Theater for the New City

Theater for the New City, founded in 1971 by Crystal Field, is one of New York City’s leading off-off-Broadway theaters. Productions at Theater for the New City have won 43 Obie Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Its purposes and goals:

  • To embody the vision of a center for new and innovative theater arts that would be truly accessible to the community and its experimental theater artists.
  • To discover relevant new writing and to nurture new playwrights.
  • To be a bridge between the playwright, experimental theater artist, and the ever-growing audiences in the community.
  • To create spaces where a new vision can breathe and be nourished by a working process not subject to commercial constraints and pressures.
  • To create events and ways in which to bring theater into the community and bring the community into the theater.
  • To involve disadvantaged youngsters in theater arts in order to focus their energies on creativity and achievement.

Now in its 50th year, Theater for the New City is a unique cultural institution that has earned a nationwide reputation for its dedication to nurturing established and emerging playwrights who experiment with new forms and to presenting other experimental and developmental theaters with a very active program of community art services and festivals which continue to expand theater accessibility.