The FRIGID Festival is an open and unjuried theater festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression.
FRIGID New York has announced the performance schedule for their 17th Annual FRIGID Fringe Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St Marks Place, New York, NY 10009), February 15-March 5, 2023. Most performances will also be available to livestream from home. All shows run 60 minutes or less, unless otherwise noted.
The FRIGID Festival is an open and unjuried theater festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. In true support of the Indie Theater Community, 100% of box office proceeds go directly to the artists whose work is being presented. FRIGID is here to chill out the New York independent theater scene's ideas of what a fringe festival can be!
@make_us_scream
Written by Elisabeth Yancey, Courtney Stennett & Kasey Connolly
Presented by 3 of Cups - Brooklyn, NY
These women would do anything for their following, but what happens when it gets too close? Three women have captivated their fan base by telling scary stories, but tonight they find themselves living in one.
Wed, Feb 15 @ 8:50pm, Sun, Feb 19 @ 6:40pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 8:20pm & Sat, March 4 @ 1:40pm at The Kraine Theater
A Scar is Born
Written & Performed by Lorelei Zarifian - Melbourne, FL
A Scar is Born is the humorous story of one misfit's hopeful audition. She reviews for the casting director important moments of her life and her journey from France to America. In the face of rejection, she never gives up her passion for performing the music of words and language. A cycle of songs recounting life in Marseille, Paris, New York and Florida, intertwined with sketches about the absurdity of modern existence.
Sat, Feb 18 @ 3:40pm, Sun, Feb 19 @ 12:20pm, Wed, Feb 22 @ 8:10pm, Fri, Feb 24 @ 8:10pm & Mon, Feb 27 @ 6:30pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
As I Eat the World
Written by Luis Roberto Herrera - Sunrise, FL
A Latine man confronts his mental health and eating disorders by attempting to eat THE WORLD.
Sat, Feb 18 @ 12:20pm, Sun, Feb 19 @ 5:20pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 8:40pm & Sun, Feb 26 @ 12:20pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
As You Will
Presented by Conor Mullen - New York, NY
Friends, foes, fools! Do you ever bemoan the fact that the 884,647 words William Shakespeare wrote have been performed already? Do you yearn for the experience of seeing the Bard's works for the first time? Then celebrate the glad tidings of As You Will and our unscripted Shakespeare show! These Shakespearean scholars are here to present all the monumental works the immortal Bard would've written if he hadn't gone and died. Armed with a title given by the audience, the players of As You Will bring a Shakespearean comedy to life complete with Shakespeare's themes, language, poetic verse, and some scholarly footnotes thrown in for good measure. There's always a Shakespearean world premiere in our makeshift Globe Theatre at UNDER St. Marks.
Sat, Feb 18 @ 8:40pm, Tue, Feb 21 @ 6:30pm, Tue, Feb 28 @ 7:45pm & Sat, March 4 @ 5:20pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
blindsp.ts
Written & Performed by Seema Shukla - New York, NY
A dramedy about a psychiatrist in training, unraveling behind the scenes of professional life. a story about growing pains and meeting the maze of one's inner child.
Sun, Feb 19 @ 1:40pm, Wed, Feb 22 @ 8:50pm, Sun, Feb 26 @ 6:40pm & Thu, March 2 @ 8:50pm at The Kraine Theater
Cold Feet: A Comedy Extravaganza
Presented by Ricardo Valdes - Miami, FL
Need a laugh? This comedy showcase includes music, comedy and a strong fear of commitment. Multiple comics from far away places will dazzle and delight the senses while trying to work through intense psychological traumas. HAHA did I say traumas? I mean intensely humorous pajamas! They wear pajamas on stage! (note: comics have since stopped wearing pajamas.)
Wed, Feb 15 @ 8:10pm, Thur, Feb 23 @ 9:50pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 10:20pm, Wed, March 1 @ 6:30pm & Thu, March 2 @ 8:10pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
Death of a Salesman: A New Play
Written by Austen Halpern-Graser - Brooklyn, NY
Death of Salesman: A New Play is about death, sales, men, but most importantly, it is a 100 percent brand new baby (Sunglasses Emoji). Watch in awe as the nation's two brightest entrepreneurs hustle, grind, backstab, and sacrifice everything they have to bring their vision to life (the vision is eco-friendly tennis balls).
