Frigid New York and Manhattan Theatre Source present a virtual EstroGenius Festival

Frigid New York and Manhattan Theatre Source presenta virtual EstroGenius Festival, the longest running festival celebrating the work of women and gender non-conforming artists in NYC, October 22-27, 2020. Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a suggested donation of $10 and can be purchased online at www.frigid.nyc/tags/estrogenius.

In concurrence with the inclusive values the festival was founded on, the EstroGenius executive team focuses on art generated, written, directed, choreographed, composed and performed by artists who expand the definition of a women’s festival. The producers strive to create a full, empowering, festival dedicated to a community that hears, sees and celebrates women, gender non-conforming and non-binary artists in all of their dynamic diversity. EstroGenius was founded in 2000 at Manhattan Theatre Source by Fiona Jones as a short-play fest to support dynamic female characters while celebrating inclusivity and pushing gender parity in theatre. Heading into the 20th year, at the helm of the festival are Melissa Riker (Kinesis Project dance theatre, Women in Motion) and Maura Nguyen Donohue. Guest curators include Vincent Marano and John C. Robinson (On the Boards, Emerald City Music). Now, with a home at the Kraine Theatre on E. 4th Street and stepping into 20 years as the longest running festival of its kind, EstroGenius continues to expand an inclusive view of the diverse and creative community that is a womxn’s festival.

The lineup for the festival is as follows:
A shared evening with Soul Dance Co., Sheree V. Campbell, and Naja Newell
Thursday, October 22, 2020 – 7:00pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/soulshereenaja
STILL…[in time] is a FluxFlowGrow (Sheree V Campbell) work in progress, questioning what it means to meditate and be STILL! in the 21st Century. Is it possible to experience absolute stillness with technological advents, such as social media, constantly swarming our hearts, minds, and spirits with vast amounts of information? Can time be considered a “meaningless construct” as society continues to wait, time and time again, for meaningful change, especially now, during the global pandemic? If stillness was not achievable prior to the pandemic, can stillness be achieved now, with and [in time]? F.R.E.E.D. from  Soul Dance Co. is an exploration of the stages of freedom. It is the period of Revolting and what that might feel and look like in the body, as well as finally obtaining freedom and laying out the laws exactly. Once obtaining something so difficult but complete innate there is celebration and complete joy. 

Seven Bones
An interactive, choose your own adventure website.
by Kim Savarino & Shiloh Hodges 
Launched Wednesday, October 21, 2020 – live and available through the festival
Kim Savarino & Shiloh Hodges launch Estrogenius 2020 with their website experience “Seven Bones,” an online scrapbook made of recorded memories, ghost stories, survival strategies, and short dances. Audiences are invited to visit anytime during the entire duration of the fest starting 7pm Weds 10/21.
I called you cause I knew you’d come / for like seeks like and water always runs to lower ground. Two friends travel through a ghost story for the end of the world. They are as prepared as anyone can be, I guess. Seven Bones is based on an Appalachian ghost story and choose-your-own-adventure books. It lives as an interactive web page with recorded stories, videos, things to read, and an optional piece of mail for the audience. Whether you want to travel back into the past or forward into the dark forest, we made this to keep you company.

A shared evening with Rebecca Fitton, Katherine de la Cruz, Valentina Bache & Kim Savarino
Friday, October 23, 2020 – 9:00pm ET
https://www.frigid.nyc/events/rebecca-fitton-katherine-de-la-cruz-kim-savarino-valentina-bache 
Returning the physical to historical record. Rebecca Fitton’s RECLAIM interrogates the creation of a personal archive and history from one’s physical and emotional memory. Curator Maura Nguyen Donohue will join her and artists Katherine De La Cruz/Valentina Bache and Kim Savarino/Shiloh Hodges (Seven Bones) to reckon with art making, migration, immigration, green cards, visas and racial legacies.

Live Outdoor: Alli Berowski, Portia Wells, and Valentina Bache
Saturday, October 24, 2020 – 2:00pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/berowskiwellsbache
Moon Water
Moon Water is an exploration of fluidity and juncture. Where do things end and begin? It’s a map of ahead and behind that questions and magnifies the standing of the world.

Aprender Para Olivdar
Valentina explores their identity with newfound realizations through diligent decolonizing practices. They incorporate poems from Mexican womxn, using their first language Spanish & movement to describe the current troubles that plague their reality. With a foot in each country ready to leave at any moment, Valentina begins to accept the unstable grounds she walks in every day. By allowing their voice to listened, Having silenced it for far too long.

Tree She
by Marina Celander and Fredrik Söderberg
Saturday, October 24, 2020 – 5:00pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/treeshe 
Tree She is one part in a five part movement suite. Marina Celander, a theatre artist and dancer, and Fredrik Söderberg, a composer and sound designer, explore the virtual realm in seeking balance and harmony with nature in this current climate of constant fear, continued injustices and imbalance. The walls between inside and outside, nature and technology, fade; Tree She is on the move. 

