Ars Nova To Honor Founding Artistic Director Jason Eagan At NOVA BALL In April

Ars Nova will honor Founding Artistic Director Jason Eagan at Nova Ball, Ars Nova's annual benefit-turned-party of the season. As recently announced, following over two decades of leadership, Eagan will step down from his role as Artistic Director on June 30, 2025, and take a new pivotal role, providing strategic mentorship and guidance as an advisor throughout Ars Nova's leadership transition.

Nova Ball is Ars Nova's biggest fundraising event of the season—a high-octane collision of live performance, immersive spectacle, and all-out revelry. Boundary-pushing artists, New York's glitterati, and the boldest champions of the arts come together for one night only.

This year, co-chaired by Jenny Steingart and Zach Shaffer, Nova Ball transforms into The Wizard of Ars, a technicolor trip down the yellow brick road and into the wild, weird, and wonderful world of Ars Nova.

The evening nods to the journey of Founding Artistic Director, Jason Eagan, whose vision has infused Ars Nova with a genre-smashing, boundary-pushing, rule-breaking approach. A celebration of legacy and innovation, the night honors the foundation Jason has built and aims to ensure Ars Nova's ruby-red future will be bolder and brighter than ever. 

Nova Ball will take place on Monday, April 7, 2025 at Ziegfeld Ballroom, located at 141 W 54th Street in Manhattan. Individual tickets begin at $1,250 and tables of ten begin at $12,500, which can be purchased online at www.arsnovanyc.com/events/novaball2025/. Sponsorships and journal ads are also available for purchase. Proceeds from the event, which also includes a live auction, support Ars Novaʼs mission to discover, develop, and launch early career talent.

Since joining Ars Nova in 2003, Jason Eagan has been instrumental in the organization's rise to prominence. During Eagan's tenure, Ars Nova has played a vital role in discovering, developing, and launching the careers of countless artists, including Rachel Chavkin, Billy Eichner, Bridget Everett, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Dave Malloy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Isaac Oliver, Shaina Taub, Alex Timbers, Bess Wohl, and Bowen Yang. These artists, among many others, have gone on to achieve significant success across theater, film, and television, expanding Ars Nova's impact far beyond the stage. Under his leadership, Ars Nova has become a premier launchpad for new work, commissioning and producing productions such as boom, Freestyle Love Supreme, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Underground Railroad Game, KPOP, Oratorio for Living Things, and (pray). These productions achieved widespread critical and commercial success and have helped shape the cultural landscape of Off-Broadway, Broadway, and beyond. Eagan's influence extends beyond high-profile productions and well-known artists; it encompasses the thousands of projects and countless emerging voices that have been nurtured under his guidance, cementing Ars Nova's relevance and necessity as an incubator. Under his leadership, Ars Nova has consistently provided a platform for emerging voices to explore and present their work, ensuring that the company's legacy of innovation and creativity will continue to thrive.

Please visit www.arsnovanyc.com/events/novaball2025/ for more information.

About the Honoree

Jason Eagan is a Tony-nominated Producer, Director and the Founding Artistic Director of Ars Nova, a not-for-profit organization in New York City committed to supporting theater, comedy and music artists in the early stages of their professional careers. During his time with the organization, he has had the great fortune of discovering, developing and launching thousands of artists, many of whom are now cultural drivers, whose work has begun to expand across the globe. Directing credits include world premieres: Love Around the Block, an immersive musical by Dave Malloy and Isaac Oliver for Hermés, A House Tour of the Infamous Porter Family Mansion with Tour Guide Weston Ludlow Londonderry by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and Now Circa Then by Carly Mensch; as well as new productions of Gypsy starring Andrea McArdle and the award-winning San Francisco commercial production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Eagan first made his way to New York City to oversee Disney Theatrical's Design Studio for The Lion King on Broadway. He has enjoyed affiliations with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, England's Improbable Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, Los Angeles Opera and San Francisco Opera among many others.

About Ars Nova

Ars Nova exists to discover, develop, and launch singular theater, music and comedy artists in the early stages of their professional careers. Our dynamic slate of programs supports outside-the-box thinking and encourages innovative, genre-bending new work. Dubbed by The New York Times as a “fertile incubator of offbeat theater,” Ars Nova blurs genres and subverts the status quo.

With our feverish bounty of programming – which spans from one-night performances to developmental programs like Play Group, Makers Lab, Vision Residency and CAMP to world premiere productions – Ars Nova is a stomping ground and launching pad for visionary, adventurous artists of all stripes. By providing a protective environment where risk-taking and collaboration are paramount, Ars Nova amplifies the voices of a new generation of diverse artists and audiences, pushing the boundaries of live entertainment by nurturing creative ideas into smart, surprising new work.

Ars Nova has been honored with a Lucille Lortel Award, an Obie Award, and a Special Citation from the New York Drama Critics' Circle, all for the sustained quality and commitment to the development and production of new work. Notable past productions include three-time Lortel Award-winner, including “Outstanding Musical,” (pray), created by Obie Award-winner nicHi douglas with music by S T A R R Busby and JJJJJerome Ellis; New York Times', Vulture's, Time Out New York's, and The New Yorker's “Best of 2022,” and three-time Lortel Award-winner Oratorio for Living Things by Heather Christian, directed by Lee Sunday Evans; “Outstanding Musical” Lortel Award-winner and The New York Times' “Best of 2018,” Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future, created by Andrew R. Butler, directed by Jordan Fein; The Lucky Ones, created by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher, directed by Anne Kauffman; “Outstanding Musical” Lortel Award-winner KPOP, created by Jason Kim, Max Vernon, Helen Park, and Woodshed Collective, directed by Teddy Bergman; “Best New American Theatre Work,” Obie Award-winner and “one of the best new plays in the last 25 years” (The New York Times), Underground Railroad Game by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard, directed by Taibi Magar ; The New York Times' and New York Post's “Best of 2015,” Small Mouth Sounds by Bess Wohl, directed by Rachel Chavkin; the Tony Award-winning smash-hit Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy, directed by Rachel Chavkin; the world premiere of the 2009 season's most-produced play boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, directed by Alex Timbers; the show that put Bridget Everett on the map, At Least It's Pink by Everett, Michael Patrick King, and Kenny Mellman, directed by King; and Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail's first New York production, Freestyle Love Supreme by Anthony Veneziale and Miranda, directed by Thomas Kail, which continued on to Broadway, and received a special 2020 Tony Award.

Ars Nova was founded in 2002 in memory of Gabe Wiener. 

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