Board
Kelley Nicole Girod, President
Kelley Nicole Girod is the founder and Executive Producing Director of OBIE Award winning, The Fire This Time Festival (NYC) which has been in residence at FRIGID NYC for 11 years. She is a 2008 graduate of Columbia’s MFA playwriting program where she was a Stein and Liberace Fellow, as well as a John Golden Fellow. She was named Nytheatre.com Person of the Year for her work on The Fire This Time Festival, and is a part of the Indie Theatre Hall of Fame. As a producer her credits include Israela Margalit’s Get Me A Guy, and Night Blooming Jasmine (both at Horse Trade Theater); Louisiana Mon Amour (Women Center Stage at Culture Project); Thais Francis’s Outcry (Horse Trade Theater, Jack). A native of Louisiana, Kelley’s writing reflects the rich Cajun/Creole world that she grew up in, and include This Stretch of Montpelier (nominated for 7 2018 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Awards including outstanding new play), Ambrosia (HorseTrade Theater), Poetics of the Creative Process (The Fire This Time Festival, Season 1), Parabolas, Rote (produced in Harlem 9’s 48hrs in Harlem), Straight on til Morning( reading in Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Future Classics), Lessons of the Trash Gang(Baton Rouge Little Theatre), and A Good Neighbor (commissioned by Spark+Echo). She was recently offered a Launch New Play Commission by Atlantic Theater Company. She has recently completed two years as Programming Associate at The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in NYC. She is most proud of being a wife, and mother to two beautiful daughters, Penelope Evelyn and Noelle Anamaria.
Kevin R. Free, Resident Artistic Director
Kevin R. Free has been an actor in over 100 professional productions, director of over 30 professional, semi-professional, and educational theater productions, narrator of over 400 Audiobooks, the voice of Kevin on “Welcome to Night Vale,” voice of Terry Elder on “Give Me Away,” Resident Artistic Director, Frigid New York, co-creator and star of award-winning web series “Gemma & The Bear!” former Producing Artistic Director of Obie Award-winning Fire This Time Festival, former Curator of Queerly Festival. SemiFinalist, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, 2013, Doric Wilson Independent Playwright, 2014, FluxForward 2015, FringeNYC Overall Excellence in Playwriting, 2016, NYSX Diversity Cohort 2018. www.kevinrfree.com; @kevinrfree
Randi Berry, Secretary
Randi is an indie theater maker with an arts advocacy and commercial real estate background. She is the co-founder of Wreckio Ensemble Theater Company, The Indie Theater Fund and IndieSpace. Randi has worked on over $11B in commercial real estate transactions and has created programs resulting in thousands of artists receiving funding, free real estate consulting services, rehearsal space and opportunities for professional growth. Select awards include: NYIT Indie Theater Champion, The Ellen Stewart Award, Indie Theater Person of the Year, member of the Indie Theater Hall of Fame and a Citation for Service by the New York City Council.
Deborah Alves, board member
Deborah Alves’s career in Costume Design spans over two decades, with experience in theater and also Carnival Costume Making. Her career began in 1996 after an actor’s costume mishap landed her headfirst into the world of theater. Starting in season 5 of John Montgomery Theatre Company’s (JMTC) productions, Deborah began as a wardrobe mistress for “On the Verge” (1996). She further explored her talents and soon became a costume & prop designer. She designed costumes for “CIRCLE” (2001), by playwright and director Suzanne Bachner, which became an Off-Broadway cult hit. The cult hit ran for five months in a multi-extended run at the Kraine Theater. Deborah remained with JMTC up until Season 10 (2007). She has been recognized for two years consecutively by The Oobr Awards, for her costume designs in “CIRCLE” (2002) and “Same Train” (2003). The former would bring rave reviews by the New York Times, which included credit to Deborah Alves. She also designed for the production of “Run to the Roar: A Night of Sonia Sanchez” (2003), which was attended by the author.
Hailing from the islands of Trinidad & Tobago, Deborah was taught how to sew at a young age by her mother, which would inform her experience designing costumes for the NYC West Indian Day Parade (1999 – Present). In addition to costume design, she has participated as a judge for the J’ouvert costume competition of 2014 & 2015. She has also designed elaborate headpieces for the Honorable Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke and her mother, CUNY Board of Trustee member, Honorable Una S.T. Clarke.
Currently, Deborah has just completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Urban Sustainability with a Concentration in Environmental Sociology, and a Minor in Caribbean studies, and has begun a Community Semester Graduate Program at the School of Labor and Urban Studies. Her lifelong thirst for knowledge led Deborah to a study abroad experience in Greece, where she studied philosophy and political science in 2017. In 2018, she was awarded the Rosen Fellowship at Brooklyn College, which allowed her to return to Kasos, Greece, and study a beekeeping cooperative. Returning to school has awakened her thirst for knowledge and exploration, which motivated her to return to the world of costume design. She has also concentrated her talents in the NYC West Indian Day Parade, which is a reflection of Deborah’s cultural heritage and creative imagination. Deborah thanks her 3 children Charnele, Anisee, and Abigail, as well as her two granddaughters Alimat and Aminat.
Cezar Williams, board member
Cezar Williams is an award-winning actor, director, and producer. Acting credits include Surely, Goodness and Mercy by Chisa Hutchinson, Keen Company; James and Annie, by Warren Leight, at the Actor’s Studio, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati and the Williamstown Theatre Festival; Section 310, 2014 Summer Shorts NYC Theatre Festival; Thunder, 2007 Fringe NYC; Ascension at The National Black Theatre Festival. Television appearances include Bull, Shades of Blue, Law and Order, Search Party, NYC 22, Blue Bloods, and What Would You Do? He can also be seen on demand in the movies Bad Hurt and Hudson Tribes. Directing credits include the Off-Broadway premiere of Dancing on Eggshells (Billie Holiday Theatre), Till: A Musical (American Theater Group), SWEAT by Lynn Nottage (SUNY Purchase), The October Storm (Hudson Stage Co.), Crowndation: I Will Not Lie to David (National Black Theatre and Center Theatre Group), The Hunting Season (Planet Connections Festivity, Award for Best Direction), You Wouldn’t Expect (American Bard Theater), How To Be Safe (The Dirty Blondes in rep at the Kraine Theater). He is the Artistic Director of the Obie Award winning Fire This Time Festival. He is the Artistic Director of the Obie Award winning Fire This Time Festival. For professional inquiries contact him at cezar@cezarwilliams.com.
Treasurer
Paul is a proud native New Yorker and believes that arts advocacy and support is essential to continue civic diversity and be part of a vibrant City.
Karim Mausher, board member
Karim is an Arab American deviser, director, and teacher working at the intersection of performance and education. He is the Co-Artistic director of long time FRIGID collaborators Animal Engine.
