Fire This Time Festival Panel Discussion to Feature All Women Directors at The Kraine Theater

Now in it's seventh season, the Obie Award winning The Fire This Time Festival is pleased to announce the panelists for their So You Want to Direct? Panel Discussion on Monday, January 18 at 7pm at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery). Admission to the event is FREE.

Panel moderator Melissa Maxwell (Safe House at The Repertory Theatre of St Louis - ranked #3 on Ladue News' The Best Theatre of St Louis and Broadway World's Best of 2015) will talk to several women theatre directors about their process, their favorite and most challenging experiences, and share their strategies to create and produce work.

Panelists will include directors Michole Biancosino (Co-Founding Artistic Director of the award-winning Project Y Theatre Company), Lileana Blain-Cruz (Christina Anderson's Hollow Roots at the 2013 Under the Radar Festival; New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship recipient), Kamilah Forbes (Sunset Baby with Labyrinth Theater Company; Associate Director of "The Wiz LIVE!" on NBC), Tiffany Nicole Greene (2013 Lincoln Center Directors Lab; current SoHo Rep Directors Lab Fellowship recipient), Jenny Koons (2014 Drama Desk Award for Queen of the Night), Lorca Peress (Black Girl You've Been Gentrified at The Public), and Kim Weild(Drama Desk nominee; seven time NYIT Award nominee).

The panel discussion will kick-off the 2016 The Fire This Time Festival which will also feature ten-minute plays directed by Nicole A. Watson, full-length play readings, solo show excerpts, an open mic night, and the premiere of The Fire This Time's writers group. All festival events will take place at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), January 18-February 6. Tickets to the 10-Minute Plays are $18, $15 for students/seniors/military. All other events are FREE. To reserve your seat visit www.horseTRADE.info.

THE FIRE THIS TIME FESTIVAL Playwright Kelley Nicole Girod founded the 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.

With ongoing momentum, TFTT has quickly become a destination for diverse audiences, producers, and artists seeking new possibilities and opportunities in contemporary theater. The festival has previously featured the work of notable playwrights such as Katori Hall (The Mountaintop, Hurt Village), Dominique Morrisseau(Detroit '67), Marcus Gardley (The Box), Radha Blank (Seed) and Zoey Martinson (Ndebele Funeral).

FRIGID New York @ Horse Trade is a theater development group with a focus on new work that produces a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater every season. FRIGID's Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. FRIGID New York grew out of the annual FRIGID Festival, the first and only festival of its kind in New York City to offer artists 100% of their box office proceeds, and Horse Trade Theater Group, a self-sustaining theater development and management group.