SAVE THE DATE: February 7, 8 & 9th 2020
THE BEST PLAYS FROM
The Strawberry One-Act Festival
will open at the
Leonard Nimoy Thalia
At Peter Norton Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th St, NYC.
Tickets go on Sale Wed, November 27, 2019
Box Office: 212-864-5400
For Group Sales: 646-623-3488
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For Immediate Release
Press Contact:
Kevin Hansen
646-623-3488
(November 25, 2019, New York City) The Riant Theatre
(Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director)
-- the AUDELCO Award-Winning nonprofit, which provides a nurturing environment for playwrights and theatre creatives of diverse cultural backgrounds to develop new plays, presents some of the
Best Plays From The Strawberry One-Act Festival
.
Van Dirk Fisher
directs
EJYP JOHNSON
, who has appeared in the films
LIKE FATHER
(Netflix) with Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammar and
SEE YOU YESTERDAY
(Netflix) and television’s
BLUE BLOODS
(CBS), in the play
MAKE HER HAPPEN
by L.E. McCullough
. Co-starring is
GLORIA BANGIOLA
, who has appeared as Mina Murray in
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
with InterACT Theater Productions, NJ and President Wintergreen in
Brooklyn Baby (Let 'Em Eat Cake)
with The Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College. MAKE HER HAPPEN is a powerful play about people’s obsession with being famous. We witness it today where having the most LIKES on social media has replaced the importance of making real connections. In Mr. McCullough’s play, a waitress in a small town diner sees the opportunity for her entire life to change when a well dressed gentleman from New York City enters the establishment.
Also, on the program is
A VISIT IN THE AFTERNOON
by Fred Dennehy
, a graduate of Yale Law School, who has had a practice for 40 years before taking up acting and playwriting. His recent credits include:
HOMECOMING
(Lucille Lortel Theatre) and
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
and
DEAD RECKONING
. The cast includes:
Dawn Lanoue
(‘Night Mother),
Russell Ortiz
(will star as Murray Burns in
A Thousand Clowns
by Herb Gardner, Westfield Community Players in March 2020) and
Allegra Mroz
(
Johanna in
Sweeney Todd
and Ophelia in
Hamlet).
The play is directed by
Ed Faver
who has worked as an actor and director at
the Paper Mill Playhouse, and the NJ Shakespeare Festival. Recent directing credits include:
The Normal Heart
and
Children of a Lesser God.
A VISIT IN THE AFTERNOON is a delightful and charming play about a teenage girl named Mara, who reluctantly agrees to visit her bad-tempered grandfather, who her mother tells her wants to give her something before he dies. What she receives from him is completely unexpected.
Best Play Award Nominee
NOT THAT ILLEGAL
by Yusuf Yildiz
tackles the Hot Topic: Immigration, in which Ali Can, a
Turkish immigrant, is forced to end his 10-year long journey in the U.S. due to unfortunate events. He convinces his best friend to help him with a highly risky plan to trick his arch-nemesis USCIS.
Find out how USCIS's nerve-racking interview turns into a hilarious journey. The cast includes:
Dylan Combs
(
Don John in
Much Ado About Nothing
, Laertes in
Hamlet)
,
Joshua R. Pyne
(
Dr. Jared Katz in Hanging Cow's
The Accidental Awakening
and Sheriff Grace in
Toady Hoad)
and
Yusuf Yildiz
. NOT THAT ILLEGAL is directed by Ayse Eldek-Richardson
(
Emre Ozpirincci’s
The New Yorkers
and Ayse Eldek’s
Bald Boy The Musical)
. Mr. Yildiz
moved to the United States after spending 20 plus years filled with mathematics and science in Turkey. He secretly kept writing love poems while his classmates tried to prove the Riemann hypothesis. Everything in his life changed once he stepped on stage as a thespian.
We are happy to present the
Best Play Award
winning play
LEAVES
by Victor Vaban, Jr.
, who also directed the play,
is an actor and a former circus performer, who is in love with the art of writing. Born and raised in Brazil, Mr. Vauban became a bonafide circus performer at the age of fifteen after attending the Nacional Circus School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a circus performer he was able to travel the world and experience up close different cultures and witness all the diversity and beauty put in this world for us to enjoy, preserve and learn from.
Mr. Vauban seeks in August Wilson, Anne Thompson-Scretching, Tennessee Williams, Franz Kafka, Susan Lori Park, and James Baldwin the inspiration to create a body of work that will move audiences in ways that will sparkle the need to reflect and take action when it comes to ways to better our community and the world.
