The Riant Theatre To Hold Cocktail Party To Celebrate It's 31st Season Of The Strawberry One-Act Festival

The Riant Theatre (Van Dirk Fisher, Artistic Director) -- the AUDELCO Award-winning nonprofit providing a nurturing developmental environment for playwrights and theatre creators of diverse cultural backgrounds - will hold an afternoon cocktail reception on Saturday, April 28th from 4:30 - 6:30 pm at Ripley Grier Studios, located at 520 Eighth Avenue, 16th Floor (btw 36th and 37th Streets).

A celebration of the upcoming 31st Season of The Strawberry One-Act Festival, the party will feature a screening of the festival's "Video Diaries" project. Proceeds from the event will benefit The Riant Theatre's Youth Empowerment Scholarship Awards, which provides valuable hands-on internships for teenagers and college students interested in the arts. The price of admission to the event is $25 - $35 ($25 if purchased before April 18th, $30 if purchased April 18th - April 27th, and $35 at the door on the Day of Event, April 28th. Tickets are on sale now through www.therianttheatre.com or by calling 646-623-3488.

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 was renamed The Riant (which means 'merriment and laughter' in French).

In addition to the theatre's Youth Empowerment Scholarship Awards program, The Riant's 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. 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.

Since 1995, The Riant Theatre has been producing and presenting THE STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT FESTIVAL. Reflecting the diversity written into the mission of its presenter, THE STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT FESTIVAL has produced over 1,500 one-act plays since it began in 1995.

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", "Chicago Med", and Netflix's "Altered Carbon"), Danielle Pinnock-Wallace ("Young Sheldon" & "Get Shorty") and Chance Kelly (American Sniper, NBC's "Aquarius").

THE STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT FESTIVAL will be presented at Theatre 54 @ Shetler's Studio (244 West 54th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue, NYC) Wednesday, May 16th through Sunday, May 27th, 2018. This spring's festival marks the 31st Season of The Riant Theatre's renowned short play competition, and also will feature the premieres of two full-length one-act plays.

Tickets for all performances during THE STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT FESTIVAL are priced as follows: General admission - $25 advance/$27 at the box office; Tickets to the FINALS - $30; Awards Show - $30 advance/$35 at the box office, May 27th. Tickets are on sale now through www.therianttheatre.com or by calling 646-623-3488. Festival Pass discount packages are also available upon request.

Visit: www.therianttheatre.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strawberryoneactfestival/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiantTheatre

The Strawberry Festival Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/strawberryoneactfestival

https://youtu.be/c7g4PsNP_TU