In a FringeNYC-less summer, other theater festivals promoting the work of up-and-coming artists are taking the lead, including the Ice Factory Festival at New Ohio, Broadway Bound Theatre Festival at the Theater at the 14th St. Y, and the Corkscrew Theater Festival at the Paradise Factory. Among them is the NY Fridge Fest, a brand-new festival of multidisciplinary work at IRT. All genres are welcome, there's just one catch: every work must feature a fridge.
Presented by The Arctic Group, the festival runs August 31 through September 10; half of the performances are "Fill Our Fridge" nights, on which tickets can be purchased with non-perishable goods instead of money. We spoke with playwrights Daniel Talbott and Steve McMahon, whose plays will be performed on the same program, about participating in the festival's inaugural season.
Daniel Talbott, Nick and Zoe
Tell us about your show!
At its heart the play's about class and sex. About being poor and welcomed into a place that you'll never really feel you fully belong. It's about love. The kind of love that swims in your blood and digs into your bones and muscles. It becomes a part of you and you'll do almost anything not to lose it.
What have been the most exciting things about seeing your show come together?
Getting to work with some of my favorite people on earth. I wrote it specifically for one my best friends and I got to get notes from my sister Lucy, who helped me make it a ton better.
Who are your favorite playwrights, past and present?
There are so many and so I'm going to just throw ten out here in no order. Tennessee Williams. Sam Shepard. Caryl Churchill. Sarah Kane. Lucy Thurber. Mark Schultz. Annie Baker. Sarah Ruhl. Lynn Nottage. Dael Orlandersmith. Dominique Morisseau. Adam Rapp. Simon Stephens. Stephen Adly Guirgis. Qui Nguyen. Keith Josef Adkins. Enda Walsh and Alice Birch. Shakespeare. I think that's nineteen. There are so many more and I know I'm leaving folks out.
What famous (or not so famous) line do you wish you’d written?
"I am all the daughters of my father's house, And all the brothers too -- and yet I know not."
What would you change about the current state of theater?
Hierarchies and cliqueyness.
How important is it to you that your work relate to our current political/social climate?
I think any story based in character and action that's set in a certain time and place is, in the end, about our current political/social climate. It's being written by you in a room (or not) somewhere, while all of this shitstorm is taking place. That's got to get into it and burrow itself in there somehow.
Steve McMahon, Sad Indie Love Song
Tell us about your show!
Sad indie love song is an off-beat New York love story about a boy, a girl, a fridge and another girl. Maybe.
What have been the most exciting things about seeing your show come together?
I wrote the parts with actors in mind and we got the director we wanted too so it's been great to see them color in and flesh out the words I wrote on the page knowing that the text was just a blueprint for them to build upon and play with in rehearsal. It's been lovely to see them find things in the text even I didn't know were there.
Who are your favorite playwrights, past and present?
That changes all the time but recently I've been reading a lot of Caryl Churchill, María Irene Fornés, Sarah Ruhl and Tony Kushner. As one of the editors of The Dionysian, we've been reading a lot of new writers and I have to say that Gina Femia's plays make my heart feel bigger and fuller.
What famous (or not so famous) line do you wish you’d written?
I think the most magical moment in all theatre is in The Winter's Tale when Hermione unfreezes as the statue, comes down and Leontes says "O, she's warm!" I cry every time.
What would you change about the current state of theater?
I could ramble on all day about this but we have to continue to innovate to make theatre accessible to all. Too often theatre audiences are almost exclusively old and white and I know that I'm a straight white male with the odds stacked in my favor but that's just not good enough and it has to change. It's too expensive to put on theatre and it's too expensive to go to the theatre. I see a lot of it and I know all the ways to get cheap tickets in New York but in general it's not cheap or easy enough. If your show isn't sold out, fill the seats with people who couldn't afford a full-price ticket. These things are moving in the right direction but they're moving slowly and there's no excuse not to get shit done right now.
How important is it to you that your work relate to our current political/social climate?
It's increasingly important to me. I think there's absolutely a place in the current theatre for escapism and the chance to spend a couple of hours laughing but the popular theatre can educate or provoke as much as it can entertain and I think the newer stuff I'm writing is much more engaged and asks more questions.
