legacy
Founded by visionary producer Anne Hamburger, En Garde Arts is a New York-based 501(c)3 not-for-profit that builds upon a globally-recognized history of creative excellence alongside such luminaries as Reza Abdoh, Anne Bogart, María Irene Fornés, Charles L. Mee, Jr., Tina Landau, Jonathan Larson, Bill Rauch, Fiona Shaw, and Mac Wellman.
En Garde Arts was the first exclusively site-specific theatre in New York, re-envisioning the city as a stage with experiential events that interwove story with location in Central Park, Penn Yards, East River Park, the Chelsea Hotel, a Meatpacking District before gentrification, and beyond. Using original and adapted texts, productions tackled such timely subjects as the AIDS epidemic and the city’s growing economic disparities and were collectively honored with six OBIEs, two Drama Desk Awards, and an Outer Critics Circle Special Award — with The New York Times proclaiming the organization to be “an invigorating urban presence.”
Championing an immersive process of understanding and discovery for artists and audiences alike, En Garde Arts continues to redefine the ways in which theatre is produced and presented for maximum artistic and social impact. In considering the myriad elements that combine to tell a story, it serves as an incubator for dynamic experiences that encapsulate today’s most pressing issues and move publics into action.
1989
wasteland
Presented at Liberty Theatre, NY
Written by T.S. Eliot
Directed by Deborah Warner
Starring Fiona Shaw
Winner of two Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding One Person Show and Unique Theatrical Experience.
A one-woman recitation of one of the most important poems of the 20th Century, shifting between voices of satire and prophecy.
“A spellbinding interpretation.” — The New York Times
1990
FATHER WAS A PECULIAR MAN
Presented in Meatpacking District, NY
Written by Mira-Lani Oglesby and Reza Abdoh
Directed by Reza Abdoh
A deconstruction of The Brothers Karamazov presented as a sprawling pageant.
“The performances are as large and passionate as the audacity of the conception.” —The New York Times
1990
Crowbar
Presented at The Victory, NY
Written by Mac Wellman
Directed by Richard Caliban
A ghost play illuminating The Victory’s storied past, salvaging the 42nd Street theatre following decades of decay.
“Crowbar, the newest site-specific project of Anne Hamburger’s En Garde Arts company, is an act of reclamation and renewal.”— The New York Times
1991
Presented at Towers Nursing Home, Central Park West, NY
Written by Charles L. Mee, Jr.
Directed by Anne Bogart
A surrealistic exploration of what it means to be an outsider.
another person is a foreign country
“ANOTHER PERSON surges with vitality, but it doesn’t shrink from its vision of the world as a chamber of horrors where only a lucky few get to sit at the banquet table and happily gorge to their hearts’ content.” — The New York Times
1993
orestes
Presented at Penn Yards, NY
Adapted by Charles L. Mee, Jr.
Directed by Tina Landau
Starring Jefferson Mays
A modern retelling of the ancient Greek play by Euripides, with America as collapsed Greece.
“Another of the En Garde Arts company’s site-specific shows, ORESTES proves among the best.”—Variety
1994
Stonewall: Night Variations
“Such is the ingeniously metaphoric preface to a play about liberation. What follows, on a vast open-air stage that stretches into the Hudson, tells the story of how each of the characters introduced in the carnival is sprung from social captivity in June of 1969.” – Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Conceived and directed by Tina Landau
1995
jp morgan saves the nation
Music by Jonathan Larson
Libretto by Jeffrey M. Jones
Directed by Jean Randich
An interweaving of economics, and theatre, surrounding JP Morgan’s attempt to save the nation from collapse during the panic of 1907.
“This is surely your only chance to watch stockbrokers strangling each other on Wall Street to the rhythms of a rock minuet.”— The New York Times
1996
the trojan women:
a love story
Written by Charles L. Mee, Jr.
Directed by Tina Landau
Starring Sharon Scruggs
A modern retelling with a world reduced to such disarray and anguish that it will never recover.
“There is a perversely appealing logic in a production that equates the Trojan War with an Astaire and Rogers picture, where the only thing that got injured was Edward Everett Horton’s dignity.” — The New York Times
en garde arts: Relaunched
After more than a decade shaping large-scale global experiences as Executive Vice President of Disney’s International Entertainment division — and previously leading La Jolla Playhouse as Artistic Director — Anne Hamburger made a mission-driven return to New York City in 2014, relaunching En Garde Arts with BASETRACK Live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Named one of the top ten productions of the year by The New York Times, the piece employed a boundary-breaking form of multimedia documentary theater, combining real-life narratives with journalistic footage, music, and movement to illuminate the impact of war on the 21st-century American family. A 40-city national tour extended the reach of En Garde’s ethos — once reserved solely for New York audiences — and marked the beginning of the organization’s integrated approach to creative development and community engagement.
