Photo Flash: The Riot Group's World Premiere of SOPHIE GETS THE HORNS Begins Previews Tonight, 5/4

The Riot Group presents the World Premiere of Sophie Gets the Horns, written by Adriano Shaplin (Edinburgh Fringe First Award winner) and directed by Rebecca Wright. Sophie Gets the Horns runs from May 4 - 20, 2012 in a limited engagement at the Incubator Arts Project, located at 131 East 10th Street at 2nd Avenue in New York City. Previews begin tonight, May 4 for a May 5 opening. See photos from the production below!

Performances are Thursdays - Sundays at 8pm and Tuesdays at 8pm. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at http://www.TheRiotGroup.com, http://www.IncubatorArts.org or by calling 1-866-811-4111. The running time is 85 minutes with no intermission. The theater is accessible from the L train to 1st Ave, N, R to 8th St, or #6 to Astor Place. For more information on the play visit http://www.TheRiotGroup.com.

Sophie Gets the Horns is a play about young artists, fatal rivalries, sexual warfare and suicidal depression. Set in the mid-‘90s at an elite liberal arts college, Sophie Gets the Horns tells the story of a collision between four students and a young professor and an event that changes all their lives. At once autobiographical and fantastical, Sophie Gets the Horns explores hallucinogenic mischief, the anxiety of influence, sexual experimentation and the ghost of Sylvia Plath. The play is The Riot Group's tenth full-length work and is inspired, in part, by real events surrounding the formation of the company.

The cast includes Kristen Bailey, Drew Friedman, Adriano Shaplin, Mary Tuomanen and Stephanie Viola.

The design team includes Caitlin Lainoff (Set Design), Maria Shaplin (Lighting Design), Adriano Shaplin (Sound Design) and Katherine Fritz (Costume Consultant). Bayla Rubin is the Production Stage Manager.

Adriano Shaplin is a playwright who has written for The Riot Group, Pig Iron Theatre Company (Obie Award-winning Hell Meets Henry Halfway), the Royal Shakespeare Company and New Paradise Laboratories. He is the author of ten plays including: Freedom Club, Victory at the Dirt Palace, Hell Meets Henry Halfway, The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes, Pugilist Specialist and Wreck the Airline Barrier. His plays have been performed at The Ohio Theatre, The Culture Project, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Magic Theatre in San Francisco, Walker Arts Center, the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, the ARCHES in Glasgow, and Off West-end at Riverside Studios and the Soho Theatre in London. Shaplin is a four-time recipient of the Edinburgh Fringe First Award and was the first International Playwright in Residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company (2006-2008). His plays are published by Oberon Books and have been produced internationally in Greece, Austria, Denmark, The Netherlands, Brazil and Australia. Shaplin was born and raised in Burlington, Vermont and now divides his time between New York and Philadelphia.

Rebecca Wright is a director and dramaturg. She has developed work with Philadelphia-based performers for First Person Arts, Micro-Fest Philadelphia and SoLow Festival. Wright has directed and dramaturged at PlayPenn Development Conference and at the Lark Play Development Center. Other directing credits include A. Zell Williams' In A Daughter's Eyes at InterAct Theatre Company and Jacqueline Pardue Goldfinger's Slip/Shot at Flashpoint. Wright is a co-founder of Applied Mechanics, with whom she has directed seven collaboratively created projects: Selkie: A Home-Made Play, It's Hard Times at the Camera Blanca, Pie and Pioneers, Ses Voyages Sauvages, Portmanteau, which toured to FronteraFest in Austin, TX, Actors Theatre of Louisville and various locations in New England, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival hit Overseers, and, most recently, the 26-person historical fantasia Vainglorious: The Epic Feats of Notable Persons in Europe After the Revolution. She is the recipient of a 2012 Independence Fellowship in the Arts. Wright holds a BA in Theatre and English from the University of Michigan and an MA in Performance and Culture from the University of London.

The Riot Group formed in 1997 at Sarah Lawrence College and have been creating new work together for 15 years. They have performed at The Ohio Theatre, The Culture Project, Walker Arts Center, The Magic Theatre, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Theater Der Welt Festival, Riverside Studios, Soho Theatre (London), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and over 20 cities throughout the United Kingdom. They have been artists-in-residence at Princeton University (Toni Morrison's Atelier), Drexel University, Swarthmore College and the Flynn Center. The Riot Group is Adriano Shaplin, Stephanie Viola, Drew Friedman, Paul Schnabel and Maria Shaplin. They have collaborated with members of Collapsible Giraffe, Pig Iron Theatre Company, New Paradise Laboratories, the T.E.A.M. and Applied Mechanics.

Photo credit: Zack Lane

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