New York Theatre Festivals

Join us for a night of conversations with NYC festival producers and curators. Leading theatre presenters from across the city, representing a variety of festivals, are coming together to discuss how they curate, program design, and produce some of NYC's most renowned performing arts festivals.

Producers and curators include: Jay Stull (Ars Nova), Nic Adams + Nurit Chinn (Exponential Festival), Manuel Morán (International Puppet Fringe Festival), Nicky Paraiso (La MaMa), Sam Hood Adrain (New York City Fringe), John Hoobyar (Prelude Festival 2024), Beth Morrison (Prototype Festival), Edward Einhorn (Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival), Meghan Finn - TBC (The Tank), Tommy Kriegsmann (Under the Radar), Elena Siyanko (Down to Earth)

Panel 1 (6:30 pm) – "How Do Festivals Work?"

Panel 2 (7:30 pm) – "How Do I Get My Work Programmed?"

Come find out more about the NYC festival scene. A great opportunity to learn more about an important part of NYC's cultural landscape and to discover paths to having your work presented.

Join the livestream of the event via HowlRound.

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Learn more about our panelists, below:

Jay Stull is a theatermaker. His work has been produced or developed by 2ST, Ars Nova, The Alliance Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company, NY City Center Off Center, New York Theater Workshop, Jackalope Theatre Company, Joe’s Pub, New Light Theater Project, The Amoralists, PlayCo, Roundabout, and The Tank. He has been supported by grants from or residencies/fellowships at Yaddo, NYSCA/NYFA, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, The Civilians R&D Group, and Clubbed Thumb. He has curated work for The Lark, Clubbed Thumb, and Ars Nova. He has taught and/or continues to teach at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, NYU-Tisch, and Harvard College. MFA: Columbia. www.jaystull.com 

Nic Adams (he) is a 2025 NYSCA grant recipient for his play, NECK DOWN. He is an NYC-based educator, cultural organizer, and theatre-maker. MFA in playwriting, Brooklyn College ('23). Since '17, Adams has served as the Producing Director of The Exponential Festival, overseeing its grant-writing, reporting, and fundraising activities, as well as its establishment as a 501(c)(3). FUCKED AND JOLLY, a book of artist interviews from Exponential’s first decade, edited by Adams, was published by 53rd State Press in '24. His short play, Grief Leash, is represented by Tiny Scripted, and his poetry is published online at B O D Y Literature.

Nurit Chinn is a playwright, curator and producer from London, currently based in Brooklyn. She is the Co-Director of Exponential Festival 2026, alongside Bailey Williams. Nurit's plays have been developed at Alliance Theatre, BAM Fisher, The Royal Court Theatre (U.K.), and others. She is the Playwright-in-Residence at Centro Primo Levi, where she is also under commission. Nurit is a 2024/5 New Jewish Culture Fellow, a 2025 Alliance-Kendeda Finalist, and the Next Generation Fellow at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, where she programs international theatre artists and events. MFA: Playwriting, Brooklyn College.

Manuel Antonio Morán Martínez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and has worked as an actor, singer, writer, composer, puppeteer, theater and film director and producer in his country, Latin America, Europe and the United States. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of SEA, Society of the Educational Arts, Inc. (www.teatrosea.org), with offices in Puerto Rico, Florida and New York City. Celebrating its 40 years in 2025, SEA’s objective is to offer a real entertainment alternative, with cultural value and educational quality, for kids, the youth and adults through bilingual educational programs like workshops, seminars, theater and other cultural artistic expressions.

