The Fire This Time
The African American experience is not represented solely by one voice or one style. Horse Trade Theater Group and The Fire This Time Festival provide a platform for talented early-career playwrights of African and African American descent to explore challenging new directions for 21st century theater.
Kelley Nicole Girod
(Founding Playwright and Executive Director)
A 2008 graduate of Columbia's MFA playwriting program where she was named the Stein and Liberace scholar as well as the John Golden fellow for her artistic merit. Kelley hails from Louisiana where she attended Louisiana State University and works extensively with the artistic community of Baton Rouge, most recently serving as a panel judge for Louisiana's artist in residency program. She has had plays produced in Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, and Columbus, Ohio and has had readings at Primary Stages, the Labyrinth Studio, and Horse Trade Theater where she founded and has served as Executive Producer of The Fire This Time Festival which is going into it's fourth year of programming (www.firethistimefestival.com). She was awarded "Person of the Year 2011" by nytheatre.com for her work on The Fire This Time. Other producing credits include "Trayvon Martin:A Call to Action"(Horse Trade Theatre 2012) and "Honoring Excellence in Theatre: An Evening with Woodie King Jr."(NYC 2012).
Kevin R. Free
(Producing Artistic Director)
Kevin R. Free is a writer-performer who has told stories on NPR, Dana Rossi's the Soundtrack Series and on the mainstage at The Moth. He has also performed Off-Broadway at The York, The Gramercy, and The New Federal Theatre, and regionally atSTAGE, The Kennedy, Paper Mill Playhouse, and in concert with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. An alumnus of the New York Neo-Futurists, he wrote over 60 short plays for Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, and 2 full-length Neo-Futurist plays, (Not) Just A Day Like Any Other, (co-written with Christopher Borg, Jeffrey Cranor, and Eevin Hartsough), and You are in an open field (co-written with Adam Smith, Marta Rainer, Eevin Hartsough, and Carl Riehl). His 10-minute plays, ...in which Bishop Eddie Long loses a battle with his demons... and The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual premiered at Sticky at Bowery Poetry Club and The Fire This Time Festival, respectively. He was just named a 2012 New Black Fest Playwriting Fellow. One of nytheatre.com's People of the year in 2010, his full-length plays, Face Value and A Raisin in the Salad: Black Plays for White People, were published by indietheaternow.com.
Germono Toussaint
(Founding Playwright)
Germono Toussaint is a playwright, composer, arranger, lyricist, and the founder of A Mile In My Shoes Inc. In 2005, Germono wrote and produced Caged, a theater piece based on interviews he conducted with thirteen women in a halfway house. Caged premiered at the Broadway Theater in Milwaukee and was featured in the Not for Broadway Theater Festival in New York City in 2006. Germono’s play The Anointed was featured in The Fire This Time Festival in 2010. As an active composer and arranger, Toussaint has transcribed original music for Katori Hall, Inc, Daniel Beaty Productions, Inc, Dr. Dorothy Productions, and Common Thread Theater. He has composed music for Skylight Opera Theatre, Handful Players, Fishgrease Productions, Diversity Players of Harlem, and New Dramatist’s Nocturnal Commissions. Toussaint has a BFA in composition.
James Masciovecchio
(Production Manager)
James Masciovecchio is a Brooklyn Based Director. Recent Credits include 'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui', 'Gruesome Playground Injuries', 'Touch, and 'Row After Row' all for Cave Theatre Co. Where he serves as Artistic Director. He has spent the past three years as the Production Manager for The Fire This Time Festival. www.JamesMasciovecchio.com
Derek Lee McPhatter
(Founding Playwright)
Derek Lee McPhatter is a dramatic writer, producer and part of the artistic leadership of Under the Spell Productions (co-producer). Plays include: Undercover on Another Day of Absence (featured in Harlem 9's 2011 48 Hours in Harlem Festival); The Lattice Crashes (The Tank / Harlem Stage), Bring the Beat Back (Freedom Train Productions), A Better Destiny for Bethany (Horse Trade's The Drafts Fest); and two Fire This Time Festival plays, Citizen Jane and On Troubled Waters. He is a Harlem Arts Alliance/Columbia University Dramatic Writing Fellow, in partnership with New Heritage Theatre. He holds a BA in English from Morehouse College, and a Master's in Humanities from NYU.
