Columbia Alumni Dominate The 2026 Under The Radar Festival 

This year, Columbia alums and faculty are prominently featured in the Under The Radar Festival. Founded in 2005 and still run today by Mark Russell, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theatre, the Under The Radar Festival is an annual performance and theater festival that champions experimental boundary-pushing work even in an economy that isn’t always so friendly to this kind of artistic expression. Under The Radar was hosted by The Public Theater—where Russell was formerly Associate Artistic Director—for 20 years until 2023. When The Public Theater terminated their contract and the Festival’s fate was uncertain, Russell reformulated the festival’s structure by taking on a production partner and decentralizing the festival’s venues to rely on multiple spaces throughout New York City, including: Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York Theatre Workshop, Performance Space, and Soho Rep. For their producing partner, UTR partnered with Arktype, where Sami Pyne '20, a graduate of the Theatre Management and Producing program, is Producing Director. Also part of the leadership team of the festival is Meropi Peponides '13, an alum of the Dramaturgy program who is both a co-producer and director of UTR. 

This year, three productions running in the festival involve Columbia theatre-makers. 

Watch Me Walk, a new solo performance written and performed by Anne Gridley '06, is a story about Anne’s disability, which started as a diagnosis with no known cure. The piece is directed by Eric Ting and will play at Soho Rep from January 14 to February 8, 2026. 

Watch Me Walk, a new solo performance written and performed by Anne Gridley '06, is a story about Anne’s disability, which started as a diagnosis with no known cure. The piece is directed by Eric Ting and will play at Soho Rep from January 14 to February 8, 2026. 

Llontop, created by Anonymous Ensemble, a company dedicated to multimedia performance, will be directed by Ash K. Tata '12. The piece, which has three parts—an interactive installation of Peruvian heirlooms, a live-film performance for in-person and virtual audiences, and a conversation with the artists about the work of the indigenous Quechua people—celebrates Andean culture through song poems of the Quechuan poet Irma Alvarez-Ccoscco. Llontop runs from January 9 to January 18, 2026 at Pregones/PRTT in The Bronx. 

Rachel Chavkin '08, Directing alum and 2019 Tony award winner for Hadestown, co-wrote and will co-direct Reconstructing as part of her theater company TEAM. Reconstruction is a new theatre piece set in a two-story house which wrestles with the aftermath of American slavery and how to collectively move through history. A description reads, “From one angle, it’s mucked out after a flood. From another, it’s a new development wrapped in Tyvek. And from another, it’s 'Tara' from Gone with the Wind being transformed into an Airbnb. The piano can’t be tuned. Someone is quilting in the corner. Come in.” Reconstruction is co-directed by Zhailon Levingston and is the product of 21 different contributors between the ages of 21 and 99, including Dramaturgy alum Jillian Walker '17. Reconstructing runs from January 9 to January 11, 2026 at The Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College.  

You can read more about this year’s lineup for Under The Radar Festival and purchase tickets for performances here.