Use Your Words!

Use Your Words!

October 23rd ,30th

November 12th, 13th

Description:

Use Your Words! is a one-woman show—in five wordless scenes—about a new mother struggling with the responsibility of caring for a tiny human. The show is rooted in comic physicality with many props mimed—most importantly, the baby. Imagine The Play That Goes Wrong with a much smaller cast and no words and less murder. Maybe don’t imagine The Play That Goes Wrong at all. Let's elaborate: An unsuspecting trumpet player will be the onstage musician. Please don't tell them there's no speaking or singing in this production. Or that they’ll be onstage. Is this clear as mud? Please focus. This play developed out of Karen’s 18 years of performing as 1/2 of the duo Imp. This ground-breaking duo Imp improvised wordless scenes at festivals nationally and internationally. Imagine Charlie Chaplin mixed with Looney Tunes. Did we mention Karen did this for 18 YEARS? But this play, Use Your Words! IS NOT improvised. It’s a play. With a script. Weird since there are no words... Did we mention this show is wordless?

Artistic team:

Karen Eleanor Wight* - Producer, Playwright, Co-Director, Performer Zinc Tong - Co-Director Thomas J. Donohoe II - Stage Manager, Sound Technician Natasha Rotondaro - Lighting Design Ella Danyluk - Sound Design Andre Sguerra - Set Construction Melissa Attebery - Play Development, Prop Design, Set Design Karen Eleanor Wight - Costume Design, Prop Design, Set Design Photographer - Bjorn Bolinder *This Actor is appearing courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association This is an AEA Approved Showcase Code Production

*Please note that this performance will be presented at the Tank's in-person performance space at 312 W 36th St. All attendees and artists will be required to display proof of two doses of an approved covid vaccination before being admitted to the space. Patrons will also be required to wear masks while indoors at all times.

Macbeth: THE MATCH

Macbeth: THE MATCH

September : 29th, 30th at 9:30om

October : 1st at 7:00pm

Description

In the world of professional wrestling, violence is the key to success. But when rising star Macbeth takes fate into his own hands and steals the belt before his time, the curtains go up on a tragedy that has been seen before, but never like this. Using the language of wrestling this production cuts to the bare bones of what makes this classic tale great, and why it still resonates with us today. A story of revenge, love, passion, and violence that grips the heart. Can Brave Macbeth leave the ring with his title of King and triumph over fate itself? Or will the bell ring on his brief reign?

Creative team :

Avery Sedlacek- Director

Jaycie Buben- Assistant Director

Austin Huehn- Stage Manager

Richard Colley- Co fight Director

Tasha Berol- Co fight Director

Trigger warning : Violence

*Please note that this performance will be presented at the Tank's in-person performance space at 312 W 36th St. All attendees and artists will be required to have two doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine. Patrons will also be required to wear masks when not eating or drinking.

Outlook: Not So Good

Outlook: Not So Good

9/10,9/17,9/20 at 7:00pm

9/15/,9/16 at 9:30pm

Description

While trapped in an airport, an engaged couple is convinced that a meaningless mobile game, at a random cafe, in a decrepit airport, can predict their future. Or, perhaps it’s not a meaningless game, and instead an all knowing entity, warning them of their imminent death. “Outlook: Not So Good,” a new play, written by Dante Giannetta, is a meditation on free will versus determinism, and will leave you with a new outlook on life, if you’re careful.

Trigger warning :Airports, 9/11

Artistic Team

Dante Giannetta - Writer/Actor/Producer

Joseph Robert Redl - Director/Producer

Samantha Sayah - Actor/Producer

*Please note that this performance will be presented at the Tank's in-person performance space at 312 W 36th St. All attendees and artists will be required to have a covid vaccination before being admitted to the space. Patrons will also be required to wear masks, when not eating or drinking.

