Some of the summer festivals listed here have been annual for decades, some I’ve never heard of before. They are offering collectively way more than a hundred shows, starting in July, some running until September. It’s entertaining just to look through the listings at the links below.
The list is organized more or less chronologically.
Hot Festival (Dixon Place)
Celebrating queer culture for 34 years, the festival features 25 shows this year, each given just a single performance.
July 6 – 25
East to Edinburgh (59e59)
Fifteen New York shows headed to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
July 7 – 26
Rogue Theater Festival (The Flea)
Returning for the eighth year, this week-long festival showcases 37 original productions, including four fully staged plays, short plays, staged readings, and digital streaming performances
July 7 – 12
One-Act Festival (Chain Theater)
More than 80 one-act plays
July 9 – August 1
Tank Summer Fests (The Tank)
That’s my name for the three unconventional festivals at the Tank, one after the other
Dark Fest (July 13-19) a week of shows that do not use conventional theatrical lighting in an effort to reexamine how we can make theater more sustainable
Trash Fest (July 13-19) work that produces no waste by reusing materials discarded as garbage
Lime Fest (August 7 – 30) New work by emerging artists and creative teams who identify as women, non-binary, or gender non-conforming
LOL Short Play Festival (Players Theater)
Five short plays over two weeks that promise to make you laugh:
The STD, by Michele Markarian
When the Hurly-Burly’s Done, by Cristina Noelle
Some Place on the For Sale Spectrum, by Peter Welch
Bless Me Father For They Say I Have Sinned, by John Ladd
Fresh Out the Nursery, by Riley Fee
July 16 – 26
Edfest (Brooklyn Art Haus)
Fifteen shows heading to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe next month (all but one of them different from the East to Edinburgh festival above.)
July 14 – 19
The SheNYC Summer Theater Festival (CSC theater)
A showcase for five new plays and three new musicals
July 14-26
Broadway Bound Theater Festival (AMT Theater)
A hopeful rather than accurate title for a festival showcasing a dozen new plays this year, each getting three or four performances. The debut play is Be A Mensch by Daniel Takacs: Abe is accepted into college, but his impoverished family has no intention of letting their breadwinner escape.
July 20 – August 16
Free Shakespeare in the Park (Delacorte Theater in Central Park)
“The Winter’s Tale” (July 25-Aug. 23), with Raúl Esparza, Lily Rabe, Steven Skybell and Chuck Cooper.
“Public Record” (Sept. 4-8)
“Songs from Bark of Millions” (Sept. 18-20) — excerpts from Taylor Mac and Matt Ray’s rock opera (which I loved at its running time of full four hours and 20 minutes; this is not that.)
