5th Annual Gotham Storytelling Festival Sets Lineup at The Kraine Theater

This November, FRIGID New York @ Horse Trade presents the Fifth Annual Gotham Storytelling Festival featuring a wide variety of downtown storytellers and solo performers.

The 2016 Gotham Storytelling Festival will run November 1-6 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery). Tickets ($16) may be purchased in advance at www.horseTRADE.info.

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The Adam Wade Show

Written & Performed by Adam Wade

Tuesday, November 1 @ 7pm

Adam Wade (Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer, NPR regular), a staggering 20-time Moth Story Slam winner, has put together many of his winning heartfelt and humorous stories for this special Gotham Storytelling Festival show.

Peach Fuzzy

Written & Performed by Mark Pagán

Tuesday, November 1 @ 8:30pm

What if you woke up one morning and puberty turned your body into a Chia Pet? Mark Pagán recounts his search for paternal guidance and explores the myth that enhanced body hair preening is primarily the domain of females while diving deep into confessions tied to male coming of age that are rarely revealed. Through a series of autobiographical vignettes that touch on Russian lasers, treasure trails, gap-toothed Francophones, cancer scares, clandestine salon visits, Crystal Waters, stubble patches, and father figures, Peach Fuzzy offers a tender, humorous, and ultimately enlightening look at how we all need a little fatherly counsel in our lives.

The Serpent's Sermon

Written & Performed by Ron Stroman

Wednesday, November 2 @ 7pm

Follow Ron, an admitted drug war casualty, as he hitchhikes down memory road. It's a mesmerizing journey over hairpin turns that take him to the screaming edges of dreams. All the while, he searches for the identity of the beguiling man at the driver's wheel.

The Dead Parents Club: As Sad As We Want To Be

Conceived & Curated by Susan Kent

Wednesday, November 2 @ 8:30pm

After losing her mom, storyteller Susan Kent wanted to share her experience onstage, but it's such a bummer being the downer on the comedy lineup. She created The Dead Parents Club as a safe space where performers share their harrowing, heartbreaking, and irreverently hilarious DPC stories, while being as sad as they want to be about the emotional deluge that ensues after initiation. Trust us: it's way more upbeat than you think, but we'll have tissues on hand just in case.

An #Adult

Written & Performed by Nisse Greenberg

Thursday, November 3 @ 7pm

Nisse Greenberg's an #Adult is a storytelling show that proposes a reason for why I became the functional person that I became despite all of my best intentions to become dysfunctional.

Love, Marriage & Catscans

Written & Performed by Cyndi Freeman and Brad Lawrence

Thursday, November 3 @ 8:30pm

Every marriage is a story all its own. But there are some things that each marriage will face, like health issues. This one-hour show by renowned storytellers and married couple, Brad Lawrence and Cyndi Freeman, take on the stress and challenges that come with the In Sickness and In Health part of the vows. Through moments where Cyndi can't get off the couch and Brad can't get off the ground, each must come to terms with the frailties of their own bodies and also with those of their partner's as they face unknown illnesses, misdiagnosis, snarky medical professionals, and an endless number of worst case scenarios. In the end, they must come to terms with what it means to commit to love in the face of the kind of uncertainties we spend our lives trying to pretend aren't there.

Everybody's Crazy... Or Maybe It's Just Me!

Written & Performed by Heather Bagnall

Thursday, November 3 @ 10pm

Three generations of mental illness is one hell of a party! From planning grandma's murder to failed suicides, "covert operations" and street-side brawls, our family puts the fun in the dysfunctional world of depression, dementia and disorder, or as I like to call them, my Triple Ds. Mental illness sucks. Let's find a way to laugh about it. This show was originally conceived as part of Solocom, New York's premiere new works solo comedy festival.

No Moral Compass

Written & Performed by Trish Parry

Friday, November 4 @ 6:30pm

What was your upbringing like? Is today just another phase? Trish Parry has been trying to figure it out her whole life. Come investigate a past that may be like your own, the story of a latchkey kid who bought weed for Dad, the girl the cops thought was a prostitute in Georgia, just an average teenager who turned to The Devil.

