Staff

Heidi Grumelot

Stephanie Platin (Artist Coordinator)

A Canadian transplanted to NYC, Stephanie is an emerging writer and performer with extensive experience as an administrator for the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, North America’s second largest Fringe. She has worked as an actor, dancer, dramaturge, writer, director, producer, and administrator for various productions (in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and New York) and has a comprehensive understanding of literally every angle of theatrical events. She is the Company Manager for Carrie Ahern Dance, and Project Director/Producer at Horse Trade Theater Group coordinating performers for their annual FRIGID New York festival.

Katie Kavett (Front of House Coordinator)

Katie Kavett is a freelance stage manager in NYC. She first got involved with the Frigid Festival as the stage manager of the audience-choice-winning Aristophanes’ The Bohemians in 2010. She volunteered at last year’s festival and is thrilled to be a part of this year’s staff. She has stage managed for numerous festivals around NYC, including the New York Musical Theatre Festival (PA for Date of a Lifetime 2011, ASM for Show Choir! 2010), the West Village Musical Theater Festival (PSM for 2011 festival), and the Times Square International Theater Festival (PSM for Seasons and 1,934 Days, both 2012). Other SM credits include The Time of Your Life (Attic Theater), Madame Bovary (The Other Mirror), Odyssey the Epic Musical (Araca Project), and Spidermusical (Mint Theatre). www.katiekavett.com

Ilaria Amadasi (Assistant Front of House Coordinator) Born in Parma, Italy, Ilaria Amadasi’s introduction into professional theater took place when she co-founded the Theater Company “I 4 Cantoni” at the age of fifteen. Ilaria later attended the prestigious Teatro Stabile di Genova. She was the author and Assistant Director of the stage adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “The Castle” and was chosen as the female lead in the show “Time of darkness.” She also received a honorable mention from the national playwriting competition “In Punta di Penna” for the piece “Non ho urlato.” She directed theater therapy workshops for children and seminars of Commedia dell’Arte at “Teatro Vita” (Parma, Italy). Ilaria moved to the US in 2010. She has collaborated on several productions at the Off-Broadway 45 Bleecker Theater and worked as Assistant Director for the show “American Addict” (Hollywood Fringe Festival). Most recently she worked with the Lee Strasberg Institute as Assistant Director for the show “Kids on Strike.”

Shula Kaplan

Ariel Schecter is a graduate of Brown University in structural engineering and 3-D visual art. This is his second year tech directing at the Frigid. Ariel worked with Horse Trade as a tech intern in college, and now makes an annual pilgrimage to New York to be a part of this festival. In addition to being a set designer and theater technician, he is a traveling violinist, sculptor, and builder, and lives seasonally on a homestead in rural Tennessee.

Eduardo Ramirez (Venue Tech) graduated from Queensborough Community College in the Sound and Music Technology Program, currently attending CUNY New York City College of Technology in the Entertainment Technology field. Works as a Sound Engineer for live events, and recently as a Lighting and Sound Technician for Horse Trade Theater Group. Live events include "Tatoofest 05", series of Latin concerts "Salsa in the park", series of rock and heavy metal concerts "Queens Metal Fest". Theater events for Horse Trade includes Clay McLeod Chapman's "Pumpkin Pie Show: Lovey Dovey", " The Great Canadian Burlesque", the monthly "Cabaret Showdown" and the annual Burlesque Blitz 2011, which included Johnny Porkpie's "Shocks and Cocks" and " Storybook."

Rico Rosetti (Venue Tech) is an actor/director with a long history of doing tech work. He was TD for The Acting Studio in Philadelphia, Cornerstone Theatre in Milwaukee, and occasionally for the Chamber Theatre, also in Milwaukee. He did over-hire work as a theatrical electrician and light & sound board op in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and New York. Rico has recently worked with Horse Trade on the Frigid Festival and now works part time as the Technical Director with Horse Trade.

Lauren Arneson (Venue Tech) has been a stage manager since 2004. Some of her festival stage managing credits include FringeNYC, Minnesota Fringe, The Asian-American Theater Festival, Wicked Faire (at a hotel in New Jersey), Estrogenius, NYMF, Spontaneous Combustion, HOWL!, and Planet Connections Theatre Festivity for which she is now the Assistant Technical Director.