A Shared Evening with Jasmine Hearn and Marion Spencer
Saturday, October 24, 2020 – 7pm ET
Sunday, October 25, 2020 – 7pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/jasmine-hearn-marion-spencer 
GLINTING MARROW/AMNESIA STUDY #4
“emerging out of a solo process that lived for about a year before the pandemic + portals of 2020, this is a burying, a retrieval, an allowing, a letting go and being now with-

we are making a dance film
we are burying
we are trying to examine what remains
we are amnesia, disorientation, fierce ephemeral pink plastic dripping with sand, water, sky, trash and tenderness 
we are nonlinear stories of visceral memory
we are listening on a cellular level.”

JASMINE HEARN
Jasmine Hearn will be listening and responding with their body and voice to where and how they are in space, time, and location.

Access: A Podcast About Abortion
Saturday, October 24, 2020 – 8:00pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/accesspodcast
Abortion is common. In the United States, one in four women will have an abortion during her lifetime. Many trans men and nonbinary people have abortions, too. That means that you almost certainly know someone – and probably more than one person – who’s had an abortion. That is, if you haven’t had one yourself. But abortion is something that many of us just don’t talk about outside the context of political debates. On ACCESS, we’re talking about abortion, and sharing first person stories from the people who know: people who’ve had abortions, abortion providers, abortion funders, researchers, and more. Each episode breaks down a different topic in an accessible and human way.

Short Moving Films
Saturday, October 24, 2020 – 9pm ET 
live through Wednesday, October 28, 2020 – 10pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/shortmovingfilms
Rituals for Healing 
Rituals for Healing is a short dance video work commissioned by The EstroGenius Festival, New York, 2020 and The Dance Centre Vancouver, BC 2020.
Choreography / video: Petra Zanki
Music: Benoît Pioulard & Dash Lewis.

TREATS
TREATS is an 11-minute grotesque burlesque of whisper ASMR mukbang; a 2020 self-soothing fantasy by probableclws  (aka Zhenesse). Headphones recommended to give you that ooo ahh sensation. Previously performed live at Oklahomo in Chicago and as part of a larger work in Estrogenius 2019 in New York City. 

Solvent
Circulatory systems, both internally and externally, are inspirations for me and work.
Solvent explores these systems and creates space for an intimate relationship between the viewer and the performer. During a time when it is difficult to feel close to people, it is the hope that for a fleeting moment, we can enter into something together for a shared experience. Created by long-time friends and collaborators Loscil and Action at a Distance, Solvent explores themes surrounding water and the body.

Tiny Film Vignettes launch on 10/25/2020
Hilary Brown-Istrefi/HB² PROJECTS – Action/Magic

Mango Season – A Virtual Experience
Sunday, October 25, 2020 – 5pm ET
Monday, October 26, 2020 – 8pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/mangoseason 
Mango Season is a multidisciplinary journey through stories of choreographer Joya Powell’s maternal roots in Jamaica. It combines video, song, and audience participation. Echoing the cyclical nature of time, this virtual experience is an intimate unearthing of ritual and ancestral practices. Mango Season was created as a part Angela’s Pulse: Dancing While Black Fellowship 2016-2017.

Amplify | Estro2020 Short Play Readings 
Monday, October 26, 2020 – 5:00pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/amplify2020 
EstroGenius celebrates its 20th anniversary with a riotous collection of performances by women, gender non-conforming, playwrights, actors, and directors in the Amplify short play program. Readings of selected plays and short interviews by Jenny Green with the playwrights.

Silent But Deadly: A Mime Experience
Tuesday, October 27, 2020 – 12:30pm ET
www.frigid.nyc/events/silentbutdeadly 
A mixture of dance, clown, and mime, all with the intent to make audiences laugh without any of us having to learn our lines – I mean, er – using body language? Yeah, that’s it, body language. Artsy stuff like that. Using our head, shoulders, knees, and toes, we’ll be contorting and wiggling into your hearts and nightmares.

About the Festival
Manhattan Theatre Source’s EstroGenius Festival, an annual celebration of female-identifying, gnc, non-binary & trans voices, is one of New York City’s largest womxn’s arts festivals. Founded by Fiona Jones in 2000, the festival debuted with a program of 10 short plays and music. Since then, it has grown into a multi-week event including short plays, solo shows, teen performances, visual art, and dance. In past years, we’ve also had stand-up comedy, live music, fundraisers for African girls’ education, and full-day networking events with panels and workshops. Almost completely volunteer run, the EstroGenius Festival has provided thousands of artists the chance to shine; showcased award-winning playwrights Sheila Callaghan, Quiara Alegria Hudes, T.D. Mitchell and Melissa Maxwell; presented Bessie Award-winning choreographers Marta Renzi and Jennifer Nugent; and provided scholarships for girls to attend school in Niger, ranked the poorest country in the world by the United Nations. We are committed to providing opportunities to marginalized artists – in a variety of disciplines – ranging from the emerging to the seasoned professional. The New York Times raves that EstroGenius “lives up to its billing as a celebration of women’s work” Manhattan Theatre Source & EstroGenius would like to thank New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature for their support. For more information, visit estrogenius.org.