Congratulations.
The jury & the voters have spoken.

About this Project

The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen is a "play" by Performance Thanatology that premiered at the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in New York in August 2009 and was restaged at The LOFT in Baltimore in October.

In this installment of Performance Thanatology’s ongoing research in death and performance, a solitary figure performs all his old songs and dances despite the loss of his partner, the loss of his dancing shoes, and the loss of his teeth. Somewhere between Krapp’s Last Tape and Artaud’s Spurt of Blood, this is what really became of vaudeville.

If you like theatre, you will at least recognize this piece as being like theatre. It has many of the same characteristics, like music, dramatic acting, a constant threatening hum, a woman that will stare at you until you feel old, and AMAZING STUNTS of LOSS LOSS LOSS!

The Performance Thanatology is a group of artists dedicated to the advancement of a higher histrionics brought on by imminent finalities. The work of the group is gone about with great fear. Fear of death and all of its entropically related phenomena motivates the group to present themselves in an exhibition of interdisciplinary hysterics. For more info on Performance Thanatology: www.ricroyer.com

Note: This piece was originally performed in NY as a double bill with the Baltimore-based theatre company, The Missoula Oblongata. Their play was also called The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen. They are two different pieces, and this piece is not that piece.

This Performance Thanatology piece created by Ric Royer, G. Lucas Crane, Bonnie Jones, Chrissy Ferrera, David Crandall and Jackie Milad.
[photo attached, credit Yi Zhao. more photos here: http://www.yi-zhao.com/439]

About this Project

She Saw Ghosts He Saw Bodies consists of two short stories about such essentials as sleep, death and sex. The piece began as a writing exercise adopted during a mysterious bout with insomnia in the summer/fall of 2007. I was finally rejoined with sleep soon after beginning this text, which I eventually picked back up and finished (at least to this point) in the fall of 2008.
I perform this piece either solo or with Temple Crocker. Listen to it either at the link below or on the baker site.
http://ricroyer.com/ghostsbodies.htm

About this Project

There Were One...
by Ric Royer
sound by John Berndt

There Were One and It Was Two; Annotated Artifacts from the Doubles Museum is a book that you can hear, a cd that you can read. It uses items borrowed from The Doubles Museum, curated by Canadian artists Jill Millings and Dr. Armand Rudge, to examine the double in its uncanny manifestations. Learn about Klaus the Two-Person, hear the lonely cries of lovers afraid of loving, feel the mist of the mysterious Gemini Fountain. Includes a booklet and cd designed to be read/listened to simultaneously.

The piece was originally conceived as a solo performance, and that performance toured in 2006/07 thanks in part to a grant from the Baltimore Office of Promotion of the Arts. Royer then translated the performance into a page-based piece, and collaborated with John Berndt who created an audio component to the book. Narrow House released the book/CD in June 2007.

There Were One is a poetic/critical combination of radio play and lecture that eventually becomes haunted by itself in an endless process of doubling.

About this Project

Ric Royer and G Lucas Crane offer their take on the radio ghost story and other dramatic frights that combine spoken narrative and audio terrors. Royer and Crane take the art of the scary story to new dimensions and extremes as they mix Royer's surreal tales of the darkly humorous macabre with Crane's intensely terrifying soundscapes.
This special release comes in a box printed by Baltimore artist Erin Womack and includes other super scary secret inserts.

Original artwork by Erin Womack.
Comes boxed with silkscreened bat and creepy picture cards also by Erin Womack.

About this Project

It is a play, a musical composition, an installation, a lecture and a book about what's up.
Learn thousands of behavioral strategies for dealing with a future where all methods of prediction have become futile! Expect Overwhelmingness, Underwhelmingness, and Death. 2008!

About this Project

Ensemble performance piece with Bonnie Jones, Jackie Milad, G Lucas Crane, Lauren Bender, Dan Breen and Paige Shuttleworth. Performed at Ontological Hysteric Theatre, DC Arts Center, and Baltimore Theatre Project.
Hystery of Heat is a piece about heat, love, death, hysteria and the dangers of rock and roll.

About this Project

First, take a look at these fellas. I hope you find this project easy and pleasant. I sometimes spend a few minutes of my day searching for common male forenames on Google images. Like "Tim" for example, "Doug" or "Phil". I take one from the first page of results and give them a story. This is what men are made of.
This is just a bit of an appetizer, look at the rest of my projects. It gets darker and richer, like my favorite chocolates!

About this Project

The music and ritualistic dark trauma performance research sound of Ric Royer and G Lucas Crane together.