For 10 years, The Tank has hosted DarkFest—a week of shows that do not use conventional theatrical lighting in an effort to reexamine how we can make theater more sustainable. With the pandemic forcing their physical theater to close, they challenged that idea further with the first annual TrashFest in 2020. It is often difficult to wrestle with the environmental impact our daily lives and our work can have—especially in theater, where so many resources are needed to develop sets, props and costumes that are only used for a short amount of time. Curated by Christian Ávila, TrashFest centers work that not only produces no waste, but reuses materials discarded as garbage, while DarkFest celebrates innovative performance that utilizes self-sufficient and alternative energy sources.
Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale
In collaboration with seasoned theatre-maker Curtis Howard, Village Verein is excited to present a new, innovative production of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale. The Soldier's Tale is a theatrical work created to be "read, played and danced." With a tight-knit seven-person on-stage orchestra and actors who simultaneously act and dance the work's plot, The Soldier's Tale tells a timeless story of temptation, deceit, and the choice between a promise of riches over a lifetime of love.
On Trash Monsters: an eco-tragicomedy
By Gillian Beth Durkee
Horrified by a film on global warming she sees in school, Jessica Bilson decides to take control of her family's trash situation, only to discover there is a trash monster named O'Leary living in their basement garage. The Bilson family quickly find themselves caught up in a tornado of garbage, mononucleosis, Vivaldi busts, 3 a.m. secrets, doll houses and—most importantly—the crushing guilt of feeling poisonous.
The Scouts
Written and performed by Emmy Kuperschmid and Alice Nora
Directed by Christian Cieri
Let’s go, Scouts! Skippy, Rascal, Tiny and Pup are off on their scout hiking weekend. Led by Scoutmaster Waldo, these 36-48 hours will contain tests of courage, trust and brotherhood that will change them forever. But there's something watching them in the woods. Are any of them prepared? The Scouts is a new horror comedy that asks the question: what does it mean to be home?
The Conspiracy Plays
By Sarah Hough, Lydia Brinkmann, Nathan Rtishchev
We are all conspiracy theorists. In Faustine, we follow a star graduate student at wit's end who makes a deal with the devil to finish her dissertation. Will her paranoia catch up with her? In Let Me Hang Among The Stars, we travel back to 1969 to a soundstage in Astoria, where a team of filmmakers is trying to fake the moon landing. Both plays are about the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world and how we rationalize the most irrational things in our lives. We are all conspiracy theorists.
here’s to all the broken girls
By Elizabeth Shannon
Directed by Katie Michelle Stahl
here’s to all the broken girls tells the story of five girls, nearly half of the entire grade, who are about to graduate from their very small Catholic high school. When they are forced to do a reflective assignment and read time capsule letters from elementary school, a secret is revealed: one of the girls has been continually assaulted by the school/church’s priest. Three other girls come forward, and they connect and share their experiences, while plotting revenge on the perpetrator Father Stephens. And what better place for their revenge than their graduation in two weeks? here’s to all the broken girls works to encapsulate the viciousness and strength of female adolescence in face of life transitions and trauma. here’s to all the broken girls tells a story of resilience. A story about trauma at the hands of the Catholic church. A story about young girls sticking together even when everything in their gut tells them to run. It's about speaking up when something is wrong. About voices being used and amplified.
Self Help Me
By Catherine Weingarten
Directed by Talia Natoli
Cathy is a hot mess so she decides to hire an Instagram life coach. But when her life coach Jessa's advice starts feeling weird and vaguely flirtatious, who really is more qualified to coach who? This satirical play about #mentalhealthculture explores the shifting power dynamics between two women struggling hard to feel heard, seen and comfortable in their own skin.
