Down to Earth Festival

DOWN TO EARTH

September 2–7, 2025

New York City’s First International Festival

of Multidisciplinary Creation in Public Spaces

Theatre & Performance / In Situ & New Circus

Down to Earth brings world-class international performance, contemporary circus, and in-situ performances—absolutely free—directly to New York City's vibrant, diverse communities. An initiative that democratizes cultural expression, the inaugural festival will take place September 2–7, 2025. Conceived by The CUNY Graduate Center, The Martin E. Segal Theatre serves as the festival's producer, underwriter, and fiscal agent.

Partnering with NYC parks in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens and working collaboratively with more than 10 dynamic cultural and community organizations, we will host performances and workshops across multiple urban spaces. Contemporary circus and in-situ street arts are ideal means of reaching new audiences: they represent more than performance and are a radical reimagining of public space. Dedicated to innovative expression and audience participation, these art forms stand as a powerful assertion of communal space, championing public assembly and democratizing access to our shared urban commons. Citizen expression beats at the heart of our artistic vision. Down to Earth serves as a crucible, forging connections between community organizations and CUNY Stages, affirming art's critical role in the economic, social, and mental well-being of all New Yorkers.

The primary goals of Down to Earth are to expand access to cultural expression, privilege public assembly, and combat the injustices inherent in socio-economic exclusion. Central to the festival's mission is our commitment to dismantling cultural barriers by offering free and subsidized programs for students, youth, immigrant communities, and families. By attracting a diverse public to free street arts and in-situ performances that are accessible and inviting, the festival will redress the shortcomings of an expensive system of cultural dissemination.

Given NYC's current performing arts landscape, where high costs have reduced many venues to rental facilities or limited seasons, Down to Earth takes a novel approach. With the majority of work presented in public spaces, our strategy focuses on sharing resources and building coalitions with CUNY Stages, NYC parks, and The Coalition of Theaters of Color, among other organizations. We plan to unite these spaces through joint presentations in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, fostering visibility and cooperation, while focusing on access for students, families, and a variety of theatre audiences.

This Festival would not be possible without the civic commitment and leadership gift of Marvin Carson, the distinguished theatre historian and CUNY Graduate Center Professor Emeritus of Theatre and Performance.

Inaugural Festival Program, September 2–7, 2025

The 2025 Festival features six international productions, workshops, interactive events, and a symposium that explore themes of migration, diversity, social justice, theater as a tool of resistance, intergenerational alliance, climate change, and democracy. Performances will be held across various New York City parks and public spaces featuring leading in-situ artists and companies, international contemporary circus, multidisciplinary performance, and NYC-based artists and activists.

Partners:

The Coalition of Theatres of Color (CTC)

The Clemente Center, a Puerto Rican and Latinx cultural space, Lower East Side

The Alliance of Teatros Latinos NY

South Street Seaport Museum 

New York City Parks: Hudson River Park; Marcus Garvey Historic Harlem Park

CUNY Stages Theaters

New York City’s Business Improvement Districts (BIDs)

French Cultural Services and Villa Albertine

Institut Français

Milo Rau, The Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen)

Thomas Oberender, ex officio Director of Berlin Festspiele

Τhéâtre de la Ville, Paris, France

The NYC Down to Earth Festival draws its inspiration and name from the groundbreaking 2020 Berlin Festspiele project, conceived and curated by Thomas Oberender.

Festival Program

•           Six international productions: contemporary circus, in-situ, multidisciplinary creations, and street arts

•           PRELUDE Festival-within-a-Festival, dedicated to artists at the forefront of contemporary New York City theatre, dance, interdisciplinary, and mediatized performance

•           “Poetic Consultations,” three boroughs, five languages, in partnership with Τhéâtre de la Ville

•           Milo Rau’s RESISTANCE NOW, with Elfriede Jelinek, Nicole Ansari, Édouard Louis, and others

•           Two-day Symposium: “In Via Publica: Performance and Public Assembly,” a conference on theatre and performing arts in public spaces.

Festival Co-Directors:

Frank Hentschker (MESTC), Founder and co-Director, fhentschker@gc.cuny.edu

Elena V. Siyanko, Founder and co-Director, esiyanko@gc.cuny.edu

with Ruth Wikler, advisor, ruth@wiklerarts.com.