This is Curtis Overacre's (Venue Tech) fifth year with the Frigid Festival. He is very excited to be in the Red Room and to be in New York City. Curtis comes from San Francisco, a city that is home to the Exit Theatre complex. He has been a part of the San Francisco Fringe Festival for eight years and counting. He has been a tech and lighting designer for around twelve years. Curtis is originally from where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. Favorite things are: very dark chocolate, music, and good food.

Native New Yorker Maurice Williams (Venue Tech) is no stranger to the worlds of theater and entertainment. With a bachelor’s degree in Entertainment Technology, he has always had a love for technology and how it's evolving in our society. Having done lighting, sound, and all things technical for events and productions from the age of 14, he has gained a real appreciation for the different arts of live entertainment. Recent productions include The New York International Fringe Festival, Misha Shulman's Deathscape, Kay Scorah's Never Look in the Mirror When You're Dancing, Miranda Huba's dirty.little.machine and Hospital City, Laura Ward's The Dreaming and Red and Black, and Dan Bianchi's H.P. Lovecraft Festival.

Christopher Diercksen (Venue Tech) is a New York based director/dramaturg of new plays. World premiere directing work includes: MASTODON JUAN (Bowery Poetry Club) and wreckless (Theater For A New City), by Katharine Sherman; Crawl For It, by Joshua Conkel (Horsetrade Theater Group); Parabolas, by Kelley Girod (Horsetrade/Aery Theater - Best Director). Christopher serves as Literary Manager for Lunar Energy Productions and has worked extensively with the New York Neo-Futurists production of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. He is a graduate of the National Theater Institute and Albright College.

Emily Owens PR (Publicist) is a public relations agency specializing in independent theatre. Clients include Horse Trade Theater Group, The Brick, terraNOVA Collective, Flux Theatre Ensemble, and Gideon Productions. www.emilyowenspr.com

Board

Debora Meltz
President

Christina Augello(Vice President) is the founder and artistic director of EXIT Theatre and is an actress, arts activist and arts administrator. She has been involved with American theater for over 50 years, growing up in the 1950s as the daughter of the proprietor of a famous theater saloon and piano bar in the theater district of downtown Buffalo. In the 1960s she performed in high school theater, CYO competition plays and avant garde storefront theater in her hometown before hitch hiking cross country to San Francisco. There she founded several cooperative and women owned businesses in the Haight Ashbury while pursuing acting. In the 1970s she performed at the original Intersection for the Arts in North Beach, the first ever theatrical production at Theatre Artaud, at the Oakland Ensemble Theatre, at the Poverty Theatre and other venues. She has studied acting with Wendell Phillips, Eric Morris, Stephanie Priest and Phillip Pernaud. In 1983 she founded EXIT Theatre, in 1992 she founded the San Francisco Fringe Festival, in 2002 she founded DIVAfest and in 2007 she co-founded FRIGID New York. She was appointed by the Board of Supervisors as the small arts representative to the San Francisco Cultural Affairs Task Force, served on Theatre Bay Area's Board of Directors and Executive Committee and was honored as Working Women of the Year. She has performed as part of various ensembles and toured her one-women shows around the world, including performances in Prague, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Victoria, Edinburgh, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. She has dedicated her life to creating and supporting small independent theater.

Erez Ziv
Managing Director

Erez Ziv (co-founder/managing director) has joyfully dedicated over a decade of his life to creating an entirely self sustaining off-off-Broadway theater company in New York City His educational history includes a BA in Jewish and Religious studies with a minor in comparative religion from the University of Minnesota, a semester at Oxford, and a never to be quite completed Masters Degree in Talmud and Rabbinics from JTS. He is a licensed fireguard, Handsom Cab Driver, sprinkler systems inspector, flame proofing Supervisor and wedding ceremony officiant. He would like to thank everyone that has helped make FRIGID happen. Erez is also a father.

Emma Katz

Treasurer
Emma Katz is a passionate organizer of all types of artistic endeavors. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the arts organization Recession Art, which is dedicated to bringing together emerging artists and aspiring collectors to celebrate affordable and accessible art. Previously she worked primarily in the theater where she was most recently the Festival Coordinator and Development Director of Horse Trade’s FRIGID NY Festival and an Associate Producer at the Summer Play Festival . She lives in Manhattan and enjoys the beach and musical theater.

Elisabeth Rodgers Board Member