Fri, Feb 17 @ 8:10pm, Tue, Feb 21 @ 7:45pm, Tue, Feb 28 @ 6:30pm & Sat, March 4 @ 7pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
Eleanor's Story: An American Girl In Hitler's Germany
Written & Performed by Ingrid Garner - Fullerton, CA
Eleanor Ramrath Garner's acclaimed memoir, detailing her youth as a U.S. citizen trapped in Nazi Berlin during WWII, has been adapted by granddaughter Ingrid Garner into an internationally award-winning performance. Eleanor's Story traces 9-year-old Eleanor's path from America to Germany, where her family moves in pursuit of work during the Depression. But when war breaks out as they are crossing the Atlantic, returning home becomes impossible. While desperate for Allied victory, Eleanor's family must endure Allied bombings, hunger, gestapo threats, and finally, the horrors of Russian occupation. This true story, with its themes of social and political turmoil, is strikingly relevant almost 80 years later. Ingrid Garner delivers an intimate and universal account of women and children in wartime. What unfolds is a child's odyssey of survival as she struggles to maintain stability, hope, and identity in a world of terror and contrasts.
Sat, Feb 18 @ 5pm, Mon, Feb 20 @ 7:10pm, Thu, Feb 23 @ 7:10pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 1:40pm & Fri, March 3 @ 6:40pm at The Kraine Theater
Emil Amok: Lost NPR Host Found Under St. Marks, and other stories ($15.87 Filipino; Married to PETA; Am Ok; Transdad; and Affirmative Action?)
Written and Performed by Emil Guillermo - Ripon, CA
Emil Amok is a Filipino American with white privilege, white voice privilege. He sounded white enough to host "All Things Considered." Now he considers all he would have said on race and culture had he not been riffed by the pre-woke. Stories on $15.87 Filipinos, affirmative action, being married to PETA, and meditation. A storytelling, standup, solo lumpia fest from the guy at lumpiaking.com
Thu, Feb 16 @ 8:10pm, Sat, Feb 18 @ 5:20pm, Thu, Feb 23 @ 6:30pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 12:20pm & Sun, Feb 26 @ 7pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
The GynoKid
Written & Performed by Claire Ayoub
Presented by Try Anyway Productions - New Canaan, CT
When you grow up as the child of small-town gynecologists, you either go into therapy or comedy. Lucky for you, Claire Ayoub did both! Join her on a journey of adolescent cringe, laugh-out-loud true encounters with her parents' patients in the wild, and a love letter to the two biggest weirdos she knows.
Sun, Feb 19 @ 5pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 6:40pm, Thu,. March 2 @ 7:10pm & Sat, March 4 @ 3:20pm at The Kraine Theater and via streaming
Harmony Hall
Written by Duncan Pflaster
Presented by Cross-Eyed Bear Productions - Queens, NY
A monk who has been banished to a remote monastery on an island off the coast of Italy for the past twenty years finds his world shaken when a sexy young poet with amnesia washes up on his shores during a storm, making him question whether his duty should be to his vocation or to himself.
Wed, Feb 15 @ 9:50pm, Sun, Feb 19 @ 7pm, Wed, Feb 22 @ 9:50pm & Sat, March 4 @ 2pm at UNDER St. Marks
How to Be an Ethical Slut
Written & Performed by Brooke McCarthy - Matthews, NC
Experience the ride of your life as an unethical slut penetrates lies, STDs, triads, orgies, and love in her musical journey to becoming an Ethical Slut. Don't miss this award-winning original one-woman cabaret-comedy show by and starring Brooke McCarthy.
Sat, Feb 18 @ 10:20pm, Mon, Feb 20 @ 6:30pm, Thu, Feb 23 @ 11:30pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 2pm & Mon, Feb 27 @ 8:10pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
I AM MY OWN MILF
Conceived by Matthew Antoci, in collaboration with Lizz Mangan & Meaghan Robichaud
Both an homage and send-up to the Upper East Side lady & the gayz that inhabit her, this adaptatión of "Timon of Athens' ' casts a middle-aged diva as hostess of Park Avenue's biggest flop parade (yes Gawd). I AM MY OWN MILF (TIMON BY TIMON OF ATHENS FOR TIMON BY TIMON IN COLLABORATION WITH TIMON FOR TIMON BY TIMON OF ATHENS) is a mixed-media drag+dance spectaculare that imagines a world where the rich have to pay their debts. Part daytime TV segment, part nature vlog - I AM MY OWN MILF opens the purse of the self-destructive Diva and the society built to devour her. It's giving. And giving. And giving. And giving.
