Ricardo Melendez' ANGEL ON EROS To Premiere At The 2023 Fresh Fruit Festival

A 2023 Fresh Fruit Festival Featured Theatre & Fine Art New York Premiere Event: Ricardo Melendez' Angel on Eros asks "what price are they willing to pay to satisfy their yearnings?"

LIMITED RUN: April 28 @ 6:30 p.m., April 29 @ 3:30 p.m., April 30 @ 7:30 p.m. and for the 13th year in a row, the festival will take place at The Wild Project, 195 E 3rd St, New York City.

Angel is a 40-something gay painter experiencing "painter's block;'' Matt is a young, married restaurateur discouraged with the boredom of his day-to-day routine. The two men develop a friendship as they search for an escape from their present circumstances. Angel finds an unexpected muse on Matt. Matt is straight so no problem... right? Matt becomes enamored by the image Angel created. Angel is fixated on his newfound inspiration. Matt is flattered by the attention. When sex becomes a transaction, can friendship survive?

Angel on Eros offers a view into the transactional nature of human interactions. Framed inside the business of fine art, this play journeys into a world of human disillusion, self-discovery, and acceptance. Angel on Eros explores homosexuality - from the vantage point of the evolving sexual identity of the second generation of the 21st Century.

The play features artwork by Spanish painter, Javier Trelis Sempere, whose work will be incorporated into the play's narrative and whose images grace the production's promotional material, Angel on Eros delves into the nature of interpersonal relationship amongst men, and the humanity at times veiled behind the beauty of art.

Ricardo Melendez (playwright/ actor- Angel)is the founder and producing director for Actors' Workshop of Virginia as well as Artistic Director of Virginia Ballet Theater and Associate Artistic Director of Todd Rosenlieb Dance in Norfolk VA. A member of Actors' Equity, Ricardo has performed both nationally and internationally and was awarded the Micheál Mac Liammóir award for best performance at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival for his interpretation of Nijinsky in Norman Allen's one man play Nijinsky's Last Dance. Most recently Mr. Melendez was awarded a Meritorious Achievement Award for Excellence in Performance from the Kennedy Center ACTF for his performance in WORKING, the musical. As a playwright some of his works include: CLOAKED, nominated for best writing at the International Dublin Gay Theater Festival and CALL ME BORICUA, a one-man play produced across the continental USA. Other works include MY DORIAN, commissioned for the Old Dominion University Theater Department and PAPER CRANES produced at the Governor's School for The Arts in Virginia. Mr. Melendez is an Adjunct Professor at Old Dominion University and a proud teaching artist at both the Dance and Theatre & Film departments at The Governor's School of the Arts.

Established in 1991, All Out Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit devoted to bringing together the diverse artistic, organizational, political and financial resources of the LGBTQ community in order to fight intolerance. All Out Arts fulfills its mission by supporting arts organizations within the community through fiscal sponsorship, events, contests, collaborations, networking events for emerging artists, and by sponsoring productions, concerts and exhibitions of visual arts. We confront homophobia through the humanizing influence of the arts, and the Fresh Fruit Festival is the primary expression of the All Out Arts mission.

The Fresh Fruit Festival was the creation of two long established LGBT community arts groups: New Village Productions: and All Out Arts. Now the festival is presented by All Out Arts to celebrate the LGBTQ community's unique perspective, creativity & diversity - local, national, and international - and as of two years ago - on stage, on film, and on the air.