13th Annual The Fire This Time Festival Postponed To Summer 2022

Due to the recent resurgence of Covid-19 FRIGID New York will regrettably be postponing the 13th Annual The Fire This Time Festival until July 2022. The festival, which was originally scheduled to run January 17-February 6, 2022 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), features World Premiere 10-minute plays by early career and under-represented playwrights from the African diaspora. Information on the new performance dates will be announced in the coming months.

"Sadly, due to the recent surge of the Covid-19 virus and out of an abundance of caution and an unwavering desire to protect the health and safety of our cast and crew, we are postponing this year's festival," said Artistic Director, Cezar Williams. "It is our intention to remount the festival this Summer. Please standby for more details as they become available."

The 2022 Fire This Time Festival playwrights include Agyeiwaa Asante, Rachel Herron, Fedna Jacquet, Marcus Scott, Phillip Christian Smith and Lisa Rosetta Strum. Themes of the ten-minute plays include African Americans seeking their own brand of retribution after repeatedly being failed by the American justice system; the descendants of enslaved Africans living up to the sacrifices made by their ancestors to taste freedom; people of African descent being divided by a perceived scarcity of opportunities; relationships being tested by long-held assumptions about fidelity and the fluidity of sexuality; and Black women finding joy in their twilight years. All six 10-minute plays will be directed by Zhailon Levingston (Chicken and Biscuits on Broadway; Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on Broadway).

The OBIE Award winning The Fire This Time Festival was founded in 2009 by Kelley Girod to provide a platform for playwrights of African and African-American descent to write and produce evocative material for diverse audiences. Since the debut of the first 10-minute play program in 2010, presented in collaboration with FRIGID New York, The Fire This Time Festival has produced and developed the work of more than 80 playwrights including Katori Hall, Dominique Morisseau, Radha Blank, Antoinette Nwandu, Jocelyn Bioh, korde arrington tuttle, Stacey Rose, Aziza Barnes, C.A. Johnson, Kevin R. Free, Charly Evon Simpson, Angelica Cheri, James Anthony Tyler, Jordan Cooper and Nathan Yungerberg. The Fire This Time Festival recently collaborated with Center Theatre Group and Watts Village Theater Company to launch the initiative "It's Not A Moment, But A Movement" to amplify Black artists through three virtual events which paired playwrights, visual artists and musicians during 2021.

FRIGID New York's mission is to provide both emerging and established artists the opportunity to create and produce original work without limit to content, form, or style, and to amplify their diverse voices. We do this by presenting an array of monthly programming, mainstage productions, an artist residency, and seven annual theater festivals that create an environment of collaboration, resourcefulness, and innovation. Founded in 1998, the aim was and is to form a structure, allowing multiple artists to focus on creating and staging new work and providing affordable rental space to scores of Independent artists. Now in our third decade we have produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. www.frigid.nyc

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