The Riant Theatre Kicks Off 2014 STRAWBERRY ONE-ACT FESTIVAL Today

The Riant Theatre under the direction of Artistic Director Van Dirk Fisher, has announced its 26th Anniversary season lineup for the Strawberry One-Act Festival, which consists of 21 new one-acts and 3 full length plays that will run today, August 20th -- August 31st at the Theatre at St. Clement's, 423 West 46th St.

The 23 one acts will run in rep with 3 Full-Length plays. Among them, Code Of Silence, by Van Dirk Fisher, which was inspired by the infamous 1997 case that ignited outrage in the Bronx, in which NY Police Officer, Frank Livoti was indicted for using excess force and killing a teenager by putting him in an illegal choke hold, after the teenager's football bounced off a patrol car.

The Riant Theatre Company's Strawberry One-Act Festival began in 1995 as a competition to help one emerging playwright secure a development deal and develop a full-length play. The event in its entirety, is a competition in which the audience and invited industry judges cast their votes to select the best play of the season. Twice annually, hundreds of plays from across the country are submitted for the competition. Plays move from the 1st Round to the Semi-Finals and then the Finals. The playwright of the winning play receives a $1,500.00 grant and the opportunity to have a full-length play developed by the Riant Theatre Company. Awards are presented for Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.

The Award Ceremony & Performance will be on Sunday, August 31st at 7:30pm. In addition, some of the plays in the festival will be selected for publication in The Riant Theatre Company anthology: The Best Plays From The Strawberry One-Act Festival: Volume 9.

Tickets to the first Round of the Strawberry One-Act Festival (Series A-F) are $25 online & $27 at the Box Office.

Series A: August 23, 2014 at 1pm

POP GOES THE WEASEL by Nader Valian
Producers: Alfred Jarry Troupe
Have you FOUND it yet? Does it ever change for you?

LIKE A LADY by Jorge Franco IV
Directed by Chauncey Alan
Featuring: Paul Lemonier, Eloise Edwards & Alexandre Lemonier
The formative exchange between a displaced journalist and a woman of London's Underground.
What happens when we, too, fall through the cracks?

SINS by Cara Hall
What if love was the greatest sin of all?

Series B: August 23, 2014 at 3pm

LUNCH by Michael Shames
Directed by Ian Ogden
A comedic short play about a man's "lunch" with an unexpected visitor that his notions of love, time, space, fashion, the laws of physics, trust, marriage and self-identity.

IMITATING LIFE by Luke Younger
Two brothers attempt to reconcile at their father's funeral. What happens next will change their lives forever.

AND BABY MAKES THREE by Rick Charles Mueller
A young man with turrets is suddenly reunited with the woman who killed his father.

THE ESCAPE ARTIST by Carrie Boehm
Directed by Cihangir Duman
Featuring: Jacob Henkoff & Andy Philips
PET Productions
Following the death of a small town magician, his sons come together to say goodbye and discover the true magical legacy he left them.

Series C: August 24, 2014 at 5pm

GOING UP? By Lucy Blood
Directed by Rosemary Melanson Mijal
A business man with issues, trying to get to an important meeting, gets trapped in a NYC elevator on the 25th floor with two women. Survival instincts kick in with a hilarious outcome in GOING UP?

CHINESE WHISPERS by Robert P. Convertino
Directed by Abigail Zealey Bess
There is no truth. There is only the truth within each moment.

SPERM by Justin Johnson
It only takes a kiss.

Series D: August 24, 2014 at 2pm

DO NOT CALL LIST by Laryssa Wirstiuk
A playful yet critical meditation on romantic relationships as they might be in the not-so-distant digital future.

ALVEOLI (BABY'S BREATH) by Jeana Scotti
Life in your twenties can be hard as it is, dealing with college loans, relationships and in Beatrice's case, having a baby develop inside of her lung.

BAILEY'S PRAIRIE, TX by Pedro De Leon
Turmoil erupts when an interrogation in a local Deputy Office in small town Texas is interrupted by a mysterious stranger.

Series E: August 24, 2014 at 4pm

OUR SONG by Jon Saks
Is it possible to delete someone out of your life in 2014?

STRANGER WITH A GUN by Joseph Lizardi
What could happen when love reincarnates itself?

A DREAM CALLED OCEAN by Valorie Kissel
Directed by Kai Hsiang Tu
In the words of John Lennon, "A dream you dream alone is just a dream. A dream you dream together is reality."

THE OUTING by Afrika Brown
Directed by Luis Reyes Cardenas
Featuring: Stone, Hubbard, Chablis Quarterman, Eileen Ryckman, Iman Ward, Natalie Biriel, Sean Anthony, Bryant L. Lewis, Jamej Lawton

What's the "T"? What is truth? Everyone knows what the truth is, but when the truth is revealed...how easy is it to accept?

Series F: August 24, 2014 at 9pm

FREAK by Chelsea Cohen
After their son opens fire on his classmates, David and Grace are left to pick up the pieces and ask what's next.

SILVERLIGHT by DeKunle
While working the graveyard shift at Stephens College,
two janitors begin an interesting conversation about sex,
relationships, and everything in between.

PALOOKAS by Damien Roos
Directed by Heather Arnson
A humble young fighter sells his soul for a knockout punch.

WIFE #5 by Ellen Orchid
Directed by Eddie Lew
Featuring Ellen Orchid & Samantha Midler
Be careful what you wish for.

THE RAVEN DOESN'T TALK by Michael Perrie Jr.
Directed by Lacy Reily
Him & Her Theatre Co.
On a March night in 1842, Edgar Allan Poe meets Charles Dickens in a quiet Philadelphia Bar. What we don't know is what they said, what they did and what really happened in that bar? One incredible meeting between two literary greats in their prime, slowly becomes a fantastical, dark and comedic adventure of what's real and what isn't, that would change the course of their lives forever.

ON THE ROCKS by Julie Richardson
Directed by Heather Arnson
Family reunions can be hell. Two sisters discover that the older the wound the more painful the uncovering with unexpected results.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.therianttheatre.com/index.php?n=buy_tickets or at the box office 30 minutes prior to each performance.