For just over 25 years, The New Group has lived up to its mission: to entertain and challenge audiences with emotionally compelling and thought-provoking theater. During the last several months, however, the seismic shifts in daily life triggered by the pandemic have upended our ability to continue fulfilling that mission as we have in the past. Live performances before a hushed crowd gathered in a darkened theater are simply no longer possible, and they will remain impossible for an unpredictable period of time. Every theater company –in fact, every organization, every individual— remains uncertain about where the future will lead.

That uncertainty has only inspired us to expand our imagination. Since we and the artists we work with are compelled to create –there’s no other word for it; the compulsion is visceral, it’s instinctive– we are engaged in devising new ways to develop and perform our work.

We are devoted to presenting culturally relevant work and now, with the world re-opening its eyes to racial injustices, we are also re-examining our responsibilities as an employer and re-committing ourselves to theater that is both of, and for, our times.

Our education program has also felt the impact of the current upheaval in our inability to interact in person with our students. Yet here, too, we have not been idle. We have introduced new types of digital courses with different goals: theatrical and storytelling techniques to guide high school students with their college applications and interviews; a monologue training and self-taping course to prepare students for auditions; and for students of all ages, a playwriting workshop to help novice writers hone their craft.

In short, despite it all, The New Group is still here, as committed as we’ve ever been. To meet our audiences where they are. To provide an outlet for artists who must follow their calling. To employ creative new methods to harness the power and spirit of theater and train the next generation of theatermakers. To embark on a journey with our artists and our students and, most of all, with you, our audience.

Stay tuned for more details on The New Group’s 2021/2022 season and how and when we plan to share the work with you, always keeping the safety of our artists and our audience as our top priority.

We don’t yet know where that journey will take us—or even how long it will be. But we’d love for you to come along for the ride. It won’t be the same. It will be different. And we promise it will be new. In this moment, something new feels exactly like what we need. We are ready; It’s right there in our name: The New Group.

Thank you for taking this journey with us,

All of us at The New Group