FreeFest 2024 will take place June 13-20, 2024.

Readings will take place at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 W 42nd Street).

Readings are free and open to the public. Reservations are required.

FreeFest is a FREE reading festival featuring new works that embrace radical expression. The festival provides a public platform for artists to showcase their creative voice and further their writing process.

Public reading festivals have long been a part of the New Group/New Works development program. The program focuses on the nurturing and development of new plays and musicals. A core tenet of this program is to build and facilitate lasting relationships between The New Group, artists, and audiences who connect through theater that is adventurous, stimulating, and socially relevant. This program has become a vital incubator for emerging and established playwrights, and serves as the primary pipeline for world premieres at The New Group.

2024 FreeFest Readings

The Female Pope

Thursday, June 13 at 4:00PM

Book and Lyrics by Shannon Burkett
Music by Heather Christian
Music Direction by Brian Usifer
Directed by Johanna McKeon

Joan, desperate to go to school, agrees to dress as a boy for the promise of an education. In doing so, she unlocks a passion for learning that propels her to the most powerful position in the world, a stunning achievement that could threaten the very existence of the Catholic Church itself. Set in the 9th Century England, The Female Pope is the highly disputed story about a woman challenging institutionalized gender oppression to reach her full potential.

Reading Presentation Thursday, June 13 at 4:00PM at The Ford Studio Theater at The Pershing Square Signature Center

Reserve Your Spot now!

Red Taxi

Friday, June 14 at 4:00PM

By Banna Desta
Directed by Yohana Desta

Abraha is a new immigrant and Eritrean cab driver in Washington, D.C. Over four decades, from the 1980s to present day, Abraha and his four close friends experience the emotional and political highs and lows of being in the taxi business, which begs them to question how they can thrive and maintain relationships in such a fragile democracy.

Reading Presentation Friday, June 14 at 4:00PM at The Ford Studio Theater at The Pershing Square Signature Center

Reserve Your Spot now!

Hold Still

Saturday, June 15 at 4:00PM

By Nadia Davids
Directed by Jay Pather

When Ben and Rosa, an eclectic vibrant couple in North London, discover their son is hiding an asylum-seeking teenager in their home, they must decide between morality and endangering their own family. As tensions flare and ideologies clash, the Feigels grapple with the ethics of law, the essence of empathy, and the lengths one would go to safeguard loved ones and strangers alike. Hold Still is a vivid portrait of a family shaped by intergenerational trauma.

Reading Presentation Saturday, June 15 at 4:00PM at The Ford Studio Theater at The Pershing Square Signature Center

Reserve Your Spot now!

The Last Bimbo of The Apocalypse

Wednesday, June 19 at 3:00PM

Book by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley
Music and Lyrics by Michael Breslin with additional Music and Lyrics by Patrick Foley
Music Direction by Dan Schlosberg
Directed by and developed with Rory Pelsue

Three Gen Z internet sleuths investigate the mysterious disappearance of an early 2000s one-hit-wonder, leading them on an epic musical quest to uncover the truth, deliver justice, and rewrite pop history.

Reading Presentation Wednesday, June 19 at 3:00PM at The Rehearsal Studio at The Pershing Square Signature Center

This Event is Full, Join the waitlist!

Hag

Thursday, June 20 at 3:00PM

Book and Lyrics by Kate Douglas
Music and Lyrics by Grace McLean
Music Direction by Or Matias
Directed by Kate Whoriskey

Lois, a middle aged woman in Aurora, New York, hates change. But today is her birthday – and everything is about to change. Her body is metamorphosing into something mysterious, mystical, and perhaps powerful. Hag is a musical about finding beauty through aging and truth through karaoke.

Reading Presentation Thursday, June 20 at 3:00PM at The Ford Studio Theater at The Pershing Square Signature Center

Join The Waitlist!

FreeFest is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Generous support for The New Group is provided by The Shubert Foundation and The Howard Gilman Foundation. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. The New Group’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

The readings of Hag and The Female Pope are made possible thanks to the generous support of Pipeline Arts Foundation.

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From our 2023 Festival, June 14 – 16

All readings took place in The Romulus Linney Theater at The Pershing Square Signature Center.

Learn more about the plays here.

Event photos by Natalie Powers.

*Actors and Stage Managers so designated are members of Actors’ Equity Association.