FRIGID New York Will Present The Fire This Time Festival Reading Series Next Month

FRIGID New York will present season 13 of The Fire This Time Festival reading series featuring presentations of projects by playwrights Niccolo Aeed, Cyrus Aaron, Jay Mazyck and Deneen Reynolds-Knott. The project presentations will include staged readings of new plays in development by Aeed, Mazyck and Aaron as well as a special community archival event conceived by Reynolds-Knott in which participants will have the opportunity to celebrate and remember their kin through objects that reflect their personal style. All four playwrights premiered their 10-minute plays as part of the 11th Annual The Fire This Time Festival in January 2020. Programming will be held at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), September 9-12. Admission is pay-what-you can. Seats can be reserved in advance at www.frigid.nyc.

The Fifth Epic of Cheri

Written & Directed by Niccolo Aeed

Friday, September 9 at 7pm

This is the story of Cheri, a 40-something woman who lives upstate and owns a diner she operates with her three teenage sons: Frank, Benoit and Radwan. Her three sons may as well be golden retrievers; they have too much energy and are all on the wrestling team. Her sons never thought too much about their mom's life before they were born, but that all changes when someone from Cheri's past shows up to rob the restaurant. The Fifth Epic of Cheri is about discovering your mom is a full person whose life doesn't revolve around you.

The Glamour Archive: Recollecting Styles of Our Kin

Saturday, September 10 at 4pm

With great pleasure, TFTT playwright Deneen Reynolds-Knott and her collaborator Arminda Thomas invite you to contribute to an archive celebrating your loved ones' expressions of their personalities, passions, and taste through their style of dress: An uncle's weekend brown wing tipped shoes, your grandmother's shell necklaces, a neighbor's apple hat, and an aunt's leather miniskirt. Please come and share items (don't worry, we won't keep them), photos and stories that reveal the styles of our kin.

Bruised

Written by Jay Mazyck

Sunday, September 11 at 7pm

A teacher makes a shocking discovery. A couple draw lines in the sand. Two old ladies just sipping jungle juice. One woman's murderous choice sings echoes around her community as narratives overlap and reveal who hurt who and why no one can't seem to heal.

Make or Break

Written & Directed by Cyrus Aaron

Monday, September 12 at 7pm

Dating in New York City is quite the magic trick. A house of mirrors with mind games at every turn. Hate it or love it, the possibility of finding that special someone keeps us coming back for more, but are we too ready to get in on the act?

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 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 that pair playwrights, visual artists and musicians during 2021. As an extension this initiative, six Black women and non-binary playwrights - Cynthia G. Robinson, Aziza Barnes, Roger Q. Mason, t. tara turk-haynes, Geraldine Inoa, Tahirih Moeller - received new play commissions in 2022. 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. www.firethistimefestival.com

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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