Nicky Paraiso is an actor, singer, musician, writer, curator, solo performance artist.  He has been a fixture of the NY downtown performance scene for almost five decades. He is Director of Programming for The Club at La MaMa, and Curator for the annual La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, which will celebrate its 20th season in April 2025. He has worked as a performer with vanguard artists Jeff Weiss & Carlos Ricardo Martinez, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, Yoshiko Chuma & The School of Hard Knocks. Nicky has also performed in the works of Anne Bogart, Laurie Carlos, Jessica Hagedorn, Robbie McCauley, Richard Elovich, Dan Froot, Fred Holland, Dan Hurlin, Christopher Williams, among many others. He has also performed with Ma-Yi Theatre Company & National Asian-American Theatre Company (NAATCO). Nicky is the recipient of a 1987 Bessie Award for his Collective Performance, the Lilah Kan Red Socks Award, a 2012 BAX Arts & Artists in Progress Arts Management Award, a 2018 TCG Fox Fellowship as an Actor of Distinguished Achievement, and the 2019 (NY Innovative Theatre) Ellen Stewart Award for Stewardship. Nicky is an acclaimed solo performance artist and has written & performed the following solo shows: Asian Boys directed by Laurie Carlos (Performance Space 122), Houses & Jewels directed by Laurie Carlos (DTW), and House/Boy directed by Ralph B. Pena (La MaMa, Dublin Theatre Festival, Singapore Performance Initiation Festival). Nicky's most recent full-length performance, now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories, directed & designed by John Jesurun, premiered at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre in March-April 2019, performing with choreographer/dancers Irene Hultman, Jon Kinzel, Vicky Shick, Paz Tanjuaquio. He was a Gala honoree at Movement Research in April 2016. Nicky is most recently a recipient of the 2024 Mabou Mines Ruth Maleczech Award aka RUTHIE. 

Sam Hood Adrain (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn originally from Providence, Rhode Island. As a theatre artist, Sam has worked on stage and off at companies across the country including MCC Theater, Chickenshed NYC, Infinity Theatre Company, Barrington Stage Company, Dramatist Guild Foundation, FRIGID New York, Missoula Children's Theatre, Ithaca Shakespeare Company, Culture Lab LIC, HERE, IRT, MITU580, The Flea, the cell theatre, Theatre Row, Brooklyn Art Haus, Strongbox Theater, and Audible.com. Sam is a Founding Co-Artistic Director of What Will the Neighbors Say? Theatre Company, the Associate Producer & General Manager for the Vineyard Arts Project, is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at Marymount Manhattan College and an Artist-in-Residence at NYU's Espacio de Culturas, and a member of the Board of Directors at A.R.T/New York. He is the recipient of the 2021 BroadwayWorld Award for Best Director of a Regional Production for his direction of  The 39 Steps at Strongbox Theater. He is a published playwright whose works have been called "heartbreaking...complex...and thought-provoking" (Theatre is Easy), have been presented in NYC at HERE, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and IRT Theatre, toured to Providence and Toronto, and produced as a radio play by the Cleveland Radio Players. Recent TV credits include Search Party and Law & Order as well as a print campaign for Santander Bank. Sam currently serves as the Festival Coordinator at FRIGID New York where he runs the New York City Fringe, Queerly, Days of the Dead, Little Shakespeare, and Gotham Storytelling festivals.

John Hoobyar is a performance curator and producer based in New York. He has guest curated and produced programs for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s River to River Festival, The Martin E. Segal Center’s Prelude Festival, the international dance festival Tanz im August, and BAM, where he is currently Manager of Artistic Planning. Outside of producing, John has collaborated with artists and institutions including Movement Research, Heather Kravas, Pentacle, Will Rawls, Goethe-Institut, Moriah Evans, Culturebot, and Sarah Michelson, among others, as a performer, writer, editor, casting director, and finance manager. johnhoobyar.com

A 2024 Grammy-nominated producer, recipient of the 2020 Musical America Award for Artist of the Year/Agent of Change and a Kennedy Center 50NEXT Honoree (2022), Beth Morrison is an opera-theatre producer and the President and Creative Producer of Beth Morrison Projects. Morrison is noted as a “contemporary opera mastermind” (LA Times) and “a powerhouse leading the industry to new heights” (WQXR). Beth created Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) in 2006 to identify and support the work of emerging and established living composers. BMP is celebrated as one of the foremost creators and producers of new opera-theatre and music theatre, with a fierce commitment to leading the industry into the future, cultivating a new generation of talent, and telling the stories of our time. BMP commissions, develops, produces and tours the groundbreaking new works of these living composers and their collaborators, which take the form of opera-theatre, music-theatre, and vocal-theatre. Operating across the US and internationally, with offices in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, BMP’s unique model offers living composers the support, guidance, and freedom to experiment, allowing them to create singularly innovative and impactful projects. Since forming in 2006, the company has commissioned, developed, produced and toured over 60 works in 14 countries around the world, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning chamber operas Angel’s Bone (Du Yun/ Royce Vavrek) and p r i s m (Ellen Reid/Roxie Perkins).

