kUnST fEsT

header design by Luiza Dale

September 15-20th, 2026
at The Collapsable Hole, NYC

$25 General Admission
$60 fUll fRoNtAL kUnST pAss (see all 3 shows with one pAss - Fri + Sat only!)

kUnST fEsT was brought into being by 3 playwrights in the child-rearing vortex of awe, exhaustion, interruption, grief, extreme mundanity, and inspiration. Lisa Clair, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff and Kate Kremer stole time—between caring, peeing, and teaching—to create experimental plays.

Equally inspired by artists Ruth Asawa, Louise Bourgeois, pastoral landscapes, and the slapstick reality of the body, these plays meet at the nexus of poetry, performance art, and clown. Over the course of 6 days, all three playwrights will present their bold new works in a festival format at The Collapsable Hole.

kUnST fEsT is presented in partnership with Immediate Medium, with support from the Laurence W. Levine Foundation, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb (made possible by Ventorous Theater Fund), and a community-supported crowdfunding campaign.

In partnership with Broadway Babysitters and PAAL (Parent Artist Advocacy League)’s Childcare Matinee Program, kUnST fEsT and partners will provide free in-home care for a number of audience members for extensive festival engagement. Broadway Babysitters, PAAL, and kUnST fEsT also commit to creating care support for the festival company.

Sign up here to receive free childcare during our performances on Friday, 9/18 & Saturday, 9/19! A childcare provider from Broadway Babysitters will come to your home for up to five hours! Limited Spots available, first come first serve. Learn more about their childcare providers here.

THE SHOWS

Notes From the Cottage - written and directed by Lisa Clair
The Cycles - by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, directed by Caitlin Ryan O’Connell
The Intimacy - written and directed by Kate Kremer

Notes From The Cottage
written and directed by Lisa Clair

Wed 9/16 @ 7:30p
Fri 9/18 @ 7:30p
Sat 9/19 @ 2:30p

“1. Get un-haunted, 2. see objectively. This was on the advice of my psychic of course.” Notes from the Cottage is an unearthing, a ritual and a spell. It explores a particular place in a particular point in time but also the future as well as the past. Time as an infinite loop kind of thing. A psychotopographical romp into the here and now. Including songs and also dances!

Lisa Clair “clown-everyperson-diva” (David Cote) is a New York-based playwright and performer. She makes work under the name Lisa Clair Group, a collective of performers, musicians, and designers who collaborate across disciplines to create live, experimental performance. Lisa is a New Georges affiliated artist and a core member of Immediate Medium. Her work has been presented at MITU580, The Collapsable Hole, Target Margin Theater, SPRING/BREAK art show, The SFX Festival at The Wild Project, The Bushwick Starr Reading Series, Ars Nova ANT FEST, The Performance Project at University Settlement and more. She teaches experimental playwriting and performance at Sarah Lawrence College.

Director + Playwright Lisa Clair
Set Design lucas a degirolamo
Prop and Costume Design Caitlin Ayer
Lighting Design Mary Ellen Stebbins
Sound Design Johnny Gasper
Assoc. Scenic Design Sean Lillis
Assoc. Costume Design Katie Friedman
Assoc. Lighting Design Hailey Garza
Production Support Sheridan Merrick
PSM Kristina Gramlich
ASM Winter Commander

Featuring
Lisa Clair, Ean Sheehy, Zoë Geltman

Notes From The Cottage has received developmental support from the ‘On The Verge’ performance festival at The Wild Project (NYC).

The Cycles
written by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, directed by Caitlin Ryan O’Connell

Tue 9/15 @ 7:30p  ~
Thu 9/17 @ 5p ~
Fri 9/18 @ 5p +
Sat 9/19 @ 7:30p ~
Sun 9/20 @ 11a ~

~ Elizabeth Stahlmann in the role of 7 months
+ Anne Wechsler in the role of 7 months

Three strangers, who are all pregnant, wait in a healthcare waiting room, seemingly for all of eternity. The play is built for a cast of three pregnant performers, each in a different phase of pregnancy.

