Second Annual PhysFestNYC Will Return in January

Broken Box Mime Theater will host the second annual PhysFestNYC, a 10-day physical theater festival in January 2025 at Stella Adler Center for the Arts. PhysFestNYC is a community-led festival that celebrates, enriches, and envisions the field of physical theater. As an annual gathering, it provides space for practitioners, audiences, and the physical theater curious to share in presented works, diverse workshop offerings, and community-building events.

PhysFestNYC will take place at Stella Adler Center for the Arts  from January 9th - 19th, 2025, and will include performances, workshops, panels, and community events from practitioners, makers, and companies from all genres of physical theater across two theaters, two studios, and a community-gathering space. 

Physical theater has a varied and often disjointed story in the United States. As a field, it includes various genres such as mime, clown, performance art, puppetry, cultural movement traditions, and dance theater, yet it also exists in the space between and around these genres, combining and redefining them in real time. What it has in common is a centering of the body as storyteller, a tendency toward experimentation, and an openness to (re)considering the definition of theater and/or theater processes. To reference this expansiveness, the PhysFestNYC defines itself as a physical theaters festival, pluralising the word to encompass its multiplicity.

Due to many factors, physical theater practitioners in NYC (and often country-wide) are somewhat siloed in their practice. PhysFestNYC seeks to create a festival that opens pathways of communication and opportunities for shared resources, supporting artists in their work and deepening their impact. 

Becky Baumwoll, Artistic Director of Broken Box Mime Theater and Co-Executive Producer of PhysFestNYC, remarked, “The performing arts create spaces for connection, and physical theater has a unique lens on this process by centering what we all have in common: the body. We believe our field should be an extension of this ethos of connection, and PhysFestNYC is a response to that need.”

Mark Lonergan, Artistic Director of Parallel Exit and Co-Executive Producer of PhysFestNYC remarked, “As a practitioner of physical theatre in New York City for over 20 years, I’ve always hoped there would be a festival to highlight this art form in the biggest theatre city in the country. I’m thrilled to be part of the producing team to help elevate physical theatre into the cultural consciousness of our city.”

PhysFestNYC leadership is horizontal; instead of being led by a singular party, the leadership team of the festival will consist of various cohorts so as to best reflect the varying desires and perspectives of the physical theater community. This horizontal leadership is made up of circles of teams who work in tandem to organize, curate, and produce the festival.

The Producing Team for PhysFestNYC is led by Becky Baumwoll, Mark Lonergan, Alverneq Lindsay, and K8 August, with creative consulting from Caitlin Nasema Cassidy and Geoff Kanick.. This team is tasked with the logistical production and planning of the festival, as well as its financial stewardship. The Artistic Leadership Circle includes Margarita Blush, Bill Bowers, Akil Apollo Davis, Lou Sydel, Selma Trevino, and Ran Xia. This team designed the curatorial model and criteria for submissions, created the programming schedule, and curated the selection of shows and workshops. Festival applicants also had the opportunity to peer-evaluate their fellow applicants, which is just one way PhysFest has defined itself as a “community-led festival.” 

PhysFestNYC honors the work of Founding Executive Producer BJ Evans and Founding Co-Producer Julia Proctor, who helped make the festival possible in 2024 and beyond.

PhysFestNYC is a grassroots effort that hopes to grow over time and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help raise money for this inaugural year. You can find the fundraising campaign at this link: https://givebutter.com/physfest25 

PhysFestNYC launched in 2024 with over 100 artists participating including notable artists like Bill Irwin and Geoff Sobelle. The festival is part of JanArtsNYC, a partnership among independent multidisciplinary festivals, indispensable industry convenings and international marketplaces

For more information and to stay up-to-date on future PhysFestNYC announcements, sign up for the festival’s mailing list at: PhysFestNYC.org 

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