EXIT Sends Three Shows To NYC FRIGID Festival In February

Three artists who call San Francisco's EXIT Theatre home will each be part of the Third Annual FRIGID New York theatre festival, February 25-March 8, 2009.  FRIGID New York was co-founded by New York's Horse Trade Theatre and San Francisco's EXIT Theatre.

Sean Owens returns to the Big Apple with his third show at FRIGID New York.  The End of the Trail comes from the minds of Owens and collaborator Kenny Neal Shults. In it, two old friends facing a possible Apocalypse play a treacherous board game whose object is, "Don't die alone!"  This two-man tightrope act keeps its balance by hurling accusations on all sides.

Owens won the 2006 FRIGID New York Audience Choice Award for his Naught But Pirates, which Shults directed.  Last year, Owens appeared at FRIGID with EXIT's Christina Augello in his two-person door-slamming farce, Her Majesty.  Owens has been named "San Francisco's Best Comic Playwright" by SF Weekly.  He is EXIT Theatre's Playwright-in-Residence.

Award-winning theatrical magician and illusionist Christian Cagigal will make his New York debut at FRIGID with his new show, Now and at the Hour, described as "a journey through Time and Reflection."  Not a mere series of tricks, Now and at the Hour weaves magic, mind reading, story telling and theatre into an intimate, interactive and altogether "slightly creepy" magical experience.

Christian Cagigal is among a new crop of illusionists and theatre artists that dares to go beyond the usual bag of tricks and bring you into a world of darkness, mystery and imagination. Known for underplaying and sneaking up on his audience, Cagigal prefers magic that "slowly seeps into your subconscious until you have to ask, 'This isn't real… is it?"

Cagigal is Artist-in-Residence at EXIT Theatre.

Globe-trotting performers Ron Coulter and his wooden-headed cohort, Sid Star, found a home at EXIT Theatre, where Coulter concentrates on expanding the typical ventriloquist act into longer theatrical forms.  Together, they have written and performed dozens of dramas all over North America and in Europe.  Their latest piece, Jihad for Vent and Dummy, mixes pathos with mordent humor and is provocative, insightful, shocking and hilarious. "Few ventriloquists risk the demands of character and plot-driven theatre," says Coulter.

FRIGID New York, Feb. 25 – March 8, is produced by New York's Horse Trade Theater Group and was co-founded by Horse Trade and San Francisco's EXIT Theatre.  In this, its third year, FRIGID New York will present 30 different shows in 3 East Village venues – The Red Room and the Kraine Theatre, both at 85 E. 4th Street, and Under St. Marks at 94 St. Marks Place.  FRIGID New York is the first ever CAFF-sanctioned (Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals) festival in New York City.  For full details on shows, tickets, venues, etc., visit www.FRIGIDnewyork.info.

EXIT Theatre celebrates its 26th anniversary this year. It produces the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the second oldest Fringe Festival in the United States and is a member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF).  2009 will mark the 18th annual San Francisco Fringe Festival.

Each year, EXIT Theatre presents over 500 performances of some 100 productions by more than 75 companies and is one of San Francisco's most successful and enduring centers of alternative performance.  EXIT continues to commission, develop and produce new work and present independent artists.  In addition to the San Francisco Fringe Festival, EXIT produces the annual DIVAfest, dedicated to developing new work by women writers.  The EXIT Theatreplex includes EXIT Theatre, EXIT Stage Left, and EXIT Café at 156 Eddy Street, and EXIT on Taylor, around the corner at 277 Taylor Street, all in Downtown San Francisco. Visit the EXIT Theatre web site at www.theexit.org.

Since 1998, Horse TRADE has created an entirely self sustaining, non funded, live theatrical entertainment company, equipped to bring its audience the best of what NYC's independent theater community has to offer.  Horse TRADE focuses on new work and emerging talent. Nurturing the abilities and talents of playwrights, directors, performers, designers, and producers, it facilitates the creation of engaging theater and provocative live entertainment.

Facilities include The Kraine Theater, The Red Room, and UNDER St. Marks. The Kraine and Red Room share their E 4th St. location with the famous KGB Bar. UNDER St. Marks, on St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A, has been an experimental theater space since the 70s.

Horse TRADE is a collective of Resident Artists, guest artists and artistic affiliates who draw upon a deep pool of talent, resources and experience to create work which is relevant and entertaining.  Horse TRADE has become an active and vital part of the downtown scene, committed to a varied program of performance series, readings, workshops, and fully realized productions.

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