The Tank’s LimeFest invites new works by emerging artists and creative teams who identify as women, nonbinary or gender non-conforming to make way for more gender parity in the performing arts. Produced by Emma Richmond (Simon and His Shoes, Modern Swimwear), the festival features two previously announced Core Productions – The Sitayana and Tia Talk – alongside Presented Works, is good, old-fashioned summer art fun.
The Sitayana (or “How to Make an Exit”)
By Lavina Jadhwani
Directed by Sarah Shin
Performed by Kendra Jain
The Sitayana is part Hindu epic, part coming of age story, and, ultimately, a break-up play. Adapted from the Sanskrit epic poem, The Ramayana, from Ram's wife, Sita's perspective, all twelve characters are performed by one actor.
Tia Talk
Co-created and performed by Amelia Bethel and Karen Loewy Movilla
In Tia Talk, two Latinas, Karen and Amelia, try to prove their Latinidad to themselves and the audience by embodying every stereotype they have been fed by the media, their peers and even their families. By using the structure of a talk show, they invite the audience to participate in their exploration of identity by building interactive segments, offering advice and posing unanswerable questions. Karen and Amelia explore issues of identity, including body image, fetishization and assimilation, and attempt to make sense of their place in the world.
All We Know of Love & Fire
Book and lyrics by Abs Wilson
Music by Wren Mied
Directed by Hayley Goldenberg
In this immersive, concert style indie-pop musical, historic poets Sara Teasdale, Emily Dickinson and Sappho come together to answer (with the help of the audience) a single question: how do you hold and carry loneliness—without giving in? Presenting their own personal solutions, the three women debate, weave poetry and say a silly joke or two as they grow together and search for the answer to this eternal question. In the end, they’re going to need each other if they’re going to face the great well of loneliness—without losing their flames.
60 Days
By Deniz Çam
The Proposal meets the actual U.S. immigration system in this romcom pilot written by Deniz Çam. In less than an hour, you'll be a guaranteed expert in what letter stands for which visa AND dating in New York City. Two birds with one stone! Welcome to the origin story of a Turkish immigrant who has to get married in 60 days to keep her visa status upon rage-quitting her journalism job.
Act 39 (A comedy about suicide)
By Kait Hickey
Directed by Stephen Sposito
Act 39 (A comedy about suicide) is a provocative new play that raises questions about autonomy, death, morality, faith, dignity, generational trauma and mental health. Oh and it's a comedy.
Calico
By Kai Xing Mun
Directed by Summer Dawn
After coming out as queer, Peach (she/they) doesn’t speak to their mother Chyou (she/her) for several years. Still, the future looks bright as Peach has built up a reputation as a burlesque artist and is surrounded by a glamorous community that loves Peach for who they are. When suddenly Chyou gets into a car accident and develops retrograde amnesia, Chyou seems free of her trauma and prejudices which allows the two to bond closer than ever before. As Peach cares for her now amnesiac mother, Peach and her closest friends, Naveena and Sunshine, begin to wonder if finding closure with their families is possible. Peach is a Cantonese American nonbinary femme, Sunshine is a Filipina American transgender woman and Naveena is an Indian American lesbian. Sunshine begins to renew hope about reconciling with her own estranged family, while Naveena struggles to find romantic love to spite and replace the parental love she never seemed to receive. They all begin to wonder if dance could be the path to healing not only themselves, but salvaging their given familial relationships too?
Emily Dickinson: Star-Crossed Employee
By Melissa Maney
Dramaturgy and direction by Allyson Broyles
Taxidermied ravens. Bloody dance sequences. Gothic stanzas. Emily Dickinson might not be a star employee at Build-A-Bear Workshop, but she sure as hell makes things interesting. Join us on this whirlwind tale of lovers struggling to express themselves in corporate America. Death’s carriage awaits your arrival.
Pitchfork Patty's Labor Day Special ??
Written by and starring Samantha Manas, Rachel Kenaston, Heather Denae & Moira Hammel
Trade in your burgers and Old Navy sales for a hot & zesty roast of THE MAN. Featuring four women who have all made it to final callbacks for SNL but were too good and would have overpowered John Mulaney, this sketch group is a must-see for one night only.
Little Marble Kisses
Conceived by Sabrina Gail Lobner
Little Marble Kisses is a dance work paying homage to the idea there is no real solo in life. Featuring a cast of inimitable dance artists: Ariana Ammons, Nicholas Lovalvo, Moss Lovejoy, Josh McWhortor, Brian Craig Nelson and Chloe Singer, the work embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery through loss. Musical scores courtesy of David Ott and original text and poetry by Anna Marie Ray accentuate moments of vulnerability, which are eventually pervaded by silence. Scenes filled with intimate partnering allow expressive capacities of virtuosity to emerge, fueled by a fierce physicality that demands an enormous amount of trust by each dancer.
Bonefruit
Written and directed by Leah Plante-Wiener
In a chapel in the middle of the desert, two girls meet for the first time in years. Together, they must grapple with their beliefs, an act of forgiveness and the thought of an existence beyond the violence that has forged them. A short play by Leah Plante-Wiener directed by Eulàlia Comas, featuring Sarah-Michele Guei and India Shea.
La Petite Mort
A solo performance by Giovanna Dalla Vecchia
A young woman wittingly summons Desire and must deal with the consequences when it works in this solo piece by Giovanna Dalla Vecchia. La Petite Mort is a poetical coming-of-age journey about navigating one’s first encounter with pleasure—inviting the audience for a call to awaken their own self out of hibernation.
You are Cordially Invited to Elika Strauss' Birthday Celebration
Written and directed by Hannah Weisz
You Are Cordially Invited To Elika Strauss’ Birthday Celebration is a horror-comedy play. A pair of creepy twins sing the same birthday song to their sister every year, despite her resistance; but as we pass through each year, we realize Elika may have been an unreliable narrator.
Nyad's Dream
By Juliann Lavallee
Directed by amani meliyah
Nyad’s Dream is a queer magical realism play that takes place in modern day San Francisco Bay. Phoenix, a twenty-seven-year-old nonbinary mixed media artist and animal advocate, nearly drowns in a surfing accident. Though the ocean kindly washes them ashore, when their best friends (and chosen family) Owen and Devon discover them, Phoenix does not recognize them or even remember their own name. Later, at the hospital, Doctor Ryder discovers irregularity in Phoenix’s brain scans. Strangely, during their appointment, Phoenix’s memory mostly returns with the exception of the time after their accident. Their friends celebrate as it seems Phoenix has recovered, but ordinary things set them off like the sound of the tides or the touch of a shell. Even more startling, when Phoenix touches a wounded turtle, it heals. They keep this revelation to themself, yet this new power has a darker side.
There will be additional LimeFest programming from Elena Jenson, Abbey Joan Burgess, Alaina Pacheco and Needy Lover X Trove.
