Cast And Creative Team Set for World Premiere Of PRIMORDIAL at The Tank

The Tank has revealed the cast and creative team for the world premiere of Primordial by Lillian Isabella, co-directed by Meghan Finn, and co-directed and choreographed by Leslie Galán Guyton.  Primordial will run at The Tank's (312 West 36th Street) 98-Seat Theater February 1-25, 2024.

The cast of Primordial will feature Nina Fry, Marisela Grajeda Gonzalez*, Adrianna Mateo, Jordan Mosley, Rebekah Rawhouser*, and Paula Sim.

*Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors' Equity Association.

Primordial will feature scenic and costume design by Patricia Marjorie and projection design by David Pym, Adrianna Mateo is the composer and Music Director, Linda Jones is the Dialect Coach, and Max Mooney is the Stage Manager.

NYU Tisch alum and half-Cuban, Bronx-raised playwright Lillian Isabella says, “I grew up in a single parent household and this play is a love letter to my mom and all birthing people, without whom all of us would literally not exist. It's also my way of exploring how centering pregnancy and birth, arguably the most magical thing the human body is capable of, shifts us as people and as a society. A line from the play captures it perfectly, ‘How the f*ck are we not talking about this all of the time?'”

The Tank's Artistic Director Meghan Finn says: “This play hits on a deep physical level. As someone who has given birth twice, it evoked visceral memories of the experience for me. The production gets at the rarely heard stories that we only see in passing headlines, but virtually never see on stage.”

A playful and provocative exploration of pregnancy and childbirth, Primordial distills 1100 pages of women and birthing people's first-hand accounts of the most common yet rarely discussed event in the world. Primordial weaves together diverse perspectives, different race, age, and gender experiences, into overlapping stories that amplify one another. Primordial deals with pregnancy, childbirth, patient advocacy, maternal health, birth without violence, birth equity, and celebrates this innate connection we all share while encouraging the audience to talk more openly about it. 

Conceived and created by up-and-coming theater artist, Lillian Isabella (How We Love/F*ck), the work is co-directed by Tank Artistic Director Meghan Finn (Mahinerator) and Grammy-nominated choreographer/director, Leslie Galán Guyton. With music performed live by solo violinist, singer-songwriter and composer Adrianna Mateo, the work unfolds within an immersive installation.

The performance schedule for Primordial is Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 3pm. Exceptions: the performance on Saturday February 3 will be at 3pm; the performance on Sunday February 10 will be at 7pm. There will be additional performances on Monday February 12 at 7pm and Wednesday February 21 at 7pm. There will be no performances on Saturday February 17 and Sunday February 18.

Tickets begin at $25 and are available at www.thetanknyc.org/20th-anniversary-season.

This production is made possible by Centering Healthcare Institute and a grant from Cherry Lane Alternative (Angelina Fiordellisi, Founding Artistic Director).

The Tank's Core Production series serves companies and artists as they create new works for performance. Core Productions are central to The Tank's mission to give emerging artists resources to build their careers and artistic voices. These productions receive institutional support in the form of financial assistance, performance and rehearsal space, press, marketing, and more, culminating in a world premiere production run. Core Production series offers a way for emerging artists to fully realize their artistic vision in partnership with The Tank.

ABOUT THE TANK

Founded in 2003, The Tank is an Obie Award-winning, multi-disciplinary non-profit arts presenter and producer, which provides a home to emerging artists working across all disciplines, including theater, comedy, dance, film, music, puppetry, and storytelling. Led by Artistic Director Meghan Finn, Managing Producer Molly FitzMaurice, and Director of Artistic Development Johnny G. Lloyd, The Tank champions emerging artists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas and forms of expression. In doing so the company removes the economic barriers from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers and experimenting within their art form. From the company's home with two theaters on 36th Street, The Tank serves over 2,500 artists every year, presents over 1,000 performances, and welcomes 36,000 audience members annually. The company fully produces a curated season of 8-12 theatrical World or New York premieres each season.

Recent Tank-produced work includes The New York Times Critics' Picks Taxilandia by Flako Jimenez (2021), OPEN by Crystal Skillman, directed by Jessi D. Hill (2019); Red Emma & The Mad Monk by Alexis Roblan, directed by Katie Lindsay (2018); and The Offending Gesture by Mac Wellman, directed by Meghan Finn (2016), as well as Drama Desk Award-nominated productions The Hunger Artist (2018), The Paper Hat Game (2017), the ephemera trilogy (2017), Ada/Ava (2016) and youarenowhere (2016).

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

www.TheTankNYC.org

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