Since 1985, En Garde Arts has turned unexpected places into unforgettable stages. New York City’s streets, piers, and hidden corners become sites where audience and architecture blur, and urgent, poetic, and political stories come alive. Born from the belief that art belongs everywhere and to everyone, En Garde launched the site-specific theater movement, redefining how audiences experience performance by collapsing the distance between space, story, and spectator.

Now, as we approach our 40th anniversary, En Garde Arts is more alive than ever. We’re investing in tomorrow’s voices; artists who demand change, invent new forms, and hold space for stories too often silenced. Through our signature programs like Uncommon Voices, The Joan D. Firestone Award, and Playdate / Playdate FEST, we incubate 5–7 bold new projects every year. Recent works by artists such as Samora la Perdida, Irina Kruzhilina, Sarah Gancher, Aya Ogawa, and Jared Mezzocchi push boundaries and reimagine how theater can heal, unsettle, and transform.

We believe in theater that is socially resonant, deeply rooted in a distinct place, and unafraid of the messiness of now. The city is our stage, and our craft is connection. Connection between artist and audience, site and story. As we step into the next decade, En Garde Arts remains dedicated to risk, reinvention, and making performance that speaks to the world as it is, and what it might become.

HANSOL JUNG is playwright and director. Plays: Merry Me (NYTW), Wolf Play (Soho Rep & Ma-Yi), Wild Goose Dreams (Public Theater & La Jolla), Romeo and Juliet (NAATCO & Two River) Cardboard Piano (Humana Festival), Among the Dead (Ma-Yi), and No More Sad Things (Boise Contemporary). TV & Film: Pachinko (Apple +) Tales of the City (Netflix). Hansol is the recipient of the Lucille Lortel award for Best Play, Obie Award, Herb Alpert Award, Steinberg Award, Whiting Award, Helen Merrill Award, Hodder Fellowship, Page 73 Fellowship, Lark’s Rita Goldberg Fellowship, NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship, Two-time MacDowell Fellow, and International Playwrights Residency at Royal Court.

She is a proud member of NYTW's Usual Suspects, the Kilroys Gen 2 and a founding member of The Pack. MFA: Yale.

DUSTIN WILLS was recently described by the Obie Award Committee as having an “ability to navigate chaos with precision,” and that about sums it up. Recent productions include Tennessee Williams’ sprawling Camino Real at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Counterfeit Opera and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Little Island (Best Theater of 2024, New York Magazine), Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play (2023 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Direction and Production), and John J. Caswell Jr.’s Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons/MCC). Dustin has devised new work with Teatro L’Arciliuto in Rome, Italy, trained with Augusto Boal in Theatre of the Oppressed legislative performance, and for a couple of years gave rogue tours of the Vatican. He is a 2023 Obie Award winner, Princess Grace Award recipient, and Baryshnikov Center Artist Resident 2018. He teaches in the Directing and Playwriting programs at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

LEXY LEUSZLER has developed works with Melis Aker, Jacinta Clusellas, Florencia Cuenca, Georgina Escobar, Amy Jo Jackson, Hansol Jung, Erlina Ortiz, Lina Patel, Tatiana Pandiani, Brian Quijada, and more. As Literary Manager for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, she established the NMTC Incubator program alongside Alexander Gemignani. She has taught with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Court Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater, the National Theater Institute, Connecticut College, and the Kennedy Center.  Member of The Pack, the 2023 Kilroy’s Web and American Theatre Magazine's Role Call: People to Watch list. She is the Co-Artistic Director of the WildWind Performance Lab at Texas Tech University.

CHRIS BANNOW, Broadway: Daniel Fish’s Tony Award Winning Oklahoma!, The Elephant Manstarring Bradley Cooper (also West End, Theater Royal Haymarket). Off-Broadway: The Counterfeit Opera, The Marriage of Figaro (Little Island), Wolf Play (Lortel Award, MCC Theater and Soho Rep), Sleep No More (Punchdrunk), The Hairy Ape (Park Avenue Armory), Electra in a One Piece(Wild Project). Regional: Center Theater Group, Kennedy Center, Williamstown, Huntington, McCarter, Berkshire Theatre Group, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Boston Playwrights Theater. Film/TV : Not Fade Away, Three Christs, Screamers, Fidelity, “The Late Late Show with James Corden”. Boston University, Yale School of Drama.

ESCO JOULÉY is winning over audiences as “Sonya” in the acclaimed FX series DYING FOR SEX, alongside Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate, and previously starred opposite Patricia Clarkson and Brendan Gleeson in the Sundance series STATE OF THE UNION. Theater credits include: Trophy Boys (MCC) Wolf Play (MCC also SoHo Rep) and other recent theatre includes Merry Me (NYTW) Twelfth Night (The Old Globe) and As You Like It (La Jolla). Additional television includes BLINDSPOTTING (Starz), HIGH MAINTENANCE (HBO), INVENTING ANNA (Netflix), MONSTERLAND (Hulu), and the ABC Discovers Showcase.