bouquet

bouquet

October 6th ,7th, 8th at 7:pm

October 11th at 7:00 pm

Creative team

Leah Plante-Wiener - Playwright

Eulàlia Comas - Director

Penzi Hill - Producer

Tess Walsh - Dramaturg

Sarah-Michele Guei - Lark

India Shea - Anhedonia

Jonathan Schatzberg - Scenic & Props Design

Autumn Muñoz - Lighting Design

Ella Danyluk - Sound Design

"Neuroscientists classify individuals as dandelions (resilient & able to thrive in a variety of environments), orchids (highly sensitive & reactive), or tulips, who exist somewhere in between. These outcomes are partially determined by epigenetics, the way in which our upbringing influences genetic expression. bouquet challenges the cast to examine the unique cultural & demographic experiences that have played formative roles in our development. Various permutations of dancers are matched with the intention of analyzing how our movement changes based on the similarity, or lack thereof, of our respective “flower profiles.” In this, we ask the audience to consider what their own flower might be, and how it feels to be a part of the greater meadow. "

*Please note that this performance will be presented at the Tank's in-person performance space at 312 W 36th St. All attendees and artists will be required to have two doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine. Patrons will also be required to wear masks when not eating or drinking.

Double Bill : What Have We Done?,Encounters of a Washed-Up World (A WIP showing)

What have we done

August 6, at 7pm

Creative team

Gwen Appenfeller :(Choreographer; Dancer)

Alexandra Bilodeau: (Dancer/Collaborator);

Alie Martin: (Lighting Design/Show Runner)

Human kinds overuse of plastic has caused the substance to consume Earth. What kind of creature can survive in this new landscape? Can anything survive? This piece expands on the creative practice of non-binary dance artist/choreographer Gwen Appenfeller. It was developed in collaboration with the dancers and designers, focusing on how humans interact with plastic throughout daily life as integral to the physical practice used to create this work. As well as physical studio practice, research about climate change and how these substances have shaped our world is vital to the ongoing creative practice

Content warning :Flashing Lights; Plastic Sounds

Encounters of a Washed-Up World (A WIP showing)

Creative team

Mercedes Hesselroth: (Actor/Writer)

Celeste Samson: (Actor/Writer)

Emma Chart :(Actor/Writer/Producer)

musings on a misbegotten present and predestination. the garbage continent spins and swirls. flooding cities, flooding trash, flooding your DM's. tomorrow and tmrw, but first: now?

*Please note that this performance will be presented at the Tank's in-person performance space at 312 W 36th St. All attendees and artists will be required to have a covid vaccination before being admitted to the space. Patrons will also be required to wear masks, when not eating or drinking.

Featured Artist: Kallan Dana

Kallan Dana is a writer and performer originally from Portland, Oregon. She is an alumna of the National Theater Institute and of Skidmore College, where she studied English & Theater. She has worked under Sarah Hughes, Julia May Jonas, Sue Kessler, & Sunita Prasad, and she was the 2020 intern for The JAM at New Georges. Favorite past credits include Julia May Jonas’s We Used to Wear Bonnets & Get High All the Time (assistant director, Skidmore College), The Five Lesbian Brothers’ The Secretaries (directed by Zoe Lesser), and RashDash’s Two Man Show (directed by Erica Schnitzer). She has worked with Permafrost Theatre Collective and The Tank. Her play, Playdate, was first developed in a commissioned workshop production (directed by Erica Schnitzer) at Dixon Place in September 2019. Her plays can be found on New Play Exchange here. 

An Excerpt From Plastic Play, by Kallan Dana 

(Read the full excerpt here)

Phoebe and Lia are covered in plastic (six-pack rings, single-use bags, Dasani and Nestle water bottles, etc.) The plastic covers their entire bodies and faces so that they look like trash monsters. We can see their mouths and maybe parts of their eyes. 

PHOEBE

I want you to know something. 

LIA

Yeah? PHOEBEPhew. Okay. Right. I really, really love you. 

LIA

Wow. 

PHOEBE

I know that might be weird to hear right now. So I’m sorry. 

LIA

No, no, no don’t apologize. I mean I, I love you too.Are you crying? 

PHOEBE

It’s just been so much time. I’ve wanted to tell you for so long. But I didn’t want to scare you off, or bring up past dregs and frighten you away. 

LIA

Hey, it’s okay. 

