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About the Theatre

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY (TNC) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning community cultural center that is known for its high artistic standards and widespread community service. One of New York’s most prolific theatrical organizations, TNC produces 30-40 premieres of new American plays per year, at least 10 of which are by emerging and young playwrights. Many influential theater artists of the last quarter century have found TNC’s Resident Theater Program instrumental to their careers, among them Sam Shepard, Moises Kaufman, Richard Foreman, Charles Busch, Maria Irene Fornes, Miguel Piñero, Jean-Claude van Itallie, Vin Diesel, Oscar Nuñez, Laurence Holder, Romulus Linney and Academy Award Winners Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody. TNC also presents plays by multi-ethnic/multi-disciplinary theater companies who have no permanent home. Among the well-known companies that have been presented by TNC are Mabou Mines, the Living Theater, Bread and Puppet Theater, the San Francisco Mime Troupe and COBU, the Japanese women’s drumming, and dance group.TNC also produced the Yangtze Repertory Company’s 1997 production of BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH, which was the only play ever produced in America by Gao Xingjian before he won the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. TNC seeks to develop theater audiences and inspire future theater artists from the often-overlooked low-income minority communities of New York City by producing minority writers from around the world and by bringing the community into theater and theater into the community through its many free Festivals. TNC productions have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and over 42 OBIE Awards for excellence in every theatrical discipline. TNC is also the only Theatrical Organization to have won the Mayor’s Stop The Violence award.

Upcoming Shows

Boy Santos

Boy Santos

Nov 5 – Nov 29, 2026

Charlie Santos is visited by memories of his childhood in the tenements of Spanish Harlem, 1962. He sees the street games, the legal and illegal enterprises, the captives of heroin, the desperate poor and a traumatic event he believes caused the death of his infant brother. It...

How to Get to Heaven from the Crawfish Pond

How to Get to Heaven from the Crawfish Pond

Nov 5 – Nov 22, 2026

Playwright, director and poet Melanie Maria Goodreaux returns to her longtime creative home, Theater for the New City (TNC), with the world premiere of How to Get to Heaven from the Crawfish Pond, a darkly comic Louisiana love story about death, desire, family, faith and the...

The Flowers of Forest Hills

The Flowers of Forest Hills

Nov 5 – Nov 22, 2026

Set after World War II, “The Flowers of Forest Hills” follows a family who emigrates from Austria to Queens. We see three generations of women, including a girl, a mother and a grandmother (as part of a cast of seven characters) as they adapt to life in the United States. Family...

SantaCon The Play

SantaCon The Play

Dec 3 – Dec 20, 2026

New York City's annual SantaCon. Many residents consider it the worst day of the year. Who among us hasn't been going about their life on a brisk December morning only to realize, with slowly encroaching dread, that there are an unusually high number of Santas about? And in the...

Getting COMPLETE

Getting COMPLETE

Jan 14 – Jan 31, 2027

Getting COMPLETE... what happens when the bully grows up!

Articles

Past Shows

123 total · showing 51–60

Love Is Afoot!

Love Is Afoot!

Aug 4 – Aug 13, 2023

A workshop presentation of “Love Is Afoot!,” is coming to the Pretzel City this summer! Co-producing with the Greater Reading Alliance of Community Theatres, Love Stinks, LLC and Marabella Enterprises present the hilarious romp is the classic boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy...

A Stitch in Time

A Stitch in Time

Jun 22 – Jul 9, 2023

In the land of Erehwon, everything is just the way it should be. Then the leader decides to make things “better.” A musical comedy inspired by “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “A Stitch in Time” tells a timeless and topical story involving love, leadership and laughter. In a...

Dance Out: Wonderland

Dance Out: Wonderland

Jun 11 – Jun 18, 2023

Lace up those boots and follow the White Rabbit to Wonderland! Set your clocks and get ready for a very important date as you have been cordially invited to attend a Mad Tea Party. Those expected to attend this Very Unmerry Birthday are a hookah smoking Caterpillar, a Walrus...