Rachel Kauder Nalebuff’s performances have been staged at REDCAT, The Skirball Center, the Hammer Museum, and La Ferme du Buisson (in collaboration with Emily Mast). Rachel created Our Red Book, named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times best-selling My Little Red Book. Most recently, she is the author of Stages: On dying, working, and feeling, a hybrid collection of writing and interviews with end-of-life care workers that “feels truly revolutionary, in both form and in content” (Elif Batuman). She teaches creative nonfiction writing at Yale University.

Caitlin Ryan O’Connell is a theater director and teaching artist based in Brooklyn. She has directed and developed work at Little Island, Clubbed Thumb, The Bushwick Starr, The Public, Ars Nova, The Lark, Roundabout, New Georges, The Hearth, Fault Line Theatre, Montana Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and The Denver Center. Caitlin runs a Senior Center Theater program in Brooklyn supported by the Bushwick Starr.

Playwright Rachel Kauder Nalebuff
Director Caitlin Ryan O'Connell
Set Design lucas a degirolamo
Costume Design Ásta Bennie Hostetter
Lighting Design Mary Ellen Stebbins
Sound Design Michael Costagliola
Assoc. Scenic Design Sean Lillis
Assoc. Lighting Design Hailey Garza
Assoc. Sound Design Margaret Montagna
Wardrobe Support Shatisha Bryant
PSM Sarah Samonte
ASM Lu Glassberg

Featuring
Santana Dempsey, Marianna McClellan, Elizabeth Stahlmann, Anne Wechsler

The Cycles has received developmental support from the FOFA Gallery (Montreal), the Mercury Store (Brooklyn), the Skirball Center (Los Angeles), the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), and PRELUDE (NYC).

The Intimacy, or: The Long and Storied History of the Garbage Can
written and directed by Kate Kremer

Tue 9/15 @ 5p
Thu 9/17 @ 7:30p
Fri 9/18 @ 2:30p
Sat 9/19 @ 5p

A play about entanglement, pretend, nostalgia, and loss, The Intimacy is also a looping duet with a garbage can, a mosaic of non-sequiturs, and a chance for Bette and Lucy to quick knock up a couple of pies and lay down their bundles of naughties.

Kate Kremer is a playwright and publisher whose works have been presented at JACK (Exponential Festival), the Public Theater (Weasel Festival), the Flow Chart Foundation, Dixon Place, the Bushwick Starr Reading Series, the Wild Project (SFX Fest), the Motor Company, Brooklyn College, and the Figge Art Museum. She’s been a finalist for the Princess Grace Award and the Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation Award, and received an honorable mention for the Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers. Her writing has appeared in Fence, Red Branch Journal, HowlRound, and Culturebot. Kate is the editor of 53rd State Press.

Director + Playwright Kate Kremer
Set Design lucas a degirolamo
Lighting Design Mary Ellen Stebbins
Sound Design Michael Costagliola
Video Design Jonathan Crimmins
Assoc. Scenic Design Sean Lillis
Assoc. Lighting Design Hailey Garza
Assoc. Sound Design Margaret Montagna
Production Support Scott Henkle
PSM Kristina Gramlich
ASM Winter Commander

Featuring
Kate Kremer

The Intimacy has received developmental support from The Flow Chart Foundation (Hudson).

kUnST fEsT
Artist Producers Lisa Clair, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, Kate Kremer, Caitlin Ryan O’Connell
Creative Producer Blaze Ferrer
Production Manager Grace Sallee
Technical Director Steven Brenman
Graphic Design Luiza Dale
Press Representation Privy Collective

The Collapsable Hole is not wheelchair-accessible. Additionally, the venue is currently under construction and may be hard to locate from the street. Please refer to the signage on Bank street to find the entrance to the Collapsable Hole.