace McLean, Joél Pérez, Ashley Rodbro, Matt Rogers, Andrew Scoville, Charly Evon Simpson, Charise Castro Smith, Julio Torres, Ikechukwu Ufomadu, Whitney White, Dustin Wills, Ellen Winter, Bowen Yang...
Doors & Bars nova open @ 6:30pm, shows @ 7pm
Week One
AN ABSURDIST, AMERICAN, MYTHOLOGICAL CLOWN PLAY
A CYBER-FOLK CONCERT FOR ROBOTS
AN ABSURD COMEDIC ADVENTURE
METAMODERN CATHOLIC WEBSITE WORSHIP, HTTP!
AN INTERGALACTIC LOVE STORY
QUANTUM PHYSICS EXPERIMENT MEETS CONCERT
Week two
A FRISKY, FISHY, FILTHY MUSICAL
SURREALIST DARK COMEDY ABOUT BEING A GOOD PERSON
PART DRAG SHOW, PART SOLO MUSICAL, AND PART STADIUM WORLD TOUR
UNTAMED VARIETY-SHOW-MEETS-PARTY
YEARS OF PERFORMATIVE FUNDRAISING, ALL IN 90 MINUTES
NICK@NITE WEARING A DRESS AND RUNNING WITH A KNIFE
Week three
A MUSICAL DRAMEDY IN CONCERT
PART SATIRE, PART SLASHER, ALL CHEESE
A
FOUND-TEXT, TRANSGENERATIONAL PUNK CABARET A CROATION-AMERICAN LOVE POEM TO ASSIMILATION
Week One
House Fire Flag Father
Monday, June 10 @ 7
An absurdist, American, mythological clown play Father is gone. Daughter is here. Mother is quiet. Flag is folded. Rules are made. Flag is flown. Daughter is home. Flag is sewn. Fire is lit. Rules are broken. Mother is quiet. Flag waves. Daughter cries. Everyone laughs. All go home.
Gemma Soldati & Scott R. Sheppard
SUNFACE, or music-for-robots
Tuesday, June 11 @ 7
A cyber-folk concert for robots
A cyber-folk concert and celebration of humanity that follows Sunface, a misfit, malfunctioning robot curious about “how to human” in a fully robot world.
Mikey Rose
Tourist Trap
Wednesday, June 12 @ 7
An absurd comedic adventure Grace, Deborah and Shu-Ling are trapped in Times Square. Will they find the World’s Largest Applebee’s before it’s too late? In Tourist Trap, three Asian-American mothers reckon with identity crises, a creeping sense of dissociation… and a seedy, off-brand Elmo who won’t leave them alone.
Elijah Guo & Dylin Taylor
Website Evangelist: Eulogy for a Laptop
Thursday, June 13 @ 7
Metamodern catholic website worship, HTTP! Join Archbishop Beige, of the recently formed Website Evangelism movement, in celebrating the joyous intimacy of websites alongside the more somber offering of their only begotten laptop to the realm beyond. A night of pseudoCatholic mass reconciling loss, misplaced internet intimacy, & generational trauma into a laptop-puppet show.
Alex BeigePlanet W: A New Science-Fiction Musical
Friday, June 14 @ 7
An intergalactic love story
A small-town couple on the verge of ending their first adult relationship is abducted by zany Aliens hellbent on destroying Earth! Can the star-crossed lovers save their relationship AND the fate of humankind? Planet W blends the concept albums of 1970’s rock with the mythic characters & stories of superhero comics & classic American musical comedy.
Matt Coakley, Franco Giacomarra, & Marc David Wright
Where We Meet
Saturday, June 15 @ 7
Quantum physics experiment meets concert
A musical experiment. A solo experience exploring quantum physics. A refugee camp. Where We Meet challenges the boundaries of reality. Can we use music to reach those we’ve loved and lost?
Kate Eberstadt & Molly Rose Heller
Week two
GERALDINE!
Monday, June 17 @ 7
A frisky, fishy, filthy musical
An oddball musical featuring a cast of thousands, but performed by two dedicated weirdos and an electric piano. GERALDINE! is the story of a resident at the Lakeview Shalom nursing home whose crush on her home health aide leads her and the other residents into the sea where they find a new lust for life and, just possibly, a new hope for the world.
