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About Ric

Baltimore City - Bromo Tower Arts District
Ric Royer is a writer, performer, performer of writings and writer of performances.
Ric is the founder and Artistic Director of the Psychic Readings Co, a performance collective that has entertained, frightened, and confused audiences with their interdisciplinary hysterics since 1999. The company has produced their strange brand of challenging and original theatre work which has been staged at various venues in the U.S. and Europe, including the Ontological-Hysteric… more
View Ric's Resume
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The Fête of Mistakes; A Sublimated Sideshow of Everyday Brutality and Sweets

In The Fête of Mistakes, Psychic Readings Co constructs an abstract fairground littered with the overwhelmingness of despair and the sustained tension of hopefulness.
It’s never really made clear, but I think the play takes place in Niagara Falls: the city so depressed it jumped over...itself. Beneath Niagara Falls hides the Cave of the Winds, the humbug attraction that blows life into the lungs of the greatest sideshow of lies called The Fête of Mistakes! It’s a love/horror story about exploitation. Or rather, a musical about the insidiousness of capitalism. Get in line to taste the sugary goodness of the American Dream! [Note: the play ends in a gruesome demolition derby where everyone dies]
Fête, written and directed by Ric Royer, has been presented three times: Ontological Hysteric Theatre (NYC, 2012), Silent Barn (NYC 2014) and Le Mondo (Baltimore, 2016)
Set design: Xander Marro and Emma Reaves
Sound design: G Lucas Crane

  • Ric rejects the treat
    Ric rejects the treat
    Ric is tempted by a sweet sweet zeppole. photo by Grace Hoellander
  • Dance of the Long Armed Lady
    Dance of the Long Armed Lady
    Fiona Crowley as "The Long Armed Lady"
  • Cave Of The Winds by Ric Royer
    Song from The Fete of Mistakes. Written and performed by Ric Royer
  • Fete intro
    Fete intro
    Ric Royer and G Lucas Crane. photo by Dave Iden.
  • Demo Derby begins
    Demo Derby begins
    Ric in the Fete of Mistakes Demolition Derby!
  • Ghost cars in the Demo Derby
    Ghost cars in the Demo Derby
    The glow-in-the-dark demo derby begins, pitting two lovers against each other in a head-to-head face-off!
  • Tragic ending
    Tragic ending
    The Long Armed Lady perishes! Better luck next time!
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    • Garbage, Death and the City of Baltimore

    A play inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Garbage, the City and Death”.
    Adapted and directed by Ric Royer.

    Named “Best Play” of 2015, City Paper Best of Baltimore
    This was the premier production at Psychic Readings, a performance space in the Bromo Arts District opened by the Psychic Readings Co in 2015. "Garbage" was inspired both by Fassbinder's play as well as the sci-fi novel Dhalgren, by Samuel Delaney. The play takes place in a futuristic Baltimore, where the city is found abandoned by those with the means of leaving. What is left behind are the presumed "problems" that are blamed for the city's downfall: the poor, the addicted, the pimps, prostitutes and criminals who build a new foundation for the broken metropolis. Just as the outcasts begin to rebuild their inherited land, those who had abandoned them - developers, speculators, predatory landlords and the people who protect them (police, government...) - return to reclaim "their" city after watching from afar. 
    This piece was performed before any renovations had occurred in our rented property at 219 Park Ave. Our set was the work of decades of neglect from the neglegent property owner. A year later, my outcast theatre collective has invested thousands of hours and dollars into the building. Some day, perhaps, a neglegent landlord, developer or the city itself, may come along and inherit "their" property too.

    • Garbage
      Garbage
      Michael Farley enjoys being waterboarded by Admiral Grey and co.
    • Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves
      Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves
      Admiral Grey and Nicollete LeFaye duet together
    • Ric Royer and Adam Endres
      Ric Royer and Adam Endres
      Cop and city official in a deep kiss
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