INTERVIEW: Celebrate life and death at Days of the Dead Festival in NYC
Photo: In The Vole Sisters Invite You to a Peculiar & Intimate Evening of Mystic Spiritualism, improvisers Double D (Nannette Deasy and Graceann Dorse) portray Fatima and Elsbeth Vole. Photo courtesy of Double D / Provided by Emily Owens PR with permission.
The Days of the Dead Festival is back for a second year of programming at the Kraine Theater and Under St. Mark’s in New York City. The festival, produced by FRIGID New York, is billed as a celebration of life and death in honor of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. From now until Thursday, Nov. 2, there is a wide variety of entertainment being offered, everything from one-person shows to an evening of mystic spiritualism.
At the helm of the festival is Martha Lorena Preve, the curator of the theatrical offerings. Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Preve to see what she and FRIGID New York have in store. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
There is a lot of holiday-oriented theatrical fare this time of year. How does Days of the Dead Festival stand apart?
The Days of the Dead Festival is a festival that celebrates death in one or another. As I write this it’s almost weird to say it, but in Mexico it is a very common thing. We celebrate our loved ones that have passed away. We celebrate their lives and the spooky season that fascinates everyone. What I love about this festival is that it has a variety of cultural offerings: shows and music in Spanish, Spanglish and English; theater, burlesque, solo performances, magic and spiritualism, musical theater, a movie screening and works in progress. My hope is that as this festival grows we are able to host an even bigger variety of artists and performances in other languages, so that the Days of the Dead Festival represents all kinds of relationships with death from all cultures.
What can we expect from Alise Morales’ one-person show, The Girl Who Lived?
A night of witches, wizards and magic! Audiences can expect to hear a mix of stand-up comedy and original storytelling from her life as a hardcore Harry Potter fanatic. The show also features guest appearances from beloved Harry Potter characters (played by some of NYC’s funniest comedians), a reading of her teenage fanfiction, a live sorting ceremony and even a stop-motion animation of the time she got trapped on the Hogwarts ride at Universal. It’s a super dynamic show with something for everyone!
What do you like about Nell’s Plague Play by Jodie Lynne McClintock?
What I love about this play is that it mixes the Samhain/All Soul’s Day, which reminds me of Día de [los] Muertos, with the story of Shakespeare’s wardrobe mistress, all from her perspective. I am really looking forward to seeing Jodie Lynne McClintock on stage. She wrote this play and will be performing it. She is a wonderful and experienced actor, and we are thrilled to have her!
You’ll have some mystical spiritualism this year, right? Do tell!
Yes, specifically with the The Vole Sisters. I am eager to see this show that mixes comedy with spiritism, which I think [is] exactly the vibe of this holiday — mystic[al], magical and fun, and a little bit spooky! We can feel chills and also laugh at life, death and everything in between.
Check out our feature on last year’s Days of the Dead Festival.
How do you and the team select the entries for the festival?
After putting out an open call on our website and social media, we watch videos and read scripts and try to come up with a diverse selection. A few shows were invited to the festival: Brokeneck Girls: The Murder Ballad Musical has done previous iterations of their show with us, and we were thrilled to have them; Odyssey and the Flowers of the Sun, which celebrates Mexican culture is the director’s first play in NYC, which we were happy to support; The Cabaret: A Night with the Dead is a given since it’s the show that started the festival; and Mi Ofrenda, Mis canciones is a concert that we are co-producing with Florencia Cuenca, Jaime Lozano and the help of [the New York State Council on the Arts] and Lake Placid.
Financially, how difficult is it to produce this festival? Was a second year ever in doubt?
FRIGID New York offers all the support for a festival curator like myself to make this possible. The second year was not in doubt after the success of the first one, which is mainly thanks to the audiences that came to see shows and support indie theater. It has been a challenging time since the pandemic. We depend on the support of our patrons. If they like our shows and keep coming to see them, we’ll keep making them and having festivals for the indie artist community!
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Days of the Dead Festival, produced by FRIGID New York, continues through Thursday, Nov. 2, at the Kraine Theater and Under St. Mark’s in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
