ABOUT EMERGING ARTISTS THEATRE

EMERGING ARTISTS THEATRE (EAT) is an award-winning theater company known as an incubator for new voices from the page to the stage. EAT was founded over 30 years ago to provide a dynamic home for diverse artists to explore their work and guide it through development to full artistic realization through our bi-annual Spark Theatre Festival NYC.

Emerging Artists Theatre has built a reputation as a champion of equity and opportunity in theatre, ensuring that financial constraints do not dictate artistic opportunity.

Unlike many theatre companies and festivals that impose financial hurdles on artists, EAT does not charge submission fees or participation fees. While other organizations charge artists between $25 to $75 just to submit a script—followed by participation fees ranging from $100 to $700—EAT offers artists a radically different model: submission and participation are entirely free. Furthermore, EAT shares 50% of the box office proceeds with participating artists, a rarity in the industry.

EAT’s impact extends far beyond the traditional theatre community. Over the past three decades, EAT has premiered more than 5,000 works, with artists representing a vast array of abilities and backgrounds, including African American, Caribbean, Chinese, Cuban, East Indian, Hispanic, Iranian, Iraqi, Japanese, Korean, LGBTQ+, Persian, Turkish, and Ukrainian communities. Notably, two-thirds of EAT’s artists are women, reinforcing the organization’s commitment to amplifying marginalized voices

In celebration of Emerging Artists Theatre’s 30th anniversary, we presented three new World Premiere Off-Broadway plays running in repertory in Fall 2023 at the 28th Street Theatre (also known as TADA!). The two-month engagement featured Anne Being Frank by Ron Elisha, Doris Day: My Secret Love by Paul Adams, and Sex Work/Sex Play by Caytha Jentis. Each of these three plays was developed at EAT’s Spark Theatre Festival NYC.