2017 FRIGID Festival Presents THE REFUGEE PLAYS Starting Tonight

The 2017 FRIGID Festival presents The Refugee Plays, five short plays by Charles Gershman, Penny Jackson, Callie Kimball, Carlos Castro, and Sean E. Cunningham that tell powerful stories of refugees today. Dan Dinero, Logan Reed, and Rachel Dart direct. Performances will be staged at The Kraine Theater, located at 85 E. 4th St. between 2nd Ave Bowery in NYC for five performances from tonight, February 16, through March 5, 2017.

These plays tell stories of refugees from Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Central and South America. Conceived during the 2016 presidential campaign, they resonate even more loudly now.

Charles Gershman (Playwright and Artistic Director, SNOWY OWL)'s plays have been produced and developed by Theater for the New City, La MaMa ETC, 59e59 (forthcoming in 2017), the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK, forthcoming in 2017), the New York International Fringe Festival, the Playwrights' Center, The Barrow Group, Horse Trade/FRIGID New York, Three Bone Theatre, NYU-Tisch School of the Arts, The University of Pittsburgh, and the Nantucket Short Play Festival. They have been semifinalists for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (The Waiting Game, Null & Void, and The Prenup) and are published on Indie Theatre Now. BA: Columbia. MFA (in progress): NYU/Tisch. www.charlesgershman.com

Penny Jackson (Playwright)'s plays include Safe, I Know What Boys Want, Bitten, and Bowery Street Blues. Applause Theatre Books recently chose her play Before as one of the best American short plays in 2016. She is the recipient of a MacDowell Colony Fellowship in writing and a Mirriliees Fellow from Stanford University. Her novel Becoming the Butlers, published by Bantam Books, was chosen as one of the best novels for young adults by The New York Public Library and was optioned for film by Warner Brothers. Jackson's short stories are published in literary magazines in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland. Her short story collectionL.A. Child, published by Untreed Reads, features the title story that won a Pushcart Prize. A dramatization of these short stories was recently performed at Dixon Place in New York City. Jackson is a proud member of The League of Professional Theater Women, The Dramatists Guild, and The Authors Guild. Her plays are published by Next Stages Press and Indie Theater Now and are taught in various universities in the U.S. Her plays have been produced in New York City, Los Angles, Chicago, and Seattle and internationally in Ireland and Scotland. www.pennybrandtjackson.com

Callie Kimball (Playwright) earned her MFA at Hunter College under Tina Howe. Her plays have been produced and developed in New York, Chicago, L.A., D.C., at Team Awesome Robot, Halcyon Theatre, Lark Play Development Center, Drama League, The Brick Theater, Project Y Theatre, Absolute Theatre, Washington Shakespeare Company, The Kennedy Center, Mad Horse Theatre, and elsewhere. She's received a MacDowell Fellowship, a Playwrights' Center Core Apprenticeship, a Ludwig Vogelstein grant, and the Rita & Burton Goldberg Playwriting Award two years in a row. Her play Sofonisba won the Clauder Gold Prize, was a finalist for the O'Neill and a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award, and was included on The Kilroys' 2016 List.

Carlos Castro (Playwright) is a Venezuelan-American TV writer, playwright, and producer. He has been actively working in the Venezuelan theatre community since 2004, and has worked for several networks and media companies throughout Latin America, primarily in Venezuela, Mexico, and Peru. His work has been seen at various theatres and festivals including: Festival Teatral de Autor (Venezuela) and Encuentro Internacional de Escena Contemporánea (Mexico). He holds a BA in Social Communication from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Venezuela) and an MA in Theatre from Hunter College (CUNY).

Sean E. Cunningham (Playwright)'s plays include the Drama Desk-nominated God Hates the Irish (which the Irish Echo described as "possibly the most foul-mouthed show ever done off-Broadway") and The Herbert Hoover Comeback Special, a musical created in collaboration with Tony nominee Alex Timbers and Obie winner Michael Friedman.

Dan Dinero (Director) is dedicated to developing new work and fostering diversity in the theatre. Current project: Dan Fingerman's Boys of a Certain Age at Theaterlab. Other recent projects include Yilong Liu's Joker (FringeNYC) and Dan Fingerman's The Austerity of Hope (Best Director-Fresh Fruit Festival). Dan has also directed plays with Emerging Artists Theatre, Artistic New Directions, and the Greenland Theatre Collective, a company he co-founded. Dan assisted Jeff Calhoun on the Broadway productions of Brooklyn and Deaf West's Big River. Dan teaches theatre at NYU-Tisch and is the Editor in Chief of Theatre is Easy (Theasy.com). PhD in Performance Studies from NYU-Tisch; BA from Yale University. dandinero.com

Logan Reed (Director) is a New York-based theatre director with select credits including Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play (Hawaii Theatre),Josh Drimmer's The Lighthouse Invites the Storm (Sanguine Theatre), Gabriel Vega Weissman's and Brian Reno's Loose Canon (Scranton Shakespeare Festival/FringeNYC/SoHo Playhouse), Blake Bishton's No Baby and Sarah DeLappe's But I Digress (The Habitat), and Maria Irene Fornes's Springtime (Williamstown). He has also collaborated with the playwrights Erin Breznitsky, Jessica Penzias, Charles Gershman, Helen Banner, Julia Izumi, Jeremy O. Harris, and Jacob Perkins. He is a Creative Associate at Tom Kirdahy Productions which is producing the upcoming Broadway musical Anastasia. BA: Tufts University. LoganReedDirector.com

Rachel Dart (Director)'s recent directing credits include work at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Youngblood, Culture Project, The Flea, York Theatre, The Atlantic Alumni Workshop and Acting School, and Prospect Theater Company. Rachel has assisted at The Vineyard, BAM, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout Theatre Company, The Acting Company, and Manhattan Theatre Club (Jonathan Alper Directing Fellow). BFA, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. racheldart.com

SNOWY OWL (Producer) is a New York City-based theatre company whose mission is to create theatre that's relevant, human, and inclusive. For more, visit snowyowlgroup.org.

Performances for The Refugee Plays will be held on Thursday, February 16 @ 10:30 pm; Tuesday, February 21 @ 5:30 pm; Friday, February 24 @ 6:50 pm; Thursday, March 2 @ 8:50 pm; and Sunday, March 5 @ 5:10 pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at www.horseTRADE.info beginning January 15. Running time: 1 hour.

The Kraine Theater is located at 85 E. 4th St. (between 2nd Ave. and Bowery.), New York, NY 10003. Take the "R" train to 8th Street-NYU, the "6" train to Astor Place, or the "F" train to 2nd Avenue.

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