PHOEBE

I never once got over you. I never even came close to it. I lied to myself. And then I tried to preserve a connection between us, a friendship. You’re some sort of addictive serum. I know I sound absolutely raving. I’m a passionate person! And I just feel so much being close to you again, finally. After so many years. 

LIA

It’s okay, Phoebe. It’s okay. Don’t cry. 

PHOEBE 

I’m crying because I’m happy. I’m so in love with you it’s like there are rats eating my insides or boiling water burning my skin. Lia! Things are really serious right now. This matters. “Us” matters. I don’t want to get out of here and not have you know exactly how I feel. Okay?

LIA

Okay.

PHOEBE

And how I feel is that...I’ve tried to move on from you, I mean, God, you’ve watched me try to move on from you how many times? I’ve tried but still you’re etched into my consciousness. You always are. I’ve worked so hard to deny that to myself, to pretend that I don’t feel that. But it’s hopeless. I feel what I feel. I do want you. I think about you all the time. Even before now. For years. In my dreams, always you. When I was with Helen or Liza or Charlie or Peter or Mina or J.R. or Vincent or Elliana or Yolanda or Anna-Maria or Wanda or Pacey or Valentina, I would be happy but still have that moment, waking up with someone else’s arms around me, before I’d opened my eyes, when all I was doing was thinking of you. Oh, can I touch your hair? It meant so much to me to think that you might, secretly, in spite of what you’d said out loud to the contrary, that no matter how much you protested, you might still, deep-down, undeniably, want me. In. Your. Chest. In. Your. Temples. In. Your—continue reading here.

Featured Artist: Ivan Anderson

Ivan Anderson is a musician, comedian, and the inventor of EMAIL PRO, a long-running form of email-based performance art hosted by The Tank. Exeunt NYC described it as "almost surprisingly captivating" and included the weekly Email Pro livestream on its list of shows that successfully switched to online broadcasts at the beginning of nationwide quarantines in April 2020. Special guests on the Email Pro livestream have included the comedians Myq Kaplan, Liz Glazer, Chris Duffy, and Zahid Dewji. Ivan is also the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of NYC glitch-rock band Cyberattack, whose recent music video for "Fantasy Killer" was a winner or finalist in the New York Cinematography Awards, the Jersey Shore Film Festival, the Artists Forum Festival of the Moving Image, and the New York Movie Awards. Cyberattack's full-length debut album, Hard Feelings, is available on all major streaming platforms. 

Featured Artist: Deby Xiadani

Deby Xiadani (say it like, “shyeah-dawnee”) is an extroverted host with 30+ performances under her belt and a fitness instructor with 7 years of teaching experience, who enjoys blending humor and knowledge together. During quarantine, she began her own donation-based fitness platform, Buff Hussy, whose mission is making fitness and media accessible, informative, and entertaining as hell. Some examples of classes are Cardio Carbohydrates - where she teaches you the science of carbs while improving your cardiovascular health - and the Battle of Puebla - where you learn the French and Mexican Generals as you fight through an epic Cinco de Mayo workout. She hosts new fitness classes every M-F on Zoom at 8am. Food is not only delicious, but it is meaningful. Deby believes food is a portal on a plate into larger conversations like culture, socioeconomics, status, and religion. Eat and learn. Learn and eat. Her Mexican heritage has revealed some of the fervent discrimination that plagues society, and she reads studies on systemic racism in and out of the health-care sector daily. She is currently studying for the MCAT to apply to medical school and shake this system up. Read her latest piece, “Ode to an Onion”, below:

Tank Artist: Anthony Dean

More about Anthony at https://www.anthonydean.org/

Anthony is best known at The Tank as the Technical Manager, running around the theater, solving tech issues, hanging lights, and telling artists where to find things. Anthony has been with The Tank since the start of 2018, and while they could never leave The Tank fully, Anthony is stepping back to pursue an MFA in Sound Art. Anthony has brought their sound art to The Tank on multiple occasions as the creator of the Noise Playground electroacoustic improvisation series and as a sound designer for many Tank shows such as Birthday in The Bronx, When We Went Electronic, and In The Penal Colony. Anthony’s sound work can be heard elsewhere in theater, film, radio, art installations, and music ensembles at anthonydean.org. Anthony will be back at The Tank in many ways, to make sounds, answer artists' questions, and help make a greater environment for emerging artists.

