Applications are now open for Ars Nova’s 18th annual ANT Fest—a festival celebrating ALL NEW TALENT! We’re on the hunt for NYC’s most adventurous emerging artists to fill our stage with boundary-pushing theater, comedy, music, and everything in between.
Got a wild, genre-defying idea you’ve been itching to bring to life? This is your chance to shine! Once every season, ANT Fest showcases a unique project in our 99-seat Off-Broadway theater, giving artists the chance to dazzle audiences with innovative, one-of-a-kind performances.
ANT Fest applications will close January 12th, 2026 at 11:59PM.
ANT Fest is our annual festival of All New Talent showcasing new work from New York’s most thrilling emerging artists. Once every season, Ars Nova throws open our doors to the next wave of pioneering theater, comedy, music and hybrid theater-makers who fill our stage with their most dynamic ideas.
Be a one-night-only performance that can tech in about three hours on the day of the show.
Run 80 minutes or less.
Be built to live in a theater, not just a concert that could play any music venue.
Be ready to rehearse on your own in advance, and stay nimble, low-maintenance, and open to improvisation in the room.
Live anywhere on the spectrum of theater, music, comedy, dance, variety, solo work, or “other” — as long as it feels like a true live event.
Before you click through to the application, please have the following ready:
Basic show info
Show title
A 10-word (or less) description
A full show description
An artist statement about your vision and why ANT Fest is the right home
Format & logistics
Whether the show is live in the theater and streaming or pre-recorded/digital
Estimated run time (must be 80 minutes or less)
Any genre labels that fit (theater, music, comedy, dance, variety, solo show, other)
Any prior performances of this show in NYC, and any upcoming plans between now and July 2026
Any May or June 2026 conflicts
Collaborators
Contact info and roles for up to three core collaborators (the artists generating original material; one will be the primary contact)
Optional resumes or short bios (PDF) for each core collaborator
Work samples
At least one work sample (script pages, or audio/video from this show or another project)
A short description of each sample, and where we should focus (e.g., “pages 10–20” or “first 5 minutes”)
Links for any audio/video hosted online (YouTube, Vimeo, Dropbox, Soundcloud, etc.) that can stay live through April 30, 2026
All written samples and link sheets uploaded as PDFs
Once you’ve got these materials together, you’re ready to jump into the full application and tell us about your wild new thing for Ant Fest 2026.