At a time when the city was rapidly changing, En Garde Arts recognized an urgent need for performance that confronted the pressing issues of our time, uplifting voices, and bringing theater directly to underserved communities. En Garde Arts reignited a legacy of site-specific performance — creating platforms for diverse artists and championing the power of place-based storytelling. EGA’s vision was clear: to create work that didn’t just entertain, but sparked conversation, fostered empathy, and reconnected audiences to the city — and to one another — in deeply meaningful ways.
2014
basetrack live
Created by Edward Bilous
Composed by Michelle DiBucci, Edward Bilous, & Greg Kalember
Co-adapted by Jason Grote, in collaboration with Seth Bockley & Anne Hamburger
Directed by Seth Bockley
Music Direction by Michelle DiBucci
“…this production brings the gritty, brutal truths alive in ways that nothing I’ve read or seen has succeeded in doing.” — The New York Times
2015
Big outdoor site specific stuff (B.o.s.s.s. Fest)
Presented at Hudson River Park, NY
Conceived by Anne Hamburger
A free festival of work by nine creative teams comprised of New York’s rising generation of innovative theatre artists.
“Presented by En Garde Arts, it’s all part of Ms. Hamburger’s bold re-entry into New York theatre.” — The New York Times
2016
wilderness
Written by Seth Bockley & Anne Hamburger
Directed by Seth Bockley
Movement by Devon DeMayo & Patrick McCollum
Music by Kyle Miller & Towr’s, Kyle Henderson & Desert Noises and Gregory Alan Isakov
“Despite the complexity of its structure, the production’s emotional fluency is bell-clear.”— The New York Times
2017
harbored
Co-comissioned by Arts Brookfield and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as part of the River to River Festival 2017.
Written & Directed by Jimmy Maize
Composed by Heather Christian
Choreographed by Wendy Seyb
Downtown Voices Choir, Mama Foundation, Wednesday Sings Choir
Championing an immersive process of understanding and discovery, HARBORED redefines the ways in which we think about America’s past, present and future.” -- The Dance Enthusiast
2018
red hills
Written by Asiimwe Deborah Kawe and Sean Christopher Lewis
Directed by Katie Pearl
Music Composition by Farai Malianga
“…beautifully performed by the actors and chillingly accompanied by the composer and instrumentalist…” — The New York Times
2020
FANDANGO FOR BUTTERFLIES & COYOTES
Written by Andrea Thome
Directed by José Zayas
Music by Sinuhé Padilla
“Pero no nos confundamos. Esta obra no habla de las tragedias. Fandango para mariposas (y coyotes), celebra la fuerza, la resistencia y la imaginación” —LA Times
2021
A DOZEN DREAMS
Written by Asiimwe Deborah Kawe and Sean Christopher Lewis
Directed by Katie Pearl
Music Composition by Farai Malianga
“beautifully designed and lit, each a self-contained universe…” — The New Yorker
2021
Downtown Live brought 36 in-person performances to Lower Manhattan on May 15-16 and 22-23. The performances were staged at unexpected locations around the neighborhood, including a covered loading dock (4 New York Plaza), an arcade along the Stone Street Historic District.
DOWNTOWN LIVE!
“I was able to ricochet from show to show, the old familiar fear of missing something finally erasing the recent awfulness of missing everything.” - Helen Shaw,
Vulture Magazine
2022
downtown stories!
A little-known landmark, the smallest street in Manhattan, an historic graveyard… These are just some of the places you will discover through Downtown Stories.
“…two guided tours and one “docu-theater” play — weave New York City’s landmarks into the storytelling”. — The New York Times
2023
HELEN
Written by Caitlin George
Directed by Violeta Picayo
We’re used to things beginning with Helen — all those ships — but here, it would seem something ends with the infamously beautiful Spartan princess.” — Vulture
2024
Preformed at the Historic Water Front Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Written by Sarah Ganger
Directed by Jared Mezzocchi
THE WIND AND THE RAIN: A STORY ABOUT SUNNY’S BAR
The Best Theater of 2024 List - Vulture & New York Magazine
2025
SPACEBRIDGE
Commissioned in part by the Joan D. Firestone Commission
Conceived and Directed by: Irina Kruzhilina
Written by: Clark Young and Irina Kruzhilina
“SpaceBridge” could have coasted on its inherent emotional power — most of the Russian children in the show are still waiting to hear about their asylum requests — but Kruzhilina has made a very theatrical work. — New York Times