Edward Einhorn is a playwright, director, translator, librettist, theater journalist, and novelist. He is currently the Artistic Director of both Untitled Theater Company No.61 and the Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival, honoring Václav Havel (a project of the Václav Havel Library Association and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association). His work has been performed in New York venues such as La MaMa, 3LD Art & Technology Center, HERE Arts Center, The New Ohio, St. Ann's Warehouse, the Walter Bruno Theater at Lincoln Center, and the Bohemian National Hall.  In London, his work has been presented Off-West End at the Jermyn Street Theatre, at Peckham Asylum Chapel, Wigmore Hall, and Milton Court at the Barbican. Other work has been presented at Forth Worth Opera (Fort Worth, Texas), Sacred Fools (Los Angeles), the Otherworld Theatre (Chicago), and the Czech Embassy (Washington, DC). Notable recent plays include The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (CRITICS PICK, The New York Times), The Shylock and the Shakespeareans (recommended by The Atlantic), and his adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (CRITICS PICK, The New York Times, FOUR STARS Time Out New York).  The Last Cyclist, which he directed, was recently shown on PBS affiliate WNET as part of their Theater Close Up series. He has a BA in Writing from Johns Hopkins and an MA in Opera Writing – Librettos from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann (Producer) Tony nominated producer specializing in new work development and production worldwide. He was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination and won best picture at the Cinema Eye Awards for Sam Green’s 32 Sounds in 2024, and recently premiered the Tony nominated Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens & Justin Peck on Broadway following runs at Fisher Center @ Bard,  Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Park Avenue Armory. Current and past work includes projects with Kaneza Schaal, Yaron Lifschitz, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Daniel Fish, Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin, Yael Farber, Anna Deavere Smith, Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar, Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, and John Cameron Mitchell. Recent premieres include 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s A Thousand Ways, CHRISTEENE’s The Lion, The Witch and The Cobra, nora chipaumire’s Nehanda, Bryce Dessner’s Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) directed by Kaneza Schaal, John Cameron Mitchell’s The Origin of Love, Sam Green & Kronos Quartet’s A Thousand Thoughts, Big Dance Theater / Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Man In a Case, and Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater’s Not By Bread Alone. Ongoing collaborations include Milo Rau, Bryce Dessner, Sophia Brous, Timothy White Eagle, Big Dance Theater, and Compagnia T.P.O.  He is producer of the Under the Radar Festival and planning the festival’s 21st Edition for January 2026. Upcoming premieres include Jesse Malin’s Silver Manhattan, Bryce Dessner & Kaneza Schaal’s Night Sky With Exit Wounds from the book by Ocean Vuong, and Penny Arcade’s autobiographical epic The Art of Becoming. He is a founding member of CIPA (The Creative & Independent Producer Alliance). More information at arktype.org

Veteran programmer and arts administrator, Elena Siyanko,  serves as Co-Director of DOWN TO EARTH, New York City’s first international festival of multidisciplinary performance in public spaces. She guides the concept and international programming and oversees strategic partnerships and fundraising for the inaugural 2025 Festival program.  Siyanko is the Inaugural Artistic and Executive Director of PS21 /Center for Contemporary Performance  (2019–2025), where over six seasons she brought more than 100 distinct productions to PS21, featuring artists and companies representing 15 countries. She produced new multidisciplinary projects and performances in public spaces, curated more than 220 events for diverse audiences, established collaborations with regional, national, and international organizations, and hosted over 30 artists’ residencies for projects in visual art, dance, music, contemporary performance, and theater.  A regular attendee of international arts festivals in Europe and Latin America, Siyanko has witnessed the power of creative performance to shape the physical and social character of outdoor spaces. Over the past six years, she has been in the vanguard of curators popularizing international contemporary circus and in-situ multidisciplinary performance through her work at PS21/Center for Contemporary Performance. Through her curation, she has brought large-scale outdoor spectacles developed during residencies and hosted dozens of North American premieres and company debuts from renowned artists and productions. Full bio: https://redosmosis.com/who-we-are/