DORCAS LEUNG (she/her) is an actor and artist. Earlier this year, she completed a run of "The Counterfeit Opera" (Little Island, NYC) as Polly Peachum, a new take on the legendary satire – The Beggar’s Opera. Other credits include, Broadway: The Notebook as Georgie/Others (u/s Young Allie), Gigi Van Tranh in Miss Saigon. Off-Broadway: Dou Yi in Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage Company). Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, translated by Hansol Jung (NAATCO/Two River Theater). Tour: Roles of Eliza, Angelica, Peggy/Maria, Hamilton (1st National). Select Regional Houses: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater,  Dallas Theater Center, Barrington Stage Company, Goodspeed Opera House, The MUNY. Television: “Bull,” “Madam Secretary” (CBS).

BRIAN QUIJADA is a playwright, actor, and composer whose original work includes Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, Kid Prince and Pablo, Somewhere Over the Border, and Mexodus. As an actor, Brian has appeared in MCC’s Wolf Play, The Public’s Oedipus El Rey, Roundabout’s Bobbie Clearly and Playwright’s Realm’s My Mañana Comes. TV credits include Law and Order SVU, Search Party and Blue Bloods. Brian is a recipient of 4 Jeff Awards, 2 Helen Hayes Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award, and is a 3-time Drama Desk nominee. He is a proud member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre and proud member of the Lucille Lortel winning-group, The Pack. 

NICOLD VILLAMIL, Actor. Romeo and Juliet (A.R.T),: Merry Me (New York Theatre Workshop), Wolf Play (MCC Theatre), Wolf Play (Soho Rep), How to load a Musket (59E59), Network (Broadway), Queens (LCT3), Lessons in Survival (Vineyard Theatre -Online Series), MUD (Boundless Theatre), Shakespeare’s R&J (Hangar Theatre), De Profundis (PlayMakers Rep), Tell me I’m not Crazy, The Rose Tattoo (Williamstown Theatre Festival) The Hunchback of Seville, The Love of the Nightingale (Trinity Repertory Co.); TELEVISION: New Amsterdam, The Last OG; [Edu] M.F.A., Brown/Trinity Repertory Co.; B.A., University of Pennsylvania. She is the 2023 Lucille Lortel Award Recipient for Outstanding Ensemble. @nicoleavillamil

MITCHELL WINTER, Theater credits include: Hamlet (Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park), Wolf Play (MCC & Soho Rep)(Lortel Award for Best Ensemble), Dracula and The Importance of Being Earnest (Berkshire Theatre Group), Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr), Sleep No More (Punchdrunk), Death of Rasputin (Governor’s Island), Redemption Story (ART/NY), A Winter’s Tale, A Doctor In Spite of Himself, American Night (Yale Rep), Miss Saigon (Australian National Tour), Thoroughly Modern Millie (The Production Company), Normativity (NYMF), Die Fledermaus (Australian Opera Studio) and Joseph… Dreamcoat (Really Useful). Film/TV credits include: Mr. Robot (USA Network), Oh Jerome No (FX), If Not Love (official Sundance selection). MFA: Yale School of Drama.

HOLLIE VAN OSENBRUGGEN is a NY based stylist originally from New Zealand. Select publications include Interview Magazine, Vogue Australia, Heroine and L’officiel. Recent clients include Stetson, Cartier,  L’oreal, Tiffany and Co. For more info visit her site www.hollievanosenbruggen.co

YUNHEE YANG, is the Lead Bartender of Osamil Upstairs in Midtown Manhattan. Since first stepping behind the bar in 2021, she has become deeply immersed in New York City’s cocktail scene, where she leads operations and service while also helping to shape the creative direction of the bar’s cocktail program. Celebrated for her balance of precision and storytelling in hospitality, Yunhee brings both technical expertise and cultural perspective to every project she takes on.@y_nhee.

Anne Hamburger (she/her) Founded En Garde Arts in 1985. As Executive Artistic Director, she is responsible for pioneering site-specific theatre in New York, using its streets and historic landmarks as her stage. Hamburger has produced the work of artists that are now internationally renowned: Anne Bogart, Charles L. Mee, Tina Landau, Jonathan Larson and Reza Abdoh, with large-scale predominantly outdoor work. As its Executive Artistic Director, her leadership model is highly collaborative and anti-hierarchical while leading the creative and strategic vision of the company.

She is committed to nurturing a new generation of theatrical risk-takers, encouraging artists to explore and rigorously experiment with their creative practice. Her relationship with artists extends beyond the stage, offering mentorship, friendship, and a commitment to their creative and personal growth.

For her work, Hamburger has won 6 Obie Awards, 2 Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award, Lee Reynolds Award and the Exceptional Merit in Media Award from The National Political Women’s Caucus. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama and is the proud mother of two children Hannah and Owen Jenney.