Down to Earth

August 31st to September 7th, 2025

New York City’s First International Festival

of Multidisciplinary Creation in Public Spaces

Theatre & Performance / In Situ & New Circus

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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 August 29th to September 7th, 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.

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FESTIVAL SCHEDULE, August 29 – September 7, 2025:

August 29 – 31: PRELUDE, a festival-within-a festival, dedicated to artists at the forefront of contemporary New York City theatre, dance, interdisciplinary and mediatized performance: 10 works in progress by 10 NYC-based artists and ensembles.

August 31: FLEXN STREET-DANCE Fest. A program featuring NYC-based artists who immerse you in the world of street dance: members of the Flex Community; high-level battles, breaking, popping, hip hop, krump, beatmakers, Kidz.

September 2– 3: Milo Rau, RESISTANCE NOW! Theatre and Politics, with Milo Rau, Édouard Louis, Laurie Anderson, Arne De Tremerie, and others. Elebash Hall, CUNY Graduate Center. Various dates and multiple locations: “Poetic Consultations” in partnership with Τhéâtre de la Ville, in 4 languages, in 3 boroughs, 4 different dates. NYC-based immigrant artists, plus actors, musicians, and dance artists, including members of The Classical Theatre of Harlem.  The program includes poetic slogan displays, live performances, poetic consultations, and the Art and Sport program.

September 3: In Via Publica: Performance and Public Assembly, a one-day conference on theatre and performing arts in public spaces. CUNY Graduate Center and LaGuardia Community College Performing Arts Center.

September 3. SenCirk Duo, by SenCirk (Senegal), an outdoor version, LaGuardia Community College Performing Arts Centre Courtyard. Afternoon show. Poetic Consultations, on the same day, with NYC-based immigrant actors and musicians.

September 3. Ancrage, by SenCirk (Senegal), an indoor version. LaGuardia Community College Performing Arts Centre’s new state-of-the-art theatre. Evening show. 

September 5. SenCirk Duo, by SenCirk (Senegal), an outdoor version. Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem, Two shows, with a workshop in between.  Plus, “Poetic Consultations,” on the same day, with actors from The Classical Theatre of Harlem at the Park (presented in Wolof, French, Spanish, Chinese, and English).

September 6. SenCirk Duo, by SenCirk (Senegal).  In partnership with Herbert Von King Park, Brooklyn, and Bridge Street Corporation Bed-Stuy Open Streets Program. Kids workshops at the Macon and/or Marcy libraries in Bed-Stuy. Brooklyn Public Library with Urban Stages to co-produce the workshop. Plus, Poetic Consultations, on the same day, with NYC-based immigrant actors and musicians (presented in Wolof, French, and English).

September 4 and 5. Soka Tira Osoa (“pulling the rope”), by Compagnie Basinga (France), four shows. In partnership with South Street Seaport Museum. At the Seaport Plaza, 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm. (Rain date: Sept 5). Plus, Poetic Consultations, on the same day, in partnership with McNally Jackson Bookstore, Seaport Plaza, 4 Fulton St between Front St and South St.

September 5, SANTÉ! by Cirque Kikasse (Quebec), LaGuardia Community College Performing Arts Center.

September 6. LANDS, Théâtre de L’Entrouvert (France). In partnership with Hudson River Park, Pier 51. Plus, Poetic Consultations in the Park the same afternoon.

September 6 – 7 HIT_OUT, by PARINI SECONDO  (Italy), a choreographic and musical composition built around jump rope repurposed as a rhythmic and choreographic percussive instrument. Location TBD. In partnership with Τhéâtre de la Ville’s Art and Sport, on the same day. 

September 6. “Poetic Consultations”, in partnership with  the Clemente Center and Lower East Side Open Streets (includes Poetic Consultations, plus, in the evening, dance in the streets where Salsa was born, in Loisaida + the Clemente’s live interactive projections!). Poetic Consultations also held at Mount Sinai Hospital Behavioral Health Center on Rivington St. NYC-based Latinx actors. Readings in Spanish and English.

September 7. ARCH by Kaleider (UK), an installation opera. In partnership with NYC’s Master Voices chorus and the Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn.

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 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.

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