Under the Radar Names Janet Wong and Jenn Kidwell Co-Creative Directors

Under the Radar has announced the appointment of Janet Wong and Jenn Kidwell as the Festival’s Co-Creative Director team for our 2027 to 2029 seasons. Under the Radar’s innovative multi-year rotational cohort of creative partners allows for constant reassessment of our programming model and fresh perspectives on our mission. Wong and Kidwell step into the shoes of the position’s inaugural duo, Kaneza Schaal and Meropi Peponides, both of whom will continue their collaboration as members of the extended UTR family.

Jenn Kidwell is a performing artist with a penchant for getting people to do things they never thought they’d do. Original projects include we come to collect: a flirtation, with capitalism (The Flea Theater/UTR Under Construction, Rising Festival, Woolly Mammoth Weissberg Commission), Those With 2 Clocks (The Wilma Theater) and Underground Railroad Game (2017 Obie Award for Best New American Theatre Work; 2018 Edinburgh Fringe First Award; Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes nominations). Besides performing in Geoff Sobelle’s upcoming Clown Show, she’s currently collaborating with Chef Laquanda Dobson on Givingthanks, a restorative seed-planting and performative meal, and with Ars Nova Workshop, Rachael Elliott, Odean Pope and Immanuel Wilkins on Recess, an interactive sculptural jazz concert and parade. Past performances include The Welkin (Atlantic Theater Co.), Ocean Filibuster (PearlDamour), Eternal Life Part 1, Fat Ham (2021 film), Antigone (The Wilma Theater), Syllabus for Black Love (jaamil olawole kosoko), Home (Geoff Sobelle; 2018 Bessie Award), Adrienne Truscott’s Still Asking for It (Joe’s Pub), Superterranean, Fire Burns Hot: Little Reno!, I Promised Myself to Live Faster and 99 Break-Ups (Pig Iron Theatre Company). Kidwell has been published in Performance Journal #45 and at hyperallergic.com. She is a 2020 Visiting Artist at Duke University and a 2021 Visiting Artist at UPenn. She is the recipient of a 2013 TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, a 2015 and 2021 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant, 2016 Pew Fellowship, 2017 Independence Fellowship, 2020 Ruthie Award & Hodder Fund Grant, 2023 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grantee and the 2025 Helen Merrill Award.

Janet Wong is an independent performing arts professional with expertise in contemporary performance both in the U.S. and internationally. She began her career as a professional dancer in Berlin and was the Associate Artistic Director of New York Live Arts and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. Her wide-ranging work and interests—which include curation, choreography, dramaturgy, directing, producing, projection design, technology, mentorship, collaborative models, systems thinking, environmental justice—inform everything she does. Wong is a member of the Curatorial Council for Seattle-based On the Boards, and serves on the boards of the Jerome Foundation and Big Dance Theater.

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