The cast of LEAVES includes:
Antonia Badon,
Best Actress Award
winner
for her role as Muriel in LEAVES. Ms. Badon is from New Orleans and is a radio On-Air Personality at WHCR 90.3 FM The Voice of Harlem. Her show
Renaissance Travels
is on Sundays at 4:30pm-5:30pm. Rounding out the cast is
Patricia Fields
as
Benita,
Shai Shockley
as Verna and
Benjamin Rowe
as Curtis. In LEAVES,
Muriel and her two sisters had dreams of becoming the new musical sensation just like, "The Supremes" - but fate intervene. Muriel fell in love and married her college sweetheart, Curtis, putting an end to the girl group's dreams. Over thirty-years later the two sisters still resent the premature dissolution of the group blaming it on their so-called- good for nothing brother-in-law
.
PROGRAM A:
DATE:
Friday, February 7, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS:
Early Bird $40 I Beginning February 1, 2020 - $50
GROUP SALES:
10 or MORE - $35 Tickets Call: 646-623-3488
Box Office:
212-864-5400
|
|
The first play in Program B is
A VISIT IN THE AFTERNOON
by Fred Dennehy
, a graduate of Yale Law School, who has had a practice for 40 years before taking up acting and playwriting. His recent credits include:
HOMECOMING
(Lucille Lortel Theatre) and
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
and
DEAD RECKONING
. The cast includes:
Dawn Lanoue
as Melanie
(
theatre credits include
‘Night Mother),
Russell Ortiz
as Alex (theatre credits include: Murray Burns in
A Thousand Clowns
by Herb Gardner, Westfield Community Players in March 2020) and
Allegra Mroz
as Mara
(
theatre credits include: Johanna in
Sweeney Todd
and Ophelia in
Hamlet).
The play is directed by
Ed Faver
who has worked as an actor and director at
the Paper Mill Playhouse, and the NJ Shakespeare Festival. Recent directing credits include:
The Normal Heart
and
Children of a Lesser God.
A VISIT IN THE AFTERNOON is a delightful and charming play about a teenage girl named Mara, who reluctantly agrees to visit her bad-tempered grandfather, who her mother tells her wants to give her something before he dies. What she receives from him is completely unexpected.
Richard Lobel
, when not practicing law, writes plays, short fiction and the occasional magazine article. He has previously performed stand-up in New York City at a host of comedy clubs including Carolines, Stand Up New York, Comic Strip Live and Gotham Comedy Club, sharing the stage with such talents as Chris Rock and Jim Gaffigan. Mr. Lobel made his playwriting debut at the Strawberry One Act Festival, where his play,
A TWO HUNDRED
DOLLAR RHINOCEROS
,
was a
Best Play Award
Nominee.
The play is about Adam, a privileged and idealistic college student living on the Upper West Side and Chance, a grizzled, weary homeless man who sells elaborate sculptures made from wire hangers on West 79th Street. Adam strikes up a conversation with Chance, starting with an offer to buy one of his sculptures. As they talk further, Adam is intrigued by Chance's story and interviews him for a journalism class. What begins as a lighthearted encounter evolves into something more as Adam learns about what drove Chance to the streets. The play celebrates engagement and a relationship between people who typically would never even meet. The cast includes:
Lucas Max
as Adam,
Royston Scott
as Chance and
Rew Starr
as Stella.
Richard Charles Mueller
, won the
Best Director Award
for this play.
Best Play Award Nominee
NOT THAT ILLEGAL
by Yusuf Yildiz
tackles the Hot Topic: Immigration, in which Ali Can, a
Turkish immigrant, is forced to end his 10-year long journey in the U.S. due to unfortunate events. He convinces his best friend to help him with a highly risky plan to trick his arch-nemesis USCIS.
Find out how USCIS's nerve-racking interview turns into a hilarious journey. The cast includes:
Dylan Combs
(
Don John in
Much Ado About Nothing
, Laertes in
Hamlet)
,
Joshua R. Pyne
(
Dr. Jared Katz in Hanging Cow's
The Accidental Awakening
and Sheriff Grace in
Toady Hoad)
and
Yusuf Yildiz
. NOT THAT ILLEGAL is directed by Ayse Eldek-Richardson
(
Emre Ozpirincci’s
The New Yorkers
and Ayse Eldek’s
Bald Boy The Musical)
. Mr. Yildiz
moved to the United States after spending 20 plus years filled with mathematics and science in Turkey. He secretly kept writing love poems while his classmates tried to prove the Riemann hypothesis. Everything in his life changed once he stepped on stage as a thespian.
