Cast Announced for 13th Annual The Fire This Time Festival

FRIGID New York will present the 13th Annual The Fire This Time Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), July 7-10. The Obie Award-winning festival will feature World Premiere 10-minute plays by early career and under-represented playwrights from the African diaspora, co-directed by Zhailon Levingston (Chicken & Biscuits on Broadway; Patience) and actor, writer, director and TFTT alum Tracey Conyer Lee.

Performances will take place on Thursday, July 7 at 7pm, Friday, July 8 at 7pm, Saturday, July 9th at 2pm, Saturday, July 9th at 7pm, and Sunday, July 10th at 3pm. Performances will also be available to livestream from home. Tickets ($20) are available for advance purchase.

The cast will feature Ricardy Fabre (New Golden Age at Primary Stages; Lessons in Survival at Vineyard Theatre), Patricia Floyd (The October Storm at Hudson Stages Company; "Show Me A Hero" on HBO), Anthony Goss (Gong Lum's Legacy at New Federal Theatre; On Strivers Row at Metropolitan Playhouse), Fedna Jacquet (Ain't No Mo at The Public Theater; Gloria: A Life at Daryl Roth Theatre), Marjorie Johnson (Dot at Vineyard Theater; Hoodoo Love at Cherry Lane Theater), Denise Manning (What to Send Up When It Goes Down at Playwrights Horizons/BAM/ART N.Y.; Daddy at The New Group).

Wildest Dreams by Agyeiwaa Asante

For over 187 years Maybelle and Jimmy Dale have haunted the Mason plantation, a now popular tourist attraction and event venue. Tired of their time on this plane, they wonder what it'll take to get them to the other side.

Red Red Wine by Rachel Herron

Somm was well on her way to becoming the first Black female Master Sommelier in the world, but she gave it all up to produce her own wine label. Now she's enlisted the help of her mentee, Mel, to help grow the brand; the only question is will Mel still be on board once she learns the secret ingredient in their best selling red?

Gurlfriend (Black is Black) by Fedna Jacquet

Two black girls drinking wine and living their best lives. #BlackGurlMagic #UnapologeticAF. We get to see THEM-jokes and bruises on display. By leaving the world outside, these best friends are able to bond in a fresh and delightful way...but what happens when the ever-shrinking classification of blackness threatens to exclude one of them? We ride the bold and excruciatingly confusing rollercoaster of identity, friendship, and regret to a new destination unknown to both Lea and Tonya. #Drama

Wookies in the Wilderness by Marcus Scott

Bishop and Smokey are best pals. Smokey will do anything for Bishop, who is in the midst of recovering from a recent trauma. Bishop will do anything for Smokey including going out to the mountainside wilderness of the Lake of the Ozarks to prep him for his upcoming Wilderness Survival test for the Eagle Scouts. But as the sun down begins and night falls upon them, the boys are reminded to truly be prepared for anything. Wookies in the Wilderness is a buddy drama about race, class, wasted potential, retaliation, Star Wars, and equal opportunity in Trump's America.

Mt. Sinai by Phillip Christian Smith

Gladys and Minerva, casual chemo friends, discuss life, the south, children, and the handsome cancer patient in Room A. Has Gladys finally fallen in with the bad girls in her twilight years?

By The Way by Lisa Rosetta Strum

Two best friends have been quarantined for the past month. When one of the friends reveals their true feelings for the other, perceptions, prejudices and fears get exposed and a friendship could be changed forever.

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. In 2022 Bloomsbury books released the anthology 25 Plays From The Fire This Time Festival: A Decade of Recognition, Resistance, Resilience, Rebirth and Black Theater which includes 25 ten-minute plays that were produced by The Fire This Festival over the past 11 seasons. The Fire This Time Festival collaborated with Center Theatre Group and Watts Village Theater Company to launch the initiative "Not A Moment, But A Movement" to amplify Black artists through three virtual events that pair 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.

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