Sean O'Leary's RESERVATIONS FOR DINNER Heads To The Finals In The Strawberry One-Act Festival

The Riant Theatre (Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director) presents the 31st season of THE STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT FESTIVAL, A Celebration of Cultural Diversity.

Featuring 6 plays in The FINALS, Saturday, May 26th at 12pm, alongside 2 full-length Premieres at Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios (244 W. 54th St., btw Broadway and 8th Aves) Friday, May 25th, Saturday, May 26th & Sunday, May 27, 2018

For Tickets and Information Visit TheRiantTheatre.com

The Riant Theatre's Strawberry One-Act Festival presents The Finals on Saturday, May 26th at 12pm. Our INDUSTRY JUDGES, which include: Margaret Emory, Agent from SW Artists, Ellyn Long-Marshall, Casting Director from the Orpheus Group Casting, Count Stovall, Actor (Broadway, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF) and Michael McDavid, Theatre Producer and Educator (The McCarter Theatre Center) will select the BEST PLAY of the Season. Six plays will perform at the FINALS and the TOP 4 plays will perform at the Awards Show on Sunday, May 27th at 5pm. The winner of the BEST PLAY AWARD will receive a grant and a development deal to have a full-length play produced by the Riant Theatre. Awards will also be presented for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Costume Design and Best Video Diary. All performances are at Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street, 12th Fl, NYC. For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/index.php?n=strawberry_one-act_festival)

To Submit a Play for the next festival email us for an application at RiantTheatre@gmail.com

The Finals: Saturday, May 26th at 12:00 pm

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THE GOOD SEEDS By Lauren Andrews
Featuring: Marissa M. Miller & Jonathan Hudson
A thought-provoking yet humorous insight into married life and the modern age.

STEVE by Ian Eaton
Featuring: Ian Eaton
After a tragic blow to his family, a young boy must determine if he should deal with a bully the easy way or the hard way.

MARTIN'S TRUTH by Victor Vauban Jr.
Featuring: Xavier Michaels, Janet Conroy-Quirk, Duke Williams & Valery Vincent
Human beings are in constant pursuit of happiness, acceptance, guidance and above all, love. It couldn't be different for Martin, a young African-American man who never had access in some commodities many take for granted. The pursuit of his truth will lead him down unpredictable paths when he finds himself running with the big dogs.

INTERVENTION INTENTION by Nancie Pacheco
Is your relationship strong enough to withstand scrutiny by the closest people in your lives? Could it pass the test of an intervention?

IT'S NOT STAMPED ON YOUR FOREHEAD by Natasha Cobb

Featuring: Glenda 'ToniSteelz' Martinez and Tinuke Adetunji
Struggling to come to terms with her bipolar diagnosis, a young woman pushes her therapist to a point of no return.

RESERVATIONS FOR DINNER by Sean O'Leary
Featuring: Melissa Capista, Maggie Champagne & Tony White
I thought trophy wives were supposed to be 20 years younger.

At Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street, 12th Floor, NYC. Between 7th & 8th Avenue. Tickets are $30 Online and $32 Cash Only at the Box Office. For Tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/index.php?n=strawberry_one-act_festival Box Office: 646-623-3488

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Also featured in the Strawberry One-Act Festival are:

- FOR A LIFE

By Cody Buser

Directed by Phil Setren
Fri, May 25th at 8:30pm / Sat, May 26th at 5pm
Tickets: $25 Online, $27 at the Box Office
For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/item.php?id=416

In a world where life is the greatest commodity, what can be fabricated and what holds true to being human? When Adam - an artificial human - begins to question his creation, and what is real versus unreal when it comes to being human, Janet - his Proprietor - struggles to answer his questions while hiding the true motive behind his creation: her mortality.

Playwright Cody Buser's plays include: For a Life, Let's Dig Up Dad!, How to be a Successful Super Villain, Remission, and Crazy in Love. Cody's work has been produced at Sebsi Studios in Saugerties NY, as well as at the Hudson Guild Theater in Chelsea NY as part of the 2016 and 2017 NY Summerfests. In 2017 Cody founded Second to the Right Productions, in continuation of producing new works. Cody earned his B.A. in Creative Writing at SUNY New Paltz where his work was published in the school's annual Stonesthrow Review Literary Journal.

- CHILDREN ARE FOREVER: ALL SALES ARE FINAL
By Julia Jackson
Directed by Laurence C. Schwartz
Fri, May 25th at 6:00 pm / Sat, May 26th at 7pm
Tickets: $25 Online, $27 at the Box Office
For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/item.php?id=417

A mixed-race lesbian couple trying to adopt a baby - what could go wrong? Take the rollercoaster ride of adoption in this unvarnished look at the adoption industry, that is both hilarious and ...?

Playwright Julia Jackson is a comedienne and solo artist known for her biting social commentary, as well as actually biting audience members from time to time. This rising comedy star has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and was a Semi-Finalist in the San Francisco International Comedy Competition. Her solo performance piece CHILDREN ARE FOREVER: ALL SALES ARE FINAL won the Best Non-Fiction Show Award at the 2016 United Solo Festival in New York City, and was published in the 2016 "Plays and Playwrights" by Indie Theatre Now. Julia has worked with Robin Dana Carvey and Paul Mooney, and appeared in the film Some Prefer Cake.

Strawberry Festival actor alumni include Academy Award-nominees Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and Chazz Palminteri (Bullets Over Broadway, A Bronx Tale), Golden Globe Award-winner Ving Rhames ("Don King: Only in America," Bringing Out the Dead, Mission Impossible), Ato Essandoh (Jason Bourne, HBO's "Vinyl," "Elementary"), and Chance Kelly (American Sniper, NBC's "Aquarius").

"Independently created and presented theatre, once a vital part of this city's cultural landscape, is sadly becoming increasingly rare in the current economic and political environment. I am honored, through The Riant Theatre's Strawberry One-Act Festival, to continue providing an opportunity for playwrights, actors, singers, directors and designers the opportunity to create vital new work," says Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director.

The Riant Theatre (formerly The Black Experimental Theatre) was founded by Van Dirk Fisher in 1979 as a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a nurturing environment to develop new plays and outstanding artists - particularly for the African-American Playwrights facing limited access to resources for developing and presenting their work. Through the years, the company has extended its mission of furthering the understanding between the races by celebrating diversity through theatre. By 1991, the theatre company expanded to a loft in Tribeca and was renamed The Riant (which means 'merriment and laughter' in French). Since 1995, The Riant Theatre has been producing and presenting THE STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT FESTIVAL (now often presented twice a year -- in February/March and July/August). Its current programs also include The Core Project, an ongoing intensive workshop for writers, directors and actors to develop new plays and present them in stage readings; New Play Reading Series, in which plays are read before an invited audience and followed by a question and answer session with the playwright and artists; and the Musical Theatre Workshop, for students, in which they learn Broadway, gospel and classical style songs under the guidance of theatre professionals and work on scenes and choreography that will lead to a performance. The Riant Theatre also has a strong Youth Mentoring Program, which provides internships for teenagers and college students interested in the arts. This unique organization has grown to become a place where artists - singers, writers, actors, directors, musicians, and visual artists - can come together to collaborate on new works and share ideas. For his accomplishments with The Riant Theatre, Van Dirk Fisher received the 2009 AUDELCO Special Achievement Award. Visit www.therianttheatre.com.

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