Aaron Smallwood Jr.,
the recipient of the
Best Actor Award
for his
role as
the Old Man
in
TWO GOOD DOGS
by Anthony Roesch
, is happy to reprise his role. His credits include, film:
Suspicion
(Austin Film Festival),
In/Finite
(Amazon Prime); Television:
Elvis Lives Here
(Ep 318), and Theatre: Hurt Village (The Acting Studio),
Bros From the Bottom
(The Acting Studio), and
Lazarus
(Hudson Guild Theater). TWO GOOD DOGS is about two homeless people who sit by the Chicago River discussing life, racism, love, loss and two good dogs. The cast is rounded out by
Valarie Donaldson
Best Actress Award Nominee
as
the Old Woman,
and
Amy Stapleton
as
The Young Woman.
Adriana Alter
,
Best Director Award Nominee,
has
extensive directorial and dramaturgical experience including work with the Secret Theatre, Hip to Hip Theatre Company, Chelsea Rep/The Acting Studio, Nicu’s Spoon Theater Company, Identity Theater Company, Royal Family Productions, and Hartford Stage
.
Favorite recent projects include the world premiere of
Bridges and Overpasses
, also by Anthony Roesch!
Mr. Roesch
is also a fiction writer and has published stories appearing in
Inkwell Journal
and
Tampa Review
, and has been a Top-25 finalist in
Glimmer Train’s
Fiction Open and Very Short Story Competitions.
Mario Corry
is an actor, singer, writer, playwright and award-winning director, Producer and CEO at M.A.C. Films. His film credits include:
Bridge of Spies
Dir: Steven
Spielberg,
The Irishman
Dir: Martin Scorsese. Television credits include:
Power, Law and Order CI, Madam Secretary, Blacklist, Bull, It’s Bruno, La Lupe, Blue Flame
and
Senorita
.
Mr. Corry
received the
BEST DIRECTOR AWARD
for
RESERVATIONS FOR DINNER
by Sean O’Leary
, which was a
BEST PLAY NOMINEE.
Other plays that have appeared in NYC by Mr. O’Leary include:
The Sample
and
The Return.
Rounding out the cast are:
Melissa Capista
as Anna, her credits include in the award-winning films streaming on Amazon Prime and DirecTV, including
A Box Came to Brooklyn
and
Blind Trust
; and
Tony White
as Harry. Some of his favorite roles include: Falstaff in
The Merry Wives Of Windsor
, Pompey in
Measure For Measure
.
RESERVATIONS FOR DINNER
is a hilarious comedy about husband and wife who suddenly become aware that they have different dreams and have been hiding from the truth for years as they prepare to celebrate the wife’s triumphed return to the performing arts.
PROGRAM B:
DATE:
Saturday, February 8, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS:
Early Bird - $40 I Beginning February 1, 2020 - $50
GROUP SALES:
10 or MORE - $35 Tickets Call: 646-623-3488
Box Office:
212-864-5400
|
|
The first play in Program C is
A TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR RHINOCEROS
by Richard Lobel.
Mr. Lobel, when not practicing law, writes plays, short fiction and the occasional magazine article. He has previously performed stand-up in New York City at a host of comedy clubs including Carolines, Stand Up New York, Comic Strip Live and Gotham Comedy Club, sharing the stage with such talents as Chris Rock and Jim Gaffigan. Mr. Lobel made his playwriting debut at the Strawberry One Act Festival, where his play,
A TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR RHINOCEROS,
was a
Best Play Award
Nominee.
The play is about Adam, a privileged and idealistic college student living on the Upper West Side and Chance, a grizzled, weary homeless man who sells elaborate sculptures made from wire hangers on West 79th Street. Adam strikes up a conversation with Chance, starting with an offer to buy one of his sculptures. As they talk further, Adam is intrigued by Chance's story and interviews him for a journalism class. What begins as a lighthearted encounter evolves into something more as Adam learns about what drove Chance to the streets. The play celebrates engagement and a relationship between people who typically would never even meet. The cast includes:
Lucas Max
as Adam,
Royston Scott
as Chance and
Rew Starr
as Stella.
Richard Charles Mueller
, won the
Best Director Award
for this play.
Best Play Award Nominee
NOT THAT ILLEGAL
by Yusuf Yildiz,
which tackles the Hot Topic: Immigration, in which Ali Can, a
Turkish immigrant, is forced to end his 10-year long journey in the U.S. due to unfortunate events. He convinces his best friend to help him with a highly risky plan to trick his arch-nemesis USCIS.