The (Final) Hole
By Jackie Bramhall-Heck
A massive and mysterious hole brings Natalie and Dez together and chaos ensues as they speculate and learn about what brought the other to a hole that may or may not be the final hole. Eventually their conversations devolve into arguments about quantum physics and the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Namaslay: a New Puppet Musical
By Playdoh Kolo, Leo Tschopp and Jeremy Pryzby
Directed By Playdoh Kolo
Music by Leo Tschopp, Nick Yetter, Zach Serlet and Maya Goldblum
Music Composed and Arranged by Nick Yetter
A peaceful village is crushed under boulders to make way for a giant rock-gym-turned-eco-resort. Two startup bros, Frankfooter Frank and Ked the Dog, enjoy the new age experience until their company goes under. They’re forced to stay on as indentured work-traders to pay off the hotel fees. Will they be converted to this shady wellness culture or join a resistance to Toxic Positivity?? Namaslay is a comedy puppet musical. It premiered in the 2023 New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival at Happyland Theater. This touring version is a solo-show adaptation of the original ensemble production. The show features a soundtrack of original musical numbers that are fun and thought-provoking for people of all ages. It deals with themes of gentrification, greenwashing, labor exploitation, toxic positivity and wellness culture in the age of social media.
TRIPLE BILL #1
DonkeyShowMe
By David Anzuelo
DonkeyShowMe is a cautionary tale/riff on the Midsummer Night's Dream story. It centers on a man who is obsessed with becoming a donkey. He seeks out the place rumored to be able to grant his wish, the fabled House of Dreams in Ciudad Juarez. He goes there and is admitted and meets with the Mother of the House, Queen Tatiana. She warns him of the consequences of his wish but he is adamant. And so the ritual commences. The power of wish fulfillment and transformation fills this secret establishment of Queer Magick.
The Horrors
By Samuel Szabo
The Horrors is a ghost story about Someone coming to terms with their past and learning to love themselves as they return to the house they built for one final goodbye. There they learn about what they can let go of and what refuses to let go. Inspired by the work of Shirley Jackson and Henry James and contemporary ghost films like The Night House, this work is also an exploration of the ghost story as live performance while seeing how that world manifests in the surrealist space of dance/theater.
MEOW!
By Matthew Antoci
MEOW! is an experimental drag collage about the materials we worship, pastiching Americana with trends in contemporary spiritualism. Two brain-fried oracles, Crisis and Kristina, take to the beaches and ruins of the Grey Gardens estate, seeking meaning in the trash-heap of modern life.
TRIPLE BILL #2
The Frightening Door
By Victoria Provost
The Frightening Door is the record of a resonance and a friendship between two lives, one of which ends. This play shares all the words between the playwright Victoria Provost and her friend Malcolm Little in the last year of his life, as they candidly discuss mental illness and the struggle to stay connected in the drifting currents of adult life. The play flows between their texts, the writer's present thoughts, music and dialogue.
Clearly or Darkly
By Leslie Bush
Clearly or Darkly is an process-performance-project that integrates video projection, and (occasionally) interactive technology with improvisational dance practices. The flexibly structured piece examines contemporary notions of identity by extending embodied presence through physical and digital space. Ever changing and distinct in each presentation, certain elements of Clearly or Darkly have remained central to the work since its inception in 2019. A solo dancer enters into a duet with herself, in and in-between physical and virtual space. Blurring the boundaries of her body, she moves through a feedback loop of witnessing, reacting to and responding to different versions of herself. Clearly or Darkly first premiered in February 2020 at the Whole Shebang in Philadelphia, PA.
Imagined Mishap
By Aparna Shankar
Choreography by Sri Thina Subramaniam
An ex turns up at your door, years after your relationship ended in disaster. You have to wonder, how?! And more importantly, why?! Rational explanations elude you, so you resort to imaginary tall tales. Were they blinded by the moonlight and stumbled and fell precisely on your doorstep? Yes, definitely that's what happened. Do you entertain their company? Or do you turn them away? The movement vocabulary of bharatanatyam will be used to explore this story.
Off We Go (???????!)
By Rachel Ackerman and Reuven Glazer
Off We Go (???????!) takes us to a Soviet psychiatric institution for the politically radical, where a cosmonaut and a homeless youth find themselves waiting for some chance at the outside world again while having to deal with the institution's relentlessly insistent head doctor and an apparatchik who just wants some alone time while determined to break their faith. Inspired by Soviet and Eastern European cinema of the 60s and 70s, this story asks two major questions to both our company and our audience, can a sick country heal its people? Is it possible to be well inside of a system that is sick/broken? As four operators within the system meet in the worst of circumstances, they find themselves on the brink of ineffable change.
