The FRIGID Fringe Festival, now in its 17th season, has always been an open and uncensored theater festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. Moving forward, however, the FRIGID Fringe will give up the use of the term “uncensored.”
The Festival has decided that its commitment to freedom of expression does not obligate it to lend its efforts to a platform that’s considered to be very offensive, hurtful or dowright hat speech. While FRIGID New York deeply values the legal right to free speech, the new policy is to just say no.
A show was recently withdrawn from the 2023 festival that misaligned with core values and beliefs as an institution, and featured material deemed to be anti-trans. Participants already accepted into the 2023 festival who wish to withdraw from the festival on that basis will be offered a full refund. FRIGID will move forward as an unjuried festival with participants drawn at random, as before.
Managing Artistic Director, Erez Ziv says, “I can’t host content that half my staff finds personally offensive at a time when members of their community are being shot at simply for existing. We live in a country that does not define hate speech. It is up to us, as a community, to define it for ourselves.”
Founded in 1998, FRIGID New York’s mission is to provide both emerging and established artists the opportunity to create and produce original work of varied content, form and style, and to amplify their diverse voices. This is accomplished via presenting an array of monthly programming, mainstage productions, an artist residency and eight annual theater festivals. Each initiative creates an environment of collaboration, resourcefulness and innovation.
For more information, visit www.frigid.nyc