The Story Collider: Stories About Science

Hosted by Erin Barker & Nisse Greenberg

Friday, November 4 @ 8pm

The Story Collider brings together people from all walks of life to share true, personal stories of how science has affected their lives. Some of funny; some are dramatic. All are about the transformative power of science.

CHALK

Created & Performed by Alex Curtis

Saturday, November 5 @ 2pm

CHALK is a playful and poignant one-man show guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages. An inventive homage to classic silent-film era comedians, Chalk invites audiences into a hand-drawn world where imagination is made real and anything can happen. Charlie Chaplin meets Harold and the Purple Crayon in this feel-good romantic romp sure to "Draw You In."

The Exclusion Zone

Written & Performed by Martin Dockery

Saturday, November 5 @ 4pm

Dockery turns the formulaic storytelling style of The Moth and This American Life on its head as he tells the story of a book that's about a film that's about a journey to a mysterious room. In this true, one-of-a-kind storytelling show, Dockery travels to the irradiated ghost-city of Chernobyl, a city that exists outside of time. With Andrei Talkovsky's Stalker and Geoff Dyer's Zona as his only guides through the strange world of the off-limits, Dockery hilariously seeks to unearth both the root of inspiration and - dare we say it - the very meaning of life itself.

No, I'M the worst!

Hosted by Todd Alan Crain

Saturday, November 5 @ 5:30pm

A storytelling competition for terrible people. In three dirty rounds, three despicable storytellers compete to tell the most ribald, raunchy, taboo tales and prove they are the WORST person in the room. It's a storytelling competition with a trashy twist.

An Intimate Evening of Issues

Hosted by Tess Henry

Saturday, November 5 @ 7pm

Come join us under the stars on this cool November evening where we get intimate and discuss those things that have been causing us some real issues. Hear the stories of the incredible storytellers: Lindsey Steinert, Nicole Ferraro, and Una Osato. So come down, cuddle up, get heated by an issue, and enjoy.

The Books of the Boble

Written by Bob Laine, Directed by Timothy McCown Reynolds

Saturday, November 5 @ 8:30pm

Culling from his two plays, What's That Buzz, and Cocaine Faggot, Bob Laine and Indie Theater stars Clara Francesca and Sarah K. Lippmann share 7 stories that will not be about Pot. A college teacher who would rather be known as a stoner than a faggot, a fourth grader playing I'll show mine with his next door neighbor, a Linen's and Things' employee who sneaks tokes in front a Toy's R Us, a Burger King Manager who sees an old man die in his restaurant, a high school teacher who gives used tennis balls to her drug dealer's kids, and a gay man who doesn't feel gay enough to go a cabaret are just some of the characters that populate The Books of the Boble. Paying homage to his storytelling heroes William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski and Spaulding Gray, Bob Laine's stories are told with humor and humanity, populated with people searching for the answer to the question, how much does it take for me to get by?

Queer Memoir: FRIENDS

Curated & Directed by Kelli Dunham

Sunday, November 6 @ 2pm

Queer Memoir is New York's longest-running and most earnest LGBT themed storytelling series celebrating six years of giving voice to our collective queer experience and preserving and documenting our complex queer history. With this special FRIENDS show we're including non-local storytellers as well via the magic of the interwebs, the USPS and stories shared via, yes, cassette tape.

Lucky Penny

Written by David Deblinger

Sunday, November 6 @ 5:30pm

A lot comes up when, while losing your dad.... you become one. From a juvenile detention center in New Jersey to a fabled plaza in Madrid, from the piers of San Francisco to a Staten Island state mental hospital, Lucky Penny is a hilarious and surreal tale of love, loss, and laughter interwoven with the song stylings of renowned Jazz vocalist FrEd Johnson.

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FRIGID New York @ Horse Trade is a theater development group with a focus on new work that produces a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater every season. FRIGID's Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. FRIGID New York grew out of the annual FRIGID Festival, the first and only festival of its kind in New York City to offer artists 100% of their box office proceeds, and Horse Trade Theater Group, a self-sustaining theater development and management group.