As co-directors of the Under the Radar Festival, Mark Russell and Meiyin Wang are in charge of bringing an eclectic range of theatrical programming to the Public Theater Jan. 6–17. The two scour the globe for theater companies and acts making evocative art, invite them to present their work to New York audiences, and foster a spirit of community among artists and theatergoers alike.
What is the Under the Radar Festival? Mark Russell: It’s a two-weekend, European-style festival that focuses on independent new work from around the world and especially New York. Meiyin Wang: It’s the 12th edition of the festival; it’s been at the Public Theater for 11 of those years. We’ve presented 200 companies from 38 countries. We like to talk about it like a film festival. So audiences are able to run from one show from Rwanda to another show from Chile to another show from New York. Really it’s about creating a space for those collisions.
Is there a theme or message being explored?MR: Each year there’s an underlying theme of the festival, which is: Why do theater now? Why, in this time when there are so many ways to tell stories, should people be doing theater? And each one of these artists is sort
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