A few student productions made with clip lights, a borrowed couch, and cardboard showed us what was possible. Then we asked what could happen if students across CUNY built together.
Where it began
As CUNY students, we kept talking about how difficult it was to find the time, money, space, and opportunity to make original theatre. We had stories we wanted to tell, but too few places where we could build them on our own terms.
The first spark
Our first student productions used borrowed clip lights, a couch moved through an elevator, and props made from cardboard. The materials were simple. The audience still leaned in, laughed, listened, and believed in the worlds we made.
The idea
We realized that meaningful theatre did not have to begin with money. It could begin with imagination, care, and people willing to build together. That experience inspired the shared production limits and reusable set kit every festival team now follows.
Why a festival
CUNY students are spread across campuses and spend much of their lives commuting, working, and studying. We wanted to connect those separate rooms. We are building the CUNY Theatre Festival so students across seven colleges can share original work, meet collaborators, and build a theatre community together in June 2027.
“If the hungriest talent in New York comes together, we can build a new way to make theatre.”
From the founders of the CUNY Theatre Festival
What guides us
Our mission
Our vision
Our values
The festival is non-competitive. Colleges meet as equals, share the room, and support one another's work.
A shared set kit levels the field and makes imagination visible. Every team transforms the same simple pieces into its own world.
CUNY students tell original stories drawn from their lives, communities, fears, hopes, and desires.
The door stays open. The festival is free to submit to, free to attend, and built around the lives of students who commute, work, and study.
No role gives anyone permission to intimidate, pressure, or silence another person. We address harm instead of burying it.
This is a student invitation
The festival exists because students decided to connect what was already alive across CUNY. We are asking you to bring the next piece of it.