Free Fest 2025
A New Play Festival
Free fest 2025
Now in its third electrifying year, Free Fest is The New Group’s annual new play festival, where bold stories meet big ideas and boundary-defying artists take center stage. This isn’t just any festival—it’s a celebration of radical voices and daring new visions. Free Fest presents plays with punch, passion, and POVs that’ll leave you wide-eyed and inspired. We’re talking about theater that owns the moment and shakes the status quo—loud, proud, and unapologetically original. Whether you come to cheer, cry, laugh, or lose your mind over exciting new worlds—Free Fest is where the magic happens.
All readings are free and open to the public. Reservations required.
When
June 24 - 28, 2025
2025 Free fest Readings
June 24 - 28, 2025
FreeFest: The Invisible Hand of God Touched Me In a Bad Place
Previous Reading Festivals
Free Fest is part of the The New Group/New Works Program, which 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. Public reading festivals have long been a part of the program’s developmental process.
Generous support for The New Group is provided by The Shubert Foundation and The Howard Gilman Foundation.
Free Fest 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.