Fresh Fruit Festival Names Dennis Corsi As New Artistic Director

The Fresh Fruit Festival - one of New York city's most visible and acclaimed LGBTQ arts organizations - encompassing theater, performance, poetry, comedy, spoken word, music, dance, visual arts and other artistic expressions, has chosen its new artistic director. The Fresh Fruit Festival is presented by All Out Arts to celebrate the LGBTQ community's unique perspective, creativity & diversity, and to build links between the LGBTQ artistic communities - local or international. 

Dennis Corsi, a celebrated director and producer, will take on the mantle of artistic director and work with Louis Lopardi, one of the organization's founders and executive director. Corsi has administrative credentials that include Director of New Works at Live & In Color, a theatre company developing new plays and musicals celebrating diversity and Creative Director of Script Match, a web app connecting playwrights and producers. He is also video director at B • OUT, an LGBTQ media company and a dramaturg for NYMF and is on their selection committee for new musicals. Select theatrical directing credits: The Commedia Cinderella (Theatre Row - winner of Off Broadway Alliance Award), The Phillie Trilogy (Fresh Fruit Festival - winner Outstanding Production 2018), The Fierce Urgency of Now (Fresh Fruit Festival - winner Outstanding Production 2017), Gruesomely Merry Adventures (Winterfest - winner Best Director), The Turing Test (Gallery Players), Siren's Den (Gene Frankel), Junie B. Jones (Theatreworks USA), Dust and Ash (Samuel French OOB), and bare (Michigan State University).

"The Fresh Fruit Festival has been a source of inspiration for me the past few years," says Corsi, upon taking charge of their next season; "I am honored to pick up the torch from Liz Thaler to join the team and lead this exceptional organization into the new decade," he continued.

"We've been called 'the most diverse LGBT festival in the city' and we are honored to present artists of many racial ethnic and religious backgrounds. Every sexuality and gender orientation has filled our stages," says Louis Lopardi. "And I am confident that Dennis Corsi will shepherd us to new heights."

Established in 1991, All Out Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit devoted to bringing together the diverse artistic, organizational, political and financial resources of the LGBTQ community in order to fight intolerance. All Out Arts fulfills its mission by supporting arts organizations within the community through fiscal sponsorship, events, contests, collaborations, networking events for emerging artists, and by sponsoring productions, concerts and exhibitions of visual arts. We confront homophobia through the humanizing influence of the arts, and the Fresh Fruit Festival is the primary expression of the All Out Arts mission. 
The Fresh Fruit Festival was founded in 2002 by Carol Polcovar, who as Founding Artistic Director brought the Festival into its second decade. It is presented by All Out Arts to celebrate the LGBTQ community's unique perspective, creativity & diversity, and to build links between the LGBTQ artistic communities, be they local or international.