Jake Brasch & Nadja Leonhard-Hooper
Good Person
Tuesday, June 18 @ 7
Surrealist dark comedy about being a good person
In this raucous, solo buffoon performance, our host, Patricia!, dares the audience to examine the intricate layers of being ‘good’ in a world teetering on the edge of chaos. Good Person is an audacious, unapologetic romp through society’s contradictions made for queers, good black girls, and anyone afraid of their own rage.
Brett Ashley Robinson
Mx. Piggy Makes an OnlyFans
Thursday, June 20 @ 7
Part drag show, part solo musical, part stadium world tour
After five years of radio silence, the artist formerly known as Miss Piggy is back on a stage and they have a lot to say — chiefly about their love life, coming out as non-binary, and their attempt at making an OnlyFans.
Tank
SHOWGASM. Hosted by Chloe Troast
Thursday, June 20 @ 9:30
Untamed variety-show-meets-party
Ars Nova’s untamed monthly variety-show-meets-party is guesthosted by one of our favorite comedians, Chloe Troast (SNL), and features a who’s-who of the weird and wonderful — performing comedy to burlesque and everything (and anything) in between.
Chloe Troast
The Galas
Friday, June 21 @ 7
Years of performative fundraising, all in 90 minutes
Welcome to The Galas, a chaotic, comedic, centuries-spanning two-hander about the performance of raising money for scientific research. We need your generous support. Donate now. and now. and now.
Justine Gelfman & Joan Sergay
Night T.V.
Saturday, June 22 @ 7
Nick@Nite wearing a dress and running with a knife
A dark comedy sketch show disguised as bubble gum pop, this comedy duo channel surfs the late night programming with a bizarre take on familiar TV tropes.
Allisha Edwards & Fernanda Brigneti
Week three
The Jordan & Avery Show
Monday, June 24 @ 7
A musical dramedy in concert
A pair of broke-ass not-quite-30-somethings make comedy songs on Youtube and are being evicted from the apartment they share. After a video they make about it goes viral, the friends attempt to navigate their newfound success and process the years they’d spent and all they’d lost trying to find a way out of hardship.
Jay Adana & Jess McLeodHomofermenters or, the Park Slope Co-Op Play
Tuesday, June 25 @ 7
Part satire, part slasher, all cheese
We’re all heroes when we work the Cheese Shift at the Park Slope Food Co-Op. Maybe the Cheese Shift Leader faked her death, but we’re all too polite to ask. Part satire, part slasher, Homofermenters follows the Friday 6AM cheese shift as its members navigate joint ownership, the collapsing planet, widow-twins, and how to cut through a human-sized wheel of parmesan.
Madison Fiedler & Francesca Sabel
unlock your super powers ...and become a Super Nova! A gift today invests in Ars Nova’s unique brand of ambitious contemporary theater, built from the inside out on humane policies and practices. ARSNOVANYC.COM/SUPPORT Text ‘ARSNOVA’ TO 44-321
THIRD SEX: 1930s transvestite lieder
Wednesday, June 26 @ 7
A found-text, transgenerational punk cabaret
A song-cycle/punk cabaret based on the short stories, articles, poems, and personal essays in Das 3. Geschlecht, a transvestite magazine published from 1930-1932 in Berlin before n*zis burned its publishing house to the ground. THIRD SEX brings these forgotten trans and queer narratives to life through music inspired by the antifascist krautrock movement, punk, and experimental.
Adam J. Rineer & Jason Aguirre
swearing in english
Thursday, June 27 @ 7
A Croation-American love poem to assimilation
Everyone is lying all the time. In more than one language. Lulu, an “illegal” immigrant, schemes their way through existing in America. They might dance for you, they might yap at you, they might perform drag for you, but by god, they’ll make you know their name.
Ema Zivkovic & Katie Spelman
the ANT FEST LOUNGE
Join us after every show in the ANT Fest Lounge, on the 4th Floor in our Loft space. Grab one of the cheapest drinks in Midtown and mingle with our artists!