Wed, Feb 15 @ 7:10pm, Fri, Feb 17 @ 8:30pm, Fri, Feb 24 @ 8:30pm & Sat, March 4 @ 6:40pm at The Kraine Theater and via streaming
In the Beginning
Written & Performed by CB Goodman
Presented by Grackle Jack Productions - Austin, TX
In The Beginning is a wild one-woman comedy that uses inflatable puppets, dance, and joyful mischief to reimagine the Genesis story from a totally new perspective. One free from shame, rejection, and labels. In this Garden of Eden, Not Eve, a person who was left out of the Bible, presents to the audience the archetypal female roles of Eve, Mary Magdalen, Joan of Arc, and characters from the film Showgirls, and offers them up for high-spirited and critical contemplation. Adam floats by, the fruit isn't what you think, and a sheep proves that labels create limits. Using humor, non-traditional storytelling structures, and pool party disco aesthetic, In The Beginning invites the audience to imagine the possibilities of their own Genesis and to reclaim their beginnings alongside each other.
Sun, Feb 19 @ 2pm, Mon, Feb 20 @ 8:10pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 5:20pm, Thu, March 2 @ 9:50pm & Sun, March 5 @ 12:20pm at UNDER St. Marks
Kingfish
Written by Lane McLeod Jackson
Presented by Noir Theatre - Bayonne, NJ
J.J. Williams is the best Bass Fisherman the game has ever seen. So, he knows, better than most, that anyone might be your partner in a mixed tournament. But even so, this rude, ignorant jerk who eats, complains, and does no fishing is about to awaken J.J. 's famous temper. Till the stranger reveals his horns, cloven hooves, and identity. Old Scratch, A.K.A the devil, is itching for another soul to add to his mason jar collection. A contest atop the water will begin as J.J. realizes eternity might be only a few hours away.
Wed, Feb 15 @ 6:30pm, Sat, Feb 18 @ 7pm, Fri, Feb 24 @ 9:50pm & Sun, March 5 @ 3:40pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
Lightweight
Written & Performed by Amie Enriquez - Los Angeles, CA
The true story of a complicated young woman who struggles to survive a year-long stay in a 28-day addiction treatment center to overcome anorexia whilst attempting to maintain a debilitatingly positive attitude in post 9/11 New York City.
Fri, Feb 17 @ 6:50pm, Sat, Feb 18 @ 1:40pm, Tue, Feb 21 @ 8:50pm, Thu, Feb 23 @ 8:50pm & Sun, Feb 26 @ 5pm at The Kraine Theater
Meaningless
Written & Performed by Rodney Brazil
Presented by Next Stage - Oklahoma City, OK
How do we find meaning in an upside-down world? What actions should we take? Do our efforts even matter? Meaningless presents the unedited, uncensored, ancient book of Ecclesiastes in a one-act, one-person performance by Rodney Brazil packed with timeless riddles and timely wisdom. From wine to wealth, concubines to snake charming, Meaningless examines the meaning of everything under the sun. This modern presentation of a 2,000-year-old meditation on the human experience weaves the universal themes of wisdom, foolishness, pleasure, and suffering into an unforgettable live performance that is at once funny, pensive, and tragic.
Fri, Feb 17 @ 6:30pm, Thu, Feb 23 @ 8:10pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 3:40pm, Sat, March 4 @ 12:20pm & Sun, March 5 @ 5:20pm at UNDER St. Marks
The Parentheses
Written by Marissa Fleming - New York, NY
Sometimes we're looking for an explanation, tacking on afterthought, enriching what is already complete with a pair of rounded brackets. The Parentheses is a play about two women reconnecting and re-examining their relationship to one another. Already wholly complete and complex on their own, they look to explain, to explore, and to experience one evening together in an attempt to understand what they really mean to themselves and to each other.
Thu, Feb 16 @ 8:50pm, Tue, Feb 21 @ 7:10pm, Tue, Feb 28 @ 8:50pm & Sat, March 4 @ 5pm at The Kraine Theater and via streaming
Pretty Beast
Written by Kazu Kusano - Los Angeles, CA
When schizophrenia and alcoholism collide in one Japanese family, comedy becomes her superpower--and a ticket to freedom. Award-winning comedian Kazu Kusano takes audiences on a rebellious comedic journey deftly navigating mental illness, sexism, and love. With storytelling as raw as it is inspiring, Kazu celebrates overcoming obstacles that stand in the way of your dreams.
