1999: Resident Program Created

In 1999, the Resident Artists Program was created. This program offers an artistic home to a select group of indie theater artists and companies, 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.

2006: FRIGID is Born

In 2006, we were proudly accepted into the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, and FRIGID Festival was born. Now New York City Fringe, this festival was the first of its kind in the city: an 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 2006, we adopted the name of our flagship festival and incorporated as FRIGID New York. We also became a legally recognized non-profit organization.

2009: The Fire This Time Begins

In 2009 The Fire This Time Festival was founded by playwright and fully empowered FRIGID intern Kelley Nicole Girod to provide a platform for early career playwrights of African and African American descent and began working with FRIGID. What began as a three-day festival has now produced and developed the work of more than 100 playwrights and become the longest running festival for playwrights of African and African American descent in New York City. Programming now includes a flagship 10-Minute Play Festival (6 or 7 plays), full length play readings (5-7 readings of new works), panel discussions, and a New Works Lab funded by The Black Seed fund. 

2012-2014: More Festivals Added

In 2012, we started the Gotham Storytelling Festival.
In 2014, we found the Queerly Festival, an annual celebration of all things artistic and LGBTQIA2S+. The festival strives to provide a space for queer artists who’ve rarely or never seen their identities portrayed on stage to be able to represent themselves and tell their stories their way, as well as to provide a space for queer celebration, pride, and strength. 

2020: Lockdown & Streaming

In 2020, we, like so many other theaters closed our doors, but quickly dove into digital programming. This turned out to be so successful that we continue to stream the majority of our shows to audiences all over the world.

2022: Welcome Back

On April 2, 2022, the first day we were allowed to, we reopened our doors to limited audiences and continued our streaming efforts. While we were proud to be back in the real world, our reopening was a slow and cautious process as we worked to keep our staff, artists, and audiences safe. 

2022 also saw the rebirth of our Shakespeare festival as The Little Shakespeare Festival. Originally inspired by the limitations Covid “bubbles” put on cast sizes, we came back with a group of shows with casts of four or fewer. Educator, stage combat choreographer, and Shakespearian improvisor Conor Mullen has continued to grow–and perform in–the festival ever since.

2022-2023: Season 25

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.