"The Prophet" Play on Nat Turner Slave Rebellion is a Finalist at Riant Strawberry One-Act Festival

NEW YORK - Aug. 24, 2015 - PRLog -- “The Prophet,” a tale about Nat Turner’s historic slave rebellion, is a top four finalist for Best Play at the Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival Awards Ceremony & Performance on Monday, August 24 at 7:30pm at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street.

Over 30 short plays have been competing for  Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Video Diary at the 28^th Season of the Strawberry One-Act Festival at Harlem’s Tato Laviera Theatre and Poet’s Den Theatre from
August 5 – 23.

“The performances have been extraordinary. Audiences have been voting in the theatre and On Demand.  This has been a festival filled with exciting and exceptionally produced productions from mainstream to multicultural to LGBT,” said Van Dirk Fisher, founder and artistic director of the Riant Theatre and Strawberry One-Act Festival.  “It’s been an amazing experience being part of the Harlem cultural scene.  Art is thriving in Harlem. Bringing one of the most renowned play festivals to Harlem was a natural progression.”

“The Prophet” is a 30 minute play, written by Lewis Payton Jr. and directed by Laurence Schwartz, takes place in South Hampton, Virginia in 1831.  Nat Turner, America’s most famous insurrectionists, has led a slavery rebellion that killed over 60 white citizens. In his death cell, Turner, portrayed by Issac Dean, meets with a white lawyer named Thomas R. Gray, played by Harrison Lubel, who has been sent to document his confession.

“Over the course of the play, these two men weave together a confession ladled with religious imagery and violent acts, detailing the events of Nat’s crime, ultimately realizing that they have more in common than they think,” said Payton.” I am fascinated with what makes people tick, especially those who chose to make decisions that affect the world, and chose to use whatever means necessary to make the world see injustice, no matter how heinous the crime or action may be perceived. This is truly frightening, and I like to go to that place, where we all go, but dare to admit.”

While studying at the Columbia University Graduate School of Film, Payton, who hails from Texas, directed his 1994 awarding-winning short film “Slowest Car in Town.”  This film earned a Roger Corman Award and was called “The best of the Public Theater’s Young Black Cinema” by The Village Voice.  Payton also directed and produced a HBO/Cinemax commercial and several of his short films have screened at Sundance. He adapted and directed a stage reading for Walter Mosley’s book “Gone Fishin’” and has worked with playwrights Richard Wesley, Karen Hartman and Lynn Nottage. “The Sky is Crying” is the first of a trilogy of dramas set in Waco, Texas. His western screenplay “Rough Riders” was at the Sundance Screenwriting Laboratory finals twice. Presently, Payton teaches English and also tutors Harlem’s youth.

The other 30 minute finalists plays competing include stories on ghosts, priests and horror.  In “Forgive Me, Brother” A small time gambler dying of cancer asked his alienated brother, a priest, to help him die. “Casper the Not So Friendly Ghost” is a comedy about slackerspirit that’s haunting a home owned by a newlywed couple. “Poor, Poor Eleanor” has horror facing poor Eleanor as she sits down to dinner with her husband.

The Strawberry One-Act Festival judges are from the literary and casting fields. Alexis Williams is a literary agent with Bret Adams Ltd who works with playwrights. Maria E. Nelson and Ellyn Marshall, founding partners of Orpheus Group Casting, specialize in theater, film and television production. Orpheus’ casting credits include Michelle Rodriguez in “Girlfight” and America Ferrera in “Real Women Have Curves.”

This year, the festival is also presenting five full-length plays. Fisher has produced over 1,500 one act plays at the Strawberry One-Act Festival, which was established in 1995. Under Fisher’s direction, seven anthologies of The Best Plays from the Strawberry One-Act Festival have been published. Several of the plays have gone on to be produced at college and regional theaters. The Strawberry One-Act Festival has been called “The American Idol for Playwrights” by the New York Daily News.

Tickets are $35.00 - $45.00.  For tickets call the Box Office at 212-864-5400 or go to http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/8862/Theatre/awards-performance-strawberry-one-act-festival.  For more information on the Strawberry One-Act Festival’s 28^th Season, please check out the website at www.therianttheatre.com or 646-623- 3488.