NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival Opening Night To Feature Qui Nguyen

New Ohio Theatre, located in Manhattan's West Village, will present the 2021 NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival, showcasing over 30 shorts, features and web series episodes, running March 10 - 14.

The NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival presents work from New York City independent theatre artists defying labels and branching out into digital media and film. For 2021 they're taking the festival online and opening it up to include indie theatre artists from across the United States. They're excited to take advantage of the internet's wide reach to meet a new, national community of fellow theatre artists and showcase new perspectives and voices from across the country. North and South. Coast to coast. This time, it's national.

The NYC Indie Theatre Film Festival will celebrate Opening Night of its 2021 edition on Wednesday, March 10 from 7-8pm EST with a free, online interview and Q&A with playwright and screenwriter Qui Nguyen, co-writer of the new Disney film, Raya and the Last Dragon. The talk will be moderated by Festival Co-Producer Marc Stuart Weitz, who says, "Qui has a wonderful perspective on being an artist in New York City and in Hollywood, and I know our audiences will be fascinated by his experience."

Qui Nguyen is a playwright, TV/Film writer, and Co-Founder of the OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys. For the screen, he's written for AMC's Dispatches from Elsewhere, Netflix's The Society, Syfy's Incorporated, PBS's Peg+Cat, and Marvel Studios. He's currently a screenwriter for Walt Disney Animation Studios where he penned the recent Raya and the Last Dragon starring Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina. Past awards include a 2016 Daytime Emmy Award, a 2016 Steinberg Award for his play Vietgone, and GLAAD nominations for his plays She Kills Monsters and Soul Samurai.

New Ohio Theatre's Artistic Director Robert Lyons says, "I've known Qui for a long time now. Including the good fortune of co-writing a piece with him. He's a singular talent and that's why we invited Vampire Cowboys into our Archive Residency program, where they premiered Six Rounds of Vengeance in 2015. He is perfect as our Guest Artist for this festival as a quintessential indie theatre guy who's making good in LA."

"I'm so thrilled to partner on this year's edition of the festival to help broaden its reach to a wider audience," says Festival Co-Producer Allyson Morgan. "As a longtime partner of the festival with F*It Club's annual Film Race, I am excited to bring both my theatre and film festival experience together to celebrate a nationwide community of artists in 2021."

Festival passes are $35 and include admission to all screenings, Q&As and panels during the festival. To purchase, view screenings and events, and for more info go to https://nycitff2021.eventive.org.

A complete list and schedule of films and events, along with prices for individual tickets and blocks, will be announced at the end of February.

New Ohio Theatre is a two-time Obie Award-winning theatre under the leadership of Robert Lyons, Artistic Director, and Jaclyn Biskup, Creative Director. The New Ohio serves New York's most adventurous theatre audiences by developing and presenting bold work from today's vast independent theatre community. They believe the best of this community, the small artist-driven ensembles and the daring producing companies who operate without a permanent theatrical home, are actively expanding the boundaries of where American theatre is right now and where it's going. From their home in the West Village's historic Archive Building, the New Ohio provides a high-profile platform for downtown's most mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish and profound theatrical endeavors. For info visit http://NewOhioTheatre.org.