Zhalion Levingston
(Associate Producer)
Zhailon Levingston is a performing artist, writer and producer living in New York City. He received his BFA in Musical Theatre from AMDA college in Los Angeles where he co- wrote and produced the musical "16 Bars". Zhailon made his professional stage debut in the Los Angeles premier of The Christians (pastor Joshua u/s) at the Mark Taper Forum. He made his NY stage debut in the 2016 New York Musical Theatre Festival performance of Illa: a Hip Hop Musical. After the death of Alton Sterling and Philando Castille, Zhailon started an arts and activism campaign called "Words on White". It's journey can be followed on his website, Youngamazingsouls.com, an online space for millennials he started this year. Zhailon can be seen in the Warby Parker ad campaign "A Thousand Pieces of Candy" and the independent film, The Stand.
Kevin R. Free
(Producing Artistic Director)
Kevin R. Free is a writer-performer who has told stories on NPR, Dana Rossi's the Soundtrack Series and on the mainstage at The Moth. He has also performed Off-Broadway at The York, The Gramercy, and The New Federal Theatre, and regionally atSTAGE, The Kennedy, Paper Mill Playhouse, and in concert with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. An alumnus of the New York Neo-Futurists, he wrote over 60 short plays for Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, and 2 full-length Neo-Futurist plays, (Not) Just A Day Like Any Other, (co-written with Christopher Borg, Jeffrey Cranor, and Eevin Hartsough), and You are in an open field (co-written with Adam Smith, Marta Rainer, Eevin Hartsough, and Carl Riehl). His 10-minute plays, ...in which Bishop Eddie Long loses a battle with his demons... and The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual premiered at Sticky at Bowery Poetry Club and The Fire This Time Festival, respectively. He was just named a 2012 New Black Fest Playwriting Fellow. One of nytheatre.com's People of the year in 2010, his full-length plays, Face Value and A Raisin in the Salad: Black Plays for White People, were published by indietheaternow.com.
A.J. Muhammad
(Outreach and Development)
A.J. Muhammad has a background in audience development, arts administration, dramaturgy and library public services. He has dramaturged many productions directed by the educator, activist and director Dr. Daniel Banks in New York City, regionally and internationally. Along with Neyda Martinez he co-developed and implemented the pilot phase of the New Audience Project, an initiative to develop and train Latina cultural ambassadors in support of Latino arts institutions through arts immersion, workforce development and micro-entrepreneurism. The New Audience Project received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and was incubated at The Fire This Time Festival's East 4th St. neighbor Teatro Circulo. A.J. also completed the Artist Manager Program (AMP) training program at The Field.
Zonya Love
(Associate Producer)
Zonya Love a country girl from the Carolinas received her B.F.A. in Theatre from North Carolina A&T State University and an M.F.A. from The University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Six months after receiving her M.F.A. Zonya landed the lead role following Fantasia Barrino in the Oprah Winfrey produced musical ‘The Color Purple’. Zonya traveled the continent in the first national tour of the Tony Award Winning Musical ‘Avenue Q’. She’s performed on stages in Lyon, Liverpool, Scotland, St. Martin Island, and Toronto. Some of Zonya’s favorite credits include playing Bessie Smith in ‘The Devil’s Music, ‘ UP HERE’, ‘Hairspray’, ‘You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown’, ‘Blues in the Night’, ‘The Wiz’, ‘Kiss Me Kate’, ‘The Parchman Hour’, Intimate Apparel, and ‘Twelfth Night’. Other highlights in Zonya’s career include singing at the famed Carnegie Hall, as well singing with The Broadway Inspirational Voices (BIV). Singing with BIV has afforded Zonya many wonderful opportunities. She has recorded with the band The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, performed in Mariah Carey’s Christmas Spectacular(2014), sang background vocals for TV shows America’s Got Talent, Smash and The David Letterman Show as well as recording BIV’s second album Great Joy II. Zonya has volunteered for several organizations including The Ronald McDonald House, Broadway’s Equity Fights AIDS, and Sing For Hope. Thanks to Kevin R. Free for the opportunity to work with The Fire This Time Festival. Thank you God for unconditional, unfailing, everlasting love and favor. Romans 8.