PERFORMANCE RIVERSIDE SIGNS PAUL DAVID BRYANT TO DIRECT AWARD WINNING MUSICAL RAGTIME

Performance Riverside opens its 2005-2006 season with the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime. This Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (Once on This Island, Seussical) masterpiece paints a powerful portrait of life in the United States in the early 1900s. Drawing on musical traditions ranging from Jewish folk to vaudeville to Joplin to jazz, Ragtime invokes the magic and spirit of Harlem at the turn of the century. In 1998, the show won the Tony Award for best score, best book, and best orchestration.

Building on its own tradition as the Inland Empire's premiere professional theater, Performance Riverside hired Ragtime veteran Paul David Bryant as director/choreographer. Bryant is intimately familiar with this great Broadway show, having toured with national companies as the Harlem male swing and dance captain, and worked as Broadway director Stafford Arima's associate. Under Arima's tutelage, Bryant mastered the intricacies of the show in the company of its original creative team of Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens, Frank Galati, and Graciela Daniele. This is Bryant's eighth time at the helm of Ragtime as director/choreographer.

Performance Riverside's production reunites Bryant with Musical Director Paul LeMaster. This dynamic creative duo last paired in the Moonlight Stage Productions' Smokey Joe's Cafe in 2003, which played to wide-spread acclaim. LeMaster is a favorite of Performance Riverside audiences, having musically guided last season's Grease and The Fantasticks, as well as the Rocky Horror Show and the 2004 Ovation Award winning show 1776 under former Performance Riverside producer/director Steven Glaudini. Ragtime continues that outstanding production quality, teaming these veterans with Equity actors and other talented musical theatre performers to give audiences a Broadway quality theatre experience.

Ragtime runs at the Landis Performing Arts Center in Riverside on September 16, 17, 23, and 24 at 8pm, September 17, 18, 24, and 25 at 2pm, and September 25 at 7pm. The Landis Center is located on the Riverside Community College campus at 4800 Magnolia Ave. Ticket prices are $35, $30, $25, and $20, and can be purchased through the Landis Box Office, 951-222-8100.