January can get a bad rap, culture-wise. It's when winter kicks in, the city quiets down and what can feel like a post-holiday ennui settles in.

New York City, however, rarely settles down.

January begets JanArts NYC, an initiative from the mayor’s office that showcases new works in opera, dance, theater, music and more.

For jazz lovers, there’s Winter JazzFest, a series of shows, talks and screenings dedicated to the genre at various venues across the city.

For dance fans, there’s American Dance Platform at the Joyce Theater, highlighting a range of styles, including tap, Flamenco and contemporary.

Music lovers will enjoy Lincoln Center's globalFEST, featuring music from around the world, such as Ukrainian folk and French-Moroccan gnawa rock.

And for theater geeks, there’s the Under the Radar festival, now in its 19th edition. The festival celebrates theater “from around the world and down this street.”

This year’s “Under the Radar” kicks off Friday and features 23 performances at 13 venues over three weekends. The festival has found a new home, after a much-publicized end to its 17-year run at the Public Theater due to budget cuts last summer.

Alison Stewart invited Mark Russell, the founder of “Under the Radar,” and Luke Murphy, whose acclaimed show “Volcano” is part of the festival, to discuss their work on a recent episode of “All of It.”

You can hear the whole conversation here; below is an edited version.

Alison Stewart: Luke, your show “Volcano” is one of the pieces in the festival. It starts Jan. 10 at St. Ann's Warehouse. The website says it’s part theater, part dance, part sci-fi thriller. How would you describe it?

Luke: One of the problems with talking about the show is the narrative is this sci-fi mystery and how it unfolds and gets pieced together over these four episodes — that's the experience of the show. So when you talk about it, you're trying to hold as much back while giving something, so it doesn't seem completely obscure.

We originally made it during COVID. At the time, a lot of live work was artists livestreaming what they were making for a theater, which was great to keep people going and keep people working, but you were suddenly competing with “Tiger King.”

So, the show came in from saying, “All right, well, if this is the platform that we're working with, then how do I think about a television show structure or a miniseries structure?”

And then that kind of unlocked something, because all of a sudden I was working with a completely different set of rules around how do you get an audience to come back? How does a story progress?

And then that lent itself to a much more fantastical narrative. So there is this strange sci-fi story. It seeps out from the edges and gets stronger and stronger as the show goes on, with dance.

Mark, tell us a little bit about something that is very different about this festival as compared to ones in the past.

Mark: What’s exciting is that Under the Radar doesn't have many rules anyway. It's supposed to break rules.

What I ask all my artists is: “Why are we doing theater now?” And “why do a festival now?” suddenly came to me. I've been having to reinforce that.

There are so many things. There's “Cultural Exchange Rate” over at The Invisible Dog. And that takes 10 people at a time. There's three things that you can see at Lincoln Center in one night, if you wish.

And then it's great to have Saint Ann's Warehouse back with us because that's where Under the Radar started back in 2005.

Luke, your performance is physically demanding. How do you prepare?

Luke: Differently all the time. It’s quite a long show. Each episode is around 45 minutes. So for the audience and for us, it's quite an extended period of time watching.

And that means that there's both the physical journey that you go on to keep your engine moving for just under four hours of action.

And separately, there's the emotional line. When you have two people who never leave the stage, performing for three and a half hours, you genuinely go a little bit crazy.

So you're trying to hit that right level where you're going to be well-supported to do what you need to do and you also don't empty yourself out so that you're going to have enough left in the tank.

What's interesting about performing this show is, one of my first jobs in New York was, I was in the first cast of “Sleep No More.” So I'm used to doing these really long shows and that kind of became a really big part.

I really like performing for a long period of time because I feel like the longer you're on stage, the more you just grow in front of your audience and the more you create. The reality just gets truer because you are really there and what's going on with your exhaustion is palpable for an audience and makes things very honest.

It's true in a lot of shows I've made. By the end of a show that long, audiences are kind of applauding themselves for staying. They're just as impressed with themselves as they are with what you've done. So you get to share in your collective endeavor of doing it together.

Mark, can you shout out a few other things that folks can see with the Under the Radar Festival?

Mark: There’s a show called “As You Like It,” but it's radically reinterpreted by Cliff Cardinal, and that's at [NYU's] Skirball Center.

There's also a piece at BAM called “Our Class.” Which is a very, very intense show by the Arlekin Players.

At Lincoln Center, you can see “Queens of Sheba,” which is one of my favorites. And one of the reasons we kept going is I wanted to see this show land in New York.

One last one is at the Japan Society, and it's called “Hamlet / Toilet.” It's going to be pushing lots of buttons.

And I'm so excited about Luke's piece because it really does stretch all sorts of mediums: the medium of dance, of watching. It’s going to be a powerful, powerful experience. I haven't seen it live yet, and so I'm really looking forward to that moment.

Under the Radar festival runs from Jan. 5 through 21. You can learn more about the programming at their website.