After the problem with the eastern wall at Under St. Mark’s was found, the spot was shored up with two-by-fours, which are now holding the
building’s weight. Frigid Fest nearly iced out, but show goes on
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
The curtain has not gone down
on the Frigid Festival after water
damage to the Under St. Mark’s
Theater halted the debut of 15 different
shows on Monday.
During a pre-festival event at the
Kraine Theater — the festival’s second
location — on Tues., Feb. 19, Erez Ziv,
Frigid’s founder and managing director,
announced that IATI Theater had
space to accommodate everyone without
altering the performance schedule.
IATI is conveniently located right
across the street from the Kraine, at 64
E. Fourth St.
News that shows would essentially
have to be canceled due to the situation
at Under St. Mark’s was broken to Ziv
during a meeting with the building’s
landlord, contractor, engineer and insurance
adjuster on Mon., Feb. 18.
Water from a burst pipe collected in
between the inner and outer east walls
of the building and froze during the
city’s last deep freeze late last month.
The ice’s expansion caused the outer
east wall to be pushed away from the
rest of the building — meaning, the
wall could collapse at any moment. Everyone
had to vacate the building and
stay out for at least two weeks.
“I actually almost lost my footing and
fell when I realized it,” said Ziv, who
quickly collected himself and started
making phone calls to other local theater’s
asking for help.
Although Ziv tried to remain optimistic,
he had to be realistic.
“Theater space in New York City is
never easy to fi nd and last-minute is
even harder,” he said.
The Frigid Festival had 86 performances
scheduled at Under St. Mark’s
over the next 19 days.
Out of the 15 shows, nine were being
performed by out-of-towners.
Actors traveling from London, Vancouver,
Los Angeles and Venice were
landing in New York City that same
day to take part in the three-week-long
Frigid Festival.
Many had purchased nonrefundable
plane tickets and spent hundreds of
dollars on hotel rooms.
After hearing the news that they
might be without a venue, performers
were naturally worried.
“The fi rst thing was, ‘Oh my goodness
what’s going to happen?’” said
Kelly Haramis. The Chicagoan traveled
to New York to perform her comedy
piece “Hard-Core Corn” on Feb. 20.
But she didn’t panic.
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
“I perform improv once a week, so
I’m pretty fl exible and expect the unexpected,”
she said.
Haramis had confi dence that some
other space would soon become available.
Even though a crisis has been averted,
some performers are still going to
have to roll with some punches. Actress
Mary Goggin, who is debuting her onewoman
show, “Runaway Princess,” on
Sun., Feb. 24, won’t be able to have a
dress rehearsal. At least she’s hoping to
have some time to run through audio
and lighting checks for the show.
“I’m grateful to be getting an hour of
tech at this point,” she said.
The festival will offi cially run from
Feb. 20 to March 10 at the Kraine Theater
and Teatro IATI. Tickets can be
found at frigidnewyork.info .
Schneps Media TVG February 21, 2019 3