The Climate Plays
A New Play Festival
The Climate Plays
This three-day festival features three plays – each with a unique and fresh perspective – that offer intimate and vibrant stories of families trying to find a way forward through the climate crisis.
Readings are invite-only, as space is limited. For more information, please email literary@staging.thenewgroup.org
When
July 15 - 17, 2025
2025 Line Up
Tuesday, July 15 at 4pm
Circumstances Affecting The Heat of the Sun’s Rays
by Amanda Quaid
What if someone had discovered the “greenhouse effect” during the heart of the industrial revolution? What if that someone were a woman - an amateur scientist, a wife and a mother - in 1850s New Hampshire, when a “woman scientist” was generally considered an oxymoron? And what if this story, of a woman and her family finding their voices, were actually true?
Email literary@staging.thenewgroup.org for more information
Wednesday, July 16 at 4pm
Too Close to Earth
by Marvin Gonzalez de Leon
Set in the near future—and spanning 100 years—Too Close to Earth explores the transformation of two Mexican American families as their lives intersect across generations at a seaside home in Southern California. Drawing on the traditions of speculative fiction, the play not only examines our changing relationship with nature and technology, but also the role of art and religion in sustaining hope and balance in a world in crisis.
Email literary@staging.thenewgroup.org for more information
Thursday, July 17 at 4pm
Precarious
by Steph Del Rosso
Violet is newly 70, newly retired, and growing increasingly anxious about environmental collapse when she shows up at her daughter Tillie’s Brooklyn apartment with an unwelcome surprise. But Tillie has secrets of her own, and as a heatwave hits, conflicts begin to simmer and threaten to explode. A dark comedy about mothers and daughters, generational divides, and climate change.
Email literary@staging.thenewgroup.org for more information
Photos from Past Festivals
The Climate Plays are part of the The New Group/New Works Program, which focuses on the nurturing and development of new plays and musicals. A core tenet of this program is to build and facilitate lasting relationships between The New Group, artists, and audiences who connect through theater that is adventurous, stimulating, and socially relevant. This program has become a vital incubator for emerging and established playwrights, and serves as the primary pipeline for world premieres at The New Group. Public reading festivals have long been a part of the program’s developmental process.
Generous support for The New Group is provided by The Shubert Foundation and The Howard Gilman Foundation.
The New Group/New Works Program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
The New Group’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Photos by Marcus Middleton.