Stop Kiss

Stop Kiss

May 18 – May 21, 2023

STOP KISS is a powerful and heart-wrenching love story that will take you on a journey of laughter, tears, and ultimately, hope. This non-linear narrative follows the story of Sara and Callie, two women who meet in New York City and form an unlikely bond that quickly blossoms...

Mirror, Mirror - A musical in seven times

Mirror, Mirror - A musical in seven times

Apr 6 – Apr 23, 2023

Mirror, Mirror written by Stephen Cornine, Jonothon Horton and Susan Bucci is the story of a group of people throughout seven different time frames. Every individual is connected by an apartment that they all lived in at one point or another. In this apartment, which has stood...

ADA

ADA

Feb 16 – Mar 5, 2023

Theater for the New City presents ADA by Demetria Daniels from February 16 to March 5, 2023 at the Johnson Theater, 155 First Avenue, New York, 10003. An evening of extraordinary feminist history, ADA tells the story of a woman who pioneered computer programming. The production...

Who Murdered Love?

Who Murdered Love?

Feb 2 – Feb 19, 2023

"Who Murdered Love?" by Lissa Moira and Richard West is a Dadaist musical comedy set in 1924 New York City and in a Paris dreamscape. Its story follows WWI veteran and private eye "Sleepy" Sam Speed, his girl, Gail Friday and his junior detective, Everett Greene, as they attempt...

The Very Last Dance of Homeless Joe

The Very Last Dance of Homeless Joe

Dec 1 – Dec 18, 2022

You will never look at a homeless person the same way after seeing "The Very Last Dance of Homeless Joe," a new play by actor/playwright/comedian/visual artist Rich Courage that will be presented by Theater for the New City December 1 to 18. It's a character study of nine...

Noises In My Head

FeaturedNoises In My Head

Sep 22 – Oct 9, 2022

Defne Halman* appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association in an Equity approved Showcase in the world premiere of the one woman show 'Noises In My Head'. The play written in Turkish by Beliz Güçbilmez, has been translated into English and this powerful work from Turkey is...

Strokes of Genius

Strokes of Genius

Sep 13 – Sep 18, 2022

Strokes of Genius is a pivotal drama about abstract expressionist painters, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, and Elaine de Kooning. Told in their own words, this imaginative memory play portrays their extraordinary lives, including the struggles they faced in the male-dominated...

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Blue Gum, Brooklyn  in Off-Off-Broadway Blue Gum, Brooklyn
Matthew Corozine Studio Theatre (10/09-10/25) PHOTOS
54 Below DUELS Volume III: Halloween Edition in Off-Off-Broadway 54 Below DUELS Volume III: Halloween Edition
54 Below (10/25-10/25)
Broadway Magic Hour in Off-Off-Broadway Broadway Magic Hour
Broadway Magic Hour: Magic Show (7/25-1/02)
Falling Into Now in Off-Off-Broadway Falling Into Now
Greenroom42 (10/24-10/24) PHOTOS
Finishing School in Off-Off-Broadway Finishing School
Hampton Theatre Company (10/15-11/01)
Frankenstein  in Off-Off-Broadway Frankenstein
Manes Studio Theatre of Long Island (10/09-10/31) PHOTOS
No nos merecemos soñar in Off-Off-Broadway No nos merecemos soñar
Teatro LATEA (10/28-10/30)
Professor Lammergeier's Evening of Poe's Poetry & Prose in Off-Off-Broadway Professor Lammergeier's Evening of Poe's Poetry & Prose
Stag & Lion Theatre (10/31-11/01)
Sparks! in Off-Off-Broadway Sparks!
Reverie Room (10/21-10/21)
The Haunting of Miss Robusta: Second Séance in Off-Off-Broadway The Haunting of Miss Robusta: Second Séance
The Stonewall Inn (10/17-10/21)