If you have the means, and Anthony has helped you make and experience art, please consider pledging support for Native Roots Farm Foundation: https://www.nativerootsde.org/support

THE TANK WELCOMES: JOHNNY LLOYD

The Tank is SO EXCITED to welcome Johnny Lloyd as our newest member of the team! Wednesday July  Johnny's first day at The Tank as Director of Artistic Development! You can read more about Johnny's role in American Theatre. JOHNNY G. LLOYD is a New York-based writer, producer, and dramaturg. Full length plays include OR, AN ASTRONAUT PLAY (The Tank), PATIENCE (Corkscrew Theatre Festival), and IN THE WOODS WE RETURN (InVersion Theatre). Short plays include ROUND (Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival), A BRIEF HISTORY OF STAMPS (The Tank) and IT’S A GHOST STORY (Homebase Collective). His work has been seen and developed at JAG Productions (White River Junction, VT) 59E59, Dixon Place, Judson Memorial Church, The Kelly’s Writers House, TheatreLab (Boca Raton, FL), and more. Johnny was a member of the 2019-2020 Liberation Theatre Company’s Writing Residency. Johnny was a semi-finalist for the 2018 Open-Application Commission at Clubbed Thumb and was the 2017-2018 Shubert Fellow for Playwriting at Columbia University. Johnny is the producing director for InVersion Theatre and co-founder of the WE READ BOOKS series at The Tank. His work as a dramaturg and associate director has been seen at En Garde Arts, Abrons Arts Center, and more. Member of SalonSéance. MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. jglloyd.com

A note from Johnny about the following excerpt: "Below is a snippet of THE PROBLEM WITH MAGIC, IS:, which was developed with Liberation Theatre and at Jagfest 4.0. It's a play about a brother and sister who own a magic shop and accidentally call forth an immortal snake entity that is also, perhaps, their recently deceased mother. This is from the beginning of the second act as The Snake (otherwise known as The Voice in the Darkness) takes the stage to address the audience and impart a lesson that the other characters will soon find painfully clear. ("From THE PROBLEM WITH MAGIC, IS: by Johnny G. Lloyd) 

THE VOICE

I have a story. There was a time - this was in a country - And in this time there was land And on this land there were entities Which called each other people And they existed. And then different ones took the place of the ones already there And they existed as well, but the irony is that They did not ask to take the place of those who had existed before They simply took it And the ones who existed before knew this and were filled with Emotion And a funny thing happens when these people, the ones who existed after Became aware of these emotions. Because - they thought - We want to exist. Correct? That’s what we all want, is to exist. And so they justified themselves. They justified themselves by replacing history. They justified themselves by getting angry, by starting fights, wars They justified themselves by acknowledging those who had been there, before But saying, simply - what can we do? Where can we go? Where can we go where others do not exist? And this led to doubt which led to secrecy And secrecy led to grief and fracture. Fracture between those who had been there before And those who had been there after And fracture amongst and around and by as well. ...There was a river next to this land. A river of waterAnd one day, this river began to overflow And it overflowed most spectacularly And the people, who existed after, who had built on the riverbanks And taken the fields and chopped wood in the forest They learned the lesson they would have learned earlier If they had listened to the ones who came before Who would have warned them, because at one point the ones who came before Were the ones who came after, and they had learned this lesson as well: An entity being flooded Cannot choose whether or not To drown.

