Horse Trade to Host 6th Annual FIRE THIS TIME Festival Next Month

Now in it's sixth season, The Fire This Time Festival will welcome seven new playwrights into the family, January 19-February 8 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery). These playwrights will present an evening of ten-minute plays, each inspired by one of Alex Harsley's original photographs. This year's festival will also feature the World Premiere of Nathan Yungerberg's play Pousada Azul, directed by Russel G. Jones (Father Comes Home from the Wars at The Public). Special events will include a play reading series, an open mic night, a movie screening, and a panel discussion on art and activism. Tickets to Pousada Azuland the 10-Minute Play Festival ($15) are available for purchase in advance at www.horseTRADE.info. All special events are Pay What You Can.

Pousada Azul
World Premiere Production
Written by Nathan Yungerberg, Directed by Russell G. Jones
Pousada Azul is the story of rebirth, transformation and love among two African American expats and one elusive traveler, whose lives intersect over one rainy season, at a guesthouse overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Salvador Brazil.
Tue 1/20 @ 7pm, Wed 1/21 @ 7pm, Thu 1/22 @ 7pm, Sat 1/31 @ 7pm, Sun 2/1 @ 3pm, Thu 2/5 @ 7pm, Fri 2/6 @ 7pm, Sat 5/7@ 7pm, & Sun 5/8 @ 3pm

10-Minute Plays
Fri 1/23 @ 7pm, Sat 1/24 @ 7pm, Sun 1/25 @ 3pm, Thu 1/29 @ 7pm, & Fri 1/30 @ 7pm

A Military Habit
Written by Aziza Barnes, Directed by Dennis A. Allen II
Identical twin sisters Spencer and Ellis pump fake, twist and confess the lies told to them by family and the lies they tell each other, while simultaneously shooting the shit and dissing boys from high school.

The Sandbox
Written by Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Directed by JamAl Jordan
June stands along in the broiling desert sun. Jelly hunts a tiger deep in the wildest of the jungles. Two sisters struggle to bride the gulf between them in The Sandbox.

Not in the Room
Written by Daaimah Mubashshir, Directed by Kimille Howard
Abdullah, a faithful and devoted family man, comes home from his honeymoon, and everything, absolutely everything has changed. How can family still be family when they abandon what holds them together?

Easy to Fall in Love
Written by Larry Powell, Directed by Tonya Pinkins
It's Bobby's first time ever getting his shoes shines and it's Greg's last time shining. The truth spoken here can change the course of their entire lives... Will they tell it?

Coal Run Road
Written by Julienne Hairston, Directed by Tasha Gordon-Solmon
A young man returns home for a celebration to find personal and racial tensions have built to a festering heat beneath the surface of Coal Run Road.

Dolphins and Sharks
Written by James A. Tyler, Directed by Charlotte Braithwaite
When Yusuf Nwachukwu catches his annoying co-worker breaking employee policy he must decide if he will tell the manager or keep quiet about it. Dolphins and Sharksexplores how disadvantaged people function and collide in a capitalistic society.

The Marriage of Zoltar, or Rollercoaster: Your Love
Written & Directed by Rod Gailes OBC
A Coney Island fortune telling booth and a glance in the wrong direction threaten to derail Adam's best laid plans for an elaborate 5th Anniversary marriage proposal.

Special Events
Alex Harsley Movie Screening
Monday, January 19 @ 7pm
A one night only special screening of one of Alex Harsley's rarely shown films, Time Machine!!!!!. Don't miss it!

Open Mic Night
Monday, January 26 @ 7pm
41 Bullets and Still Counting: Our Art/Our Activism Panel Discussion
Wednesday, January 28 @ 7pm
In the aftermath of recent injustices The Fire This Time puts together a panel to speak on how our art can influence our activism on a daily basis. Come and have your voice heard, share resources, and collaborate with the community.

Play Readings
In Communion
Written by Lori Elizabeth Parquet
Tuesday, January 27 @ 7pm
A couple in love faces a new year's "revelation" and must redefine their relationship as a result.

The Sting of White Roses
Written by Angelica Cheri, Directed by Reginald Douglas
Monday, February 2 @ 7pm
On the verge of welcoming their first child into the world, David and Mina arrive at the one place they feel safe enough to deliver their child: Thea's Kitchen. But as they welcome this brand new life, the life begins to drain out of Mina's body, and for the first time ever David meets and illness that he's not sure his anointed voice can heal.

Gravity
Written by Josh Wilder, Directed by Reginald Douglas
Tuesday, February 3 @ 7pm
This new play by the current Jerome Fellow is a full-length rumination on the 10-minute work he presented in Season 5 of The Fire This Time Festival.

Poor Richard
Written by Jonathan Payne
Wednesday, February 4 @ 7pm
Hopeful Eddie wants a wife. Barren Opal wants a child. Jokingly, Eddie presents her the stump of a tree. Unbelievably, Opal adopts it as her child. The weight of isolation and the longing for community come to play in this loose adaptation of Czech fairy tale.
Playwright Kelley Nicole Girod founded THE FIRE THIS TIME FESTIVAL in 2009 to provide rising playwrights of African and African American descent a platform to write and develop new work. The festival was conceived as an opportunity for playwrights to write and produce material that reflects diverse perspectives as 21st Century Theater artists.