ERIK Set for FRIGID New York, Now thru 3/8

This Winter, Rising Sun Performance Company will be presenting ERIK, directed by Jerrod Bogard, as part of the FRIGID New York. The Festival will take place tonight, February 19th through March 8th at the Kraine & Under St Marks Theatres.

A darkly poetic satire of Phantom of the Opera as seen through the iron bars of a carnival freak-show cage. With puppets more twisted than a melodrama mustache (and twice as greasy), ERIK points and laughs at the real freak show- us.

Coming off their critically acclaimed, award winning production of DONKEY at Planet Connections Theatre Festival last year, frequent collaborators Rising Sun Performance Company & John Patrick Bray return with the world premiere of Bray's latest work "ERIK". Originally developed through readings with End Times Productions and Rising Sun Performance Company, Jerrod Bogard continues on with the project as director.

ERIK will feature the talents of RSP's award winning ensemble and guest artists Bryn Packard, Chris Behan, Destiny Shegstad, Kervin Peralta, Matt Pepitone, Montana Lampert Hoover, Samantha DeSimone & Yair Ben-Dor. The Creative Team of ERIK includes Jak Prince who received rave reviews for his design of the 2010 smash hit "Last Supper" and won Outstanding Set Design for "DONKEY" at Planet Connections Theatre Festival, Sound Design by Ian Wherle (BUG w/ RSP) , and Costume Design by Antonio Consuegra. With collaborative and custom devised Puppetry creations by Kervin Peralta (Puppeteer at the Swedish Marionette Cottage), Jerrod Bogard (World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague, Czech Republic) and Broderick Ballantyne (NYC Based Shadow Puppeteer), they will combine a multitude of puppetry from different styles & genres to add a special twist to the sideshow mayhem of "Erik".

From the original novel to the Lon Chaney silent film, to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and countless iterations in between, the characters of Leroux' novel have been twisted and turned like the sewer tunnels beneath a Paris Opera House. Playwright John Patrick Bray explores the story from the vantage of a youth, beauty, image-obsessed 21st Century. With the moral ambiguity of a carnival side-show, he uses this terrific adventure/thriller/love story to celebrate the hick-ups, hang-ups and double standards we've simply stuck up on our cultural shelf.
ERIK Plays the following Performance Schedule as a part FRIGD NEW YORK:
Thurs, Feb 19th @ 10:30 PM
Sat, Feb 21st @ 6:40 PM
Thurs, Feb 26th @ 8:50 PM
Sat, Feb 28th @ 5:00 PM
Sun, March 8th @ 1:50 PM

Tickets are $10-$16 and available online at or at the Door.

Additional information & Tickets can be found online at
www.frigidnewyork.info & www.risingsunnyc.com