Artist Feature: Ayun Halliday

Ayun Halliday is a performer, playwright, and author of seven books, including No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late and the graphic novel, Peanut. As a member of the Neo-Futurists from 1989-1998, she wrote, directed and performed in over 500 short plays and several full-length solo performances. Longer works include The Mermaid’s Legs (The Tank, 2014), Fawnbook, Zamboni Godot, and NURSE (The Tank, 2018). Ayun co-founded Theater of the Apes with her husband Greg Kotis, and hosts its monthly book-based variety show Necromancers of the Public Domain. She directed Theater of the Apes' Sub-Adult Division in a stripped down, all teen production of Animal Farm at The Tank in 2017. Her most recent appearance at The Tank was as Miriam in the March 2020 world premiere of Greg Kotis's guitar driven musical, I AM NOBODY, directed by Meghan Finn. Ayun is the Chief Primatologist of the award winning, hand illustrated zine, The East Village Inky. Her next book, The Small Potato Manifesto, will be published by Microcosm in 2021.  ayunhalliday.com VENMO: @Ayun-Halliday

Artist Feature: Kev Berry

Kev Berry is a New York-based playwright, solo performance artist, and creator of Gay mythologies. His work, both as a writer and a performer, has been seen at The Tank, Joe's Pub, Feinstein’s/54 Below, 3-Legged Dog, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Judson Memorial Church, HERE Arts Center, New York Live Arts, the New Ohio Theatre, The Duplex, the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Dixon Place, The Brick Theater, Access Theater, Littlefield, The 9 Studios, Otto's Shrunken Head, The Cobra Club, Skidmore College, and across the harsh North Country of upstate New York. 

Kev is an Associate Artist at The Tank, the September 2018 Artist-in-Residence at Judson Memorial Church, a 2017 Artist-in-Residence with Fresh Ground Pepper, a January 2019 resident with Hot Bread, and the former Artistic Associate at 3LD. He is a member of the 2019-2020 INKubator Playwrights Cohort at Art House in Jersey City. Alongside his collaborative partner and director Alex Tobey, he is a Full Access Resident Artist with Access Theater. Kev serves as the curator and producer of the series Fast and Furious: Rapid Responses to Current Events at The Tank. His play Peter was a Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Award in 2019. His performance in Nadja Leonhard-Hooper and Dan Nuxoll’s Eat the Devil was hailed by the New York Times as “vehemently campy.”B.Sci. Theater, B.A. Gender Studies, Skidmore College. kevberry.com // @kevgoshdarn

Artist Feature: Ria T. DiLullo

Ria T. DiLullo is a New York-based theater artist, and the founder/artistic director of The Skeleton Rep(resents), a new works production company founded in 2015. The mission of The Skeleton Rep is, “to Explore Modern Myth with an emphasis on using what is available to us to tell the biggest story possible”. Since its founding, TSR has produced 10 shows, 2 short play festivals, dozens of salons and countless readings, all with Ria’s direction and heavy involvement in each stage of development. Many of these productions and developments have taken place at The Tank NYC and Primary Stages ESPA, where she has received residencies. In addition to her theater work, Ria has directed two short films while in quarantine - “Lunch: A Dilemma” and “Yellow,” both available on YouTube. 

Ria’s inspiration for TSR and exploring modern myth stems from her early loves of drama and ancient worlds, and her passion for being physical and present with the current moment. Ria studied Latin for 6 years, and graduated with a degree in American Civilization, with a focus on identity and representation.. When not exploring modern myth, she can be found teaching Pilates and Pilates-inspired fitness classes or caring for and learning about her indoor houseplants, including a dracaena she’s had since she was 5 years old.

Artist Feature: Mike Fracentese

Mike Fracentese is a queer poet, academic, and frequent dabbler based in (and from) Brooklyn. Currently laid off, he’s devoting more time to artistic pursuits than ever before. Mike is the founder and producer of the Flight Recorder Reading Series, a bi-monthly reading series focused on bringing emerging poets to The Tank. Since the start of quarantine, Mike has reworked his reading series into the Flight Simulator Remote Readings, a bi-weekly poetry livestream happening on Twitch under the CyberTank umbrella. He’s also launched Distance Yearning, an online lit mag and quaran-zine featuring work by dozens of writers and artists, which will be releasing new issues every week until quarantine ends. 

Mike is a founding member of the MulchHorse theater company.. In partnership with Tank operations manager Collin Knopp-Schwyn, he published “Challenges and Possibilities for Bisexual Picturebooks”, a scholarly article in the peer-reviewed Journal of Bisexuality in 2019. You’ll be able to find more information about Mike’s work and his frequent collaborations with Collin Knopp-Schwyn soon on mikeandcollin.com (currently under construction).