Find out how USCIS's nerve-racking interview turns into a hilarious journey. The cast includes:
Dylan Combs
(
Don John in
Much Ado About Nothing
, Laertes in
Hamlet)
,
Joshua R. Pyne
(
Dr. Jared Katz in Hanging Cow's
The Accidental Awakening
and Sheriff Grace in
Toady Hoad)
and
Yusuf Yildiz
. NOT THAT ILLEGAL is directed by Ayse Eldek-Richardson
(
Emre Ozpirincci’s
The New Yorkers
and Ayse Eldek’s
Bald Boy The Musical)
. Mr. Yildiz
moved to the United States after spending 20 plus years filled with mathematics and science in Turkey. He secretly kept writing love poems while his classmates tried to prove the Riemann hypothesis. Everything in his life changed once he stepped on stage as a thespian.
Aaron Smallwood Jr.,
the recipient of the
Best Actor Award
for his
role as
the Old Man
in
TWO GOOD DOGS
by Anthony Roesch
, is his happy to reprise his role. His credits include, film:
Suspicion
(Austin Film Festival),
In/Finite
(Amazon Prime); Television:
Elvis Lives Here
(Ep 318), and Theatre: Hurt Village (The Acting Studio),
Bros From the Bottom
(The Acting Studio), and
Lazarus
(Hudson Guild Theater). TWO GOOD DOGS is about two homeless people who sit by the Chicago River discussing life, racism, love, loss and two good dogs. The cast is rounded out by
Valarie Donaldson
Best Actress Award Nominee
as
the Old Woman,
and
Amy Stapleton
as
The Young Woman.
Adriana Alter
,
Best Director Award Nominee,
has
extensive directorial and dramaturgical experience including work with the Secret Theatre, Hip to Hip Theatre Company, Chelsea Rep/The Acting Studio, Nicu’s Spoon Theater Company, Identity Theater Company, Royal Family Productions, and Hartford Stage
.
Favorite recent projects include the world premiere of
Bridges and Overpasses
, also by Anthony Roesch!
Mr. Roesch
is also a fiction writer and has published stories appearing in
Inkwell Journal
and
Tampa Review
, and has been a Top-25 finalist in
Glimmer Train’s
Fiction Open and Very Short Story Competitions.
We are happy to present the
Best Play Award
winning play
LEAVES
by Victor Vaban, Jr.
, who also directed the play,
is an actor and a former circus performer, who is in love with the art of writing. Born and raised in Brazil, Mr. Vauban became a bonafide circus performer at the age of fifteen after attending the Nacional Circus School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a circus performer he was able to travel the world and experience up close different cultures and witness all the diversity and beauty put in this world for us to enjoy, preserve and learn from.
Mr. Vauban seeks in August Wilson, Anne Thompson-Scretching, Tennessee Williams, Franz Kafka, Susan Lori Park, and James Baldwin the inspiration to create a body of work that will move audiences in ways that will sparkle the need to reflect and take action when it comes to ways to better our community and the world.
The cast of LEAVES includes:
Antonia Badon,
Best Actress Award
winner
for her role as Muriel in LEAVES. Ms. Badon is from New Orleans and is a radio On-Air Personality at WHCR 90.3 FM The Voice of Harlem. Her show
Renaissance Travels
is on Sundays at 4:30pm-5:30pm. Rounding out the cast is
Patricia Fields
as
Benita,
Shai Shockley
as Verna and
Benjamin Rowe
as Curtis. In LEAVES,
Muriel and her two sisters had dreams of becoming the new musical sensation just like, "The Supremes" - but fate intervene. Muriel fell in love and married her college sweetheart, Curtis, putting an end to the girl group's dreams. Over thirty-years later the two sisters still resent the premature dissolution of the group blaming it on their so-called- good for nothing brother-in-law
.
Screening of the Video Diaries Project
, A series of short films about the artists in the Strawberry One-Act Festival.
Presentation of the
PIONEER OF THE ARTS AWARDS
PROGRAM C:
DATE:
Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.
TICKETS:
Early Bird - $40 I Beginning February 1, 2020 - $50
GROUP SALES:
10 or MORE - $35 Tickets Call: 646-623-3488
Box Office:
212-864-5400
To obtain an application to Submit a play for the next Strawberry One-Act Festival email us at
RiantTheatre@gmail.com
Late Deadline to submit a play is December 15th. The Festival runs from February 7th through February 23, 2020.
Click images below for information on
CORE Project Theatre Workshop
and
Riant Theatre's Writers & Actors Retreat Cruise.
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