Rising Sun Performance Company Extends ERIK

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's Extended Performance Dates are:

Thursday March 19th 10:30 PM Thursday March 26th 10:30 PM

Tickets are $16 and available online at or at the Door.
Additional information & Tickets can be found online at
www.horsetrade.info & www.risingsunnyc.com

All performances will be at the The Kraine Theatre 85 E 4th St, Btw 2nd Ave & Bowery
Close to the 6 Train - Bleeker St Stop, N,R to Broadway/8th St, or F Train to 2nd Avenue

Run Time: 60 Minutes Categories/Themes: One Act Play, Satire, Puppetry, Social Status

Content: Adult language, Some Adult Content & Situations Mild Violence, Recommended for 16 and older John Patrick Bray (PhD, MFA) teaches at the University of Georgia. He has written plays under grants from The N.E.A., Acadiana Center for the Arts, and Acadiana C.A.R.E.S. in Louisiana. His plays have been developed with the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Axial Theatre, Actors Studio's Playwrights/Directors Workshop, The New School for Drama's Alumni Play Project, Epic Rep. Theatre at The Players' Club, Rose of Athens/No Shame Athens, Dramatists Guild's Friday Night Footlights-Atlanta Style, and The Platform Group; and produced Off-Off Broadway and in venues around the country. John is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. and a Resident Writer with Rising Sun Performance Company. johnpatrickbray.webs.com.