Artist Feature: Sammie James

Sammie James is a comedian & story teller from New Jersey; where she hosts and produces the podcast All Of My Friends Are Animals & the LGBT comedy show Queerly Comedic. Sammie also hosts the NYC Trans Variety show We Are Trans & shows & mics all over NJ, NYC, & Philadelphia. She has performed all over the country; including past appearances at Cinder Block Comedy Festival, Charm City Comedy Festival & Bechdel Test Fest. She is soon to be your favorite disabled, nerdy, butch trans woman in comedy.

Artist Feature: Marc Nuñez

Marc Nuñez is a Queens-based Choreographer, Dancer, and Producer. Marc is the Founder and Director of Gotham Dance Theater (GDT), and the Dance Curator at The Tank. Annually, Marc produces LAUNCH, The Big Gay Dance Show (as part of PrideFest), and the Emerge Choreographers Showcase. GDT has also been an active performance and teaching company for the Queensboro Dance Festival each year since 2015. 

In 2017, Marc was an Artist-in-Residence at The Performance Project at The University Settlement. Throughout the residency, Marc helped teach English to new Americans through dance and theatre, which culminated in a show entitled, “This Feels Like Home.” Also in 2017, GDT competed in and won Boundless in Brooklyn: A 48 Hour Dance Film Contest, with “A Fish Out of Water.” Professionally, Marc has danced for Rihanna, Todrick Hall, Panic! at the Disco, Elijah Wood, BARE Dance Company and Entity Contemporary Dance, as well as performed in musicals including Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan (International Tour), Disney’s Newsies, Cabaret and The King and I. He has also appeared in commercials for Nintendo, Disney, and K-Swiss. Marc has directed productions of The Wizard of Oz and Sweeney Todd. 

Pre-quarantine, Marc taught dance at Peridance Capezio Center (Manhattan), RIOULT Dance Center (Astoria), Mae Mae Dance Studio (Flushing), and Suryaside Yoga + Wellness (Sunnyside).Marc holds a BFA in Dance Performance with Excellence in Choreography from the University of California, Irvine. Marc is a member of Actors Equity and represented by CESD Talent Agency. 

Artist Feature: EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn

EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn are an award-winning writing team specializing in stories that take a fresh look at the queer community with cutting-edge music. They’ve been commissioned and produced by The Civilians at Encores! Off-Center at City Center and Joe's Pub, 54 Below, Theatre C, The Tank, The Polyphone Festival at UArts, Prospect Theater, and more. They’ve been in residence at Ars Nova, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, the O’Neill Music Theatre Conference Incubator Residency, and Catwalk Institute. They’ve been awarded grants from NAMT and Anna Sosenko Trust. As Dramatists Guild Fellows, they’ve been featured many times by the Guild and The Dramatists Guild Foundation, including in The Dramatists Magazine and recently online as part of a celebration of World Pride. Together they curate Tank-aret, a monthly cabaret series at The Tank featuring underrepresented artists.

EllaRose’s work has been recognized as a Kleban Award Finalist, NYFA Fellowship Finalist, Kernodle New Play Award Finalist, an artist in residence at Harvard College, with Weston and BOH Cameronian Arts Awards and in the Great Plains Theatre Conference’s PlayLab. As an advocate for inclusion in musical theater she has written for The Lilly Awards Blog, HowlRound, Musical Theater Today (contributing editor), and served on panels at NYMF and with Honest Accomplice Theater.

Brandon is also known for his work as a music producer. He produced and performed on the albums TWO BIRDS & ONE STONE by Trixie Mattel (Winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Allstars 3), which debuted at #1 on the iTunes Top Albums chart and the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Charts. Brandon also directs and produces music for Alexis Michelle (Drag Race Season 9) and produced her debut album LOVE FOOL for Broadway Records. Their musicals include TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix (dir: Sherri Eden Barber), Cotton Candy and Cocaine (dir: Carlos Armesto), Queer. People.Time. Patchwork, and The Things I Don’t Say (dir: Emily Maltby). Find them at www.brandonandella.com