New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, on Friday, Jan. 9, joined Under the Radar Theater Festival in promoting their major free ticket giveaway, which will make 1,500 free tickets available to participating shows at theaters across the city in January as part of the “Under the Radar for All” effort.
Mamdani said Under the Radar, America’s largest theater festival, includes more than 25 new shows from innovative artists across the globe, presented in partnership with a vibrant community of partner venues across the five boroughs.
As part of the mayor’s commitment to making the arts accessible to working New Yorkers, he helped distribute tickets to students and neighbors outside the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, where the festival is presenting “Reconstructing.”
New Yorkers can claim their free tickets at UTRfest.org/under-the-radar-for-all while they are available.
“The arts are too often considered a luxury for the wealthy or a treat for the tourists, rather than a form of expression, joy, and relaxation that every New Yorker deserves,” said Mayor Mamdani.
“I am grateful for Under the Radar’s generosity and their work to share the experience of live theater citywide and am ready to build upon these efforts to make art accessible and affordable across our five boroughs,” he added.
Under the Radar Founding Artistic Director Mark Russell said: “Under the Radar has long been committed to building a creative ecosystem habitable for the many, not the few.
“If Shakespeare is free, so should contemporary performance,” he said. “That belief is beautifully reflected in the myriad partner organizations coming together behind the belief that non-commercial art and international perspectives matter deeply.
“The stats–31 shows across 24 venues–are one thing, but they are meaningless without adventurous audiences in multiple boroughs bringing the festival to life,” Russell added. “We are deeply grateful to Mayor Mamdani and his team for helping us bring so many more people to the party.”
Under the Radar Co-Director Kaneza Schaal said: “We are in the business of tending how ideas move between people and in the world. Theater at its best is a model of participatory society.
“Over the last three years, Under the Radar has continued expanding into a plurality of voices and perspectives,” Schall added. “We are thrilled to gather with the Mayor to expand and meet the civic duty of the arts – reaching representative publics.”
For over two decades, Under the Radar theater said its festival has brought “bold, risk-taking work to New York City, celebrating groundbreaking theater and performance both from around the world and from just down the street.”
Produced in partnership with venues across the city, Under the Radar said “the festival showcases innovative multidisciplinary artists whose work speaks powerfully to the present.”
UTR’s 21st season, running Jan. 7 to Jan. 25, convenes a lineup of more than 30 productions at 25 separate venues, including Lincoln Center, La MaMa, PSNY, New York Theater Workshop, Japan Society, and Mabou Mines.
This year marks Under the Radar’s third year as a citywide collaboration, “informed by the multiplicity of vision of our partner institutions’ artistic leaders,” it stated.
“This season features the most exclusively Under the Radar-commissioned and produced work offered yet,” added Under the Radar, stating that 2026 also inaugurates a new leadership model in which Co-Creative Directors Meropi Peponides and Schaal join Russell to form the first of what will be a rotating cohort of festival curators, “ensuring the festival’s programming is forever of-the-moment.”
The festival is produced by Thomas O. Kriegsmann and Sami Pyne of ArKtype.
Find out more at utrfest.org.
