About
Mission Statement
FRIGID New York’s mission is to provide both emerging and established artists the opportunity to create and produce original work 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.
FRIGID New York is an independent, non-profit theater company operating UNDER St Marks Theater, an off-off-Broadway venue in the East Village. We rent our space as well as co-produce there, and see a wonderfully wide range of artists come through our doors. Run by a small yet dedicated staff of artists, producers, techs, and creatives, FRIGID strives to offer our community a space in which they can make their art their way.
History
Founded in 1998 as Horse Trade, the aim was and is to form a structure, allowing multiple artists to focus on creating and staging new work and providing production support and affordable rental space to scores of Independent artists. Now in our 25th season, we have produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater.
In 1999, the Resident Program was created. Now in its 21st year, this program offers an artistic home to a select group of Indie Theater Artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy while focusing on their individuality as independent companies. Based on each company’s distinct needs, this program provides tangible support through rehearsal & performance space, as well as consulting, administrative, marketing, and artistic assistance.
The Resident Program has provided a platform for many new playwrights to be published and produced nationally and internationally. Resident Alumni have gone on to tour all over multiple continents, are currently writing and acting on dozens of TV shows and movies, have been nominated for TONYs and OBIEs, and have won countless NYIT Awards.
In 2006, we were proudly accepted into the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, and FRIGID Festival was born. FRIGID Festival, the first festival of its kind in New York City, is a winter Fringe festival and is an entirely open and unjuried Indie theater festival, in which the artists keep 100% of their earnings.
More festivals followed, including Gotham Storytelling Festival, FunnYmmigrants, The Fire This Time Festival (OBIE Award Winner), EstroGenius, Queerly, The Little Shakespeare Festival, and most recently the Days of the Dead.
In 2022-2023, we celebrated our 25th season! That year we also welcomed Martha Lorena Preve and Jimmy Lovett as resident artistic directors to guide FRIGID into its next quarter century. We ended 2023 with another big change as we left our long time flagship venue, The Kraine Theater, to focus on UNDER St Marks and to begin a search for a new home that can be fully accessible to all members of our community.
Today, we welcome over 16,000 audience members a year, house hundreds of artists, net close to $200,000 in box office receipts, produce eight different festivals, support three resident companies, feature two dozen monthly shows, service Unit 4 at Manhattan Correctional Center, and much more.