Sat, Feb 18 @ 8:20pm, Sun, Feb 19 @ 3:20pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 5pm, Mon, Feb 27 @ 7:10pm & Wed, March 1 @ 8:50pm at The Kraine Theater
Running Scared
Written & Performed by Bryan Berlin - Brooklyn, NY
Bryan has been running for the last 10 years of his life and realized he has no idea if he actually likes it. Join him as he looks at the role running has had in his life and how it has affected everything from his job to his relationships.
Fri, Feb 17 @ 9:50pm, Fri, Feb 24 @ 6:30pm, Sun, Feb 26 @ 3:40pm, Fri, March 3 @ 6:30pm & Sat, March 4 @ 3:40pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
Sadec 1965: A Love Story
Written & Performed by Flora Le
Presented by From Ego to Soul - Washington, DC
Sadec 1965 is a powerful storytelling show about Flora's solo motorcycle trip across Vietnam where she makes sense of her difficult relationship with her estranged Vietnamese father. A riveting performance best described as "Motorcycle Diaries" meets "Eat, Pray, Love" set in Vietnam.
Thu, Feb 16 @ 7:10pm, Sat, Feb 18 @ 3:20pm, Fri, Feb 24 @ 6:50pm, Sun, Feb 26 @ 1:40pm & Mon, Feb 27 @ 8:50pm at The Kraine Theater and via streaming
Swinging on the Seine
Written & Performed by D'yan Forest - New York, NY
Comedienne and cabaret artist D'yan Forest has always been ahead of her time. In 1963 she moved to Paris as a young, innocent, recently divorced Bostonian looking to make it big in the Parisian cabaret scene. Immersing herself in the glitz, glamour, and scandalous nightlife of the era, the naive D'yan was transported from a sheltered suburban existence to a life filled with underground sex clubs and the swinger's scene. A coming of age story like you have never seen it. The audacious D'yan just turned 88 and she's still going strong. Come celebrate life, love, and the city of Paris with her!
Sat, Feb 18 @ 6:40pm, Wed, Feb 22 @ 7:10pm, Sun, Feb 26 @ 3:20pm & Sun, March 5 @ 5pm at The Kraine Theater and via streaming
Syncope
Written & Performed by Will Clegg
Presented by Pale Girl Productions - Jersey City, NJ
Join celebrated storyteller Will Clegg on his lifelong journey with marijuana and panic disorder! Hijinks ensue!
Thu, Feb 16 @ 9:50pm, Sun, Feb 19 @ 3:40pm, Sun, Feb 26 @ 2pm, Thu, March 2 @ 6:30pm & Sat, March 4 @ 8:40pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
TEST
Written by Elin Rahnev
Presented by Reflection Theatre - Toronto, Ontario
How does one keep one's identity when being forced to fit into society's parameters? What and who is damaged when trying to follow society's norm? In today's dynamic and unpredictably changing world, we as individuals face often pressuring challenges on so many levels. How do you deal with them? Have you ever felt pressured to conform, comply, and/or lose your identity? Do you easily adapt to whatever comes? The play TEST, by the prominent Bulgarian playwright and poet Elin Rahnev, is a brilliant satirical metaphor of the struggle to keep or not to keep one's identity in order to survive in this world. It will surprise you with its fresh unique sense of humor and your tears will grab you by the throat with the dramatic turning points. This theatrical show, presented by two very talented professional actors, is fun to watch, and also philosophical enough to challenge your views about life.
Sat, Feb 18 @ 2pm, Mon, Feb 20 @ 9:50pm, Sat, Feb 25 @ 7pm, Wed, March 1 @ 8:10pm & Fri, March 3 @ 11:30pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
Thank U, Ex
Written by Kelly Taylor & Melly Magrath
Presented by Mad Butterfly Creative - Toronto, Ontario
Thank u,ex is a coming of age story about a young girl's journey through her love life. Bringing you 90's nostalgia forms of heartbreak, loss, love and of course the teenage mutant ninja turtles' delicacy, pizza! Join Violet as she exams her past relationships, kicks her exes to the curb and finds her way to self-discovery
Wed, Feb 22 @ 6:30pm, Sun, Feb 26 @ 5:20pm, Mon, Feb 27 @ 9:50pm, Thu, March 2 @ 11:30pm & Fri, March 3 @ 9:50pm at UNDER St. Marks and via streaming
FRIGID New York's mission is to provide both emerging and established artists the opportunity to create and produce original work of varied 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 eight 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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