ABOUT THE PLAY

My name is Sydney, and my play Hunger Artist is being produced at the New York Theater Festival this upcoming January 2026! I am a playwright who graduated from Vassar in 2024, and have been self-producing my work in NYC since I moved here last September. However, Hunger Artist is an exciting milestone for me, as it will be my first full-length piece produced in the city!

Hunger Artist was inspired by Franz Kafka's short story Ein Hungerkünstler, published in 1922. Kafka's original tells the story of a 'hunger artist' who performs acts of public starvation in 40 day increments, to the awe, disgust, and general amusement of the public. But his "art" inevitably produces diminishing returns, and at the end of his career (a life of fasting), he privately admits his deception: that the spectacle of starving was easy for him, because he never once in his life found anything he wanted to eat.

My play takes some foundational themes and questions posed by Kafka's original and explores them through original characters in a contemporary setting.

Making art under capitalism, you have to garner an audience and generate buzz in order to make money off of an artistic 'brand'. In the world of high art and experimental work, this often means exhibiting the dark and the disturbing. Yet, if a piece asks too much of the audience, or leaves too harsh of a scar, it won't sell. The marketable piece uses trauma as a spectacle to gawk at, and then to forget the next day. In this way, Kafka's concept of 'hunger art' provides the trauma-porn-spectacle that requires little reflection from an audience, but tickles their morbid curiosity. After the fad passes and the public moves on, the hunger artist, whose public renown was ultimately a shallow one, is discarded, like a stray dog.

As someone who finds fulfillment through unpacking and exploring my trauma through art, I often wonder when it can become unproductive, or when I am encouraged to metaphorically self-mutilate to gain the praise and attention of those seeking entertainment through 'trauma porn'. What is the purpose of tragedy and shock in performance? I believe there is one, but where do we draw the line between productive catharsis, and traumatizing, cruel, objectifying art? This is the central question that I was drawn to within Hunger Artist.

We are also currently seeing the exponential growth in the abilities of generative AI, as the use of AI to manufacture creativity gains popularity among both corporations and individuals alike. As artists, we are being asked, "What do you have that a computer doesn't?" I am concerned that the answer some will reach is that we can provide proof of suffering, and that our suffering will be more frequently commodified and exhibited as the art itself — a practice already common throughout the history of performance art.

As artists, what lengths will we go to, to be 'seen'? As people, is our humanity defined by our suffering? Is it wrong to make a spectacle out of your own misery if it works? What are you actually hungry for? And where is the line that tells us its time to stop?

FUNDING

The New York Theater Festival team provides their shows with a theater space and access to their props library, but aside from those resources, as the playwright, I am responsible for producing the show. This includes gathering a production team, casting 8 roles, securing rehearsal spaces, and getting the piece off the ground.

We are not given any money from box office sales, and will only receive money from the NYTF in the event that the production wins an award at the end of the winter season. Accordingly, I am raising money to rent rehearsal spaces, so we can put this 90 minute show on its feet. I'm also raising money to pay the actors and production team members a stipend for their work. At a time when the arts are increasingly being defunded, and it's becoming harder than ever to pursue a career in theater, it's important to me to be able to compensate the talented artists lending their time and expertise to help develop my piece.

Thank you so much for supporting this project, and for supporting the work of independent artists!