Bailey Williams' I THOUGHT I WOULD DIE BUT I DIDN'T to Premiere at The Tank This May

The Tank will present the World Premiere of I thought I would die but I didn't by Bailey Williams (Buffalo Bailey's Ranch for Gay Horses, Troubled Teen Girls and Other: a 90 Minute Timeshare Presentation at the 2018 Exponential Festival), directed by Sarah Blush (Sehnsucht at JACK), at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues), May 9-23. Performances will be on Thursday, May 9 at 7pm, Friday, May 10 at 2pm & 7pm, Saturday, May 11 at 7pm, Wednesday, May 15 at 7pm, Thursday, May 16 at 7pm, Friday, May 17 at 7pm, Saturday, May 18 at 7pm, Sunday, May 19 at 7pm, Tuesday, May 21 at 7pm, Wednesday, May 22 at 7pm, and Thursday, May 23 at 7pm. Tickets ($20) are available for advance purchase at www.thetanknyc.org. The performance will run approximately 75 minutes, with no intermission.

A New York apartment play, 2011, but something's wrong - terribly wrong. Someone was murdered. And what's that god-awful sound? Tonight, nightly news investigates. Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with the murderer. Or the playwright. Or the playwright's murderer.

I thought I would die but I didn't is a genre-warping play about the disconnect between the storytelling of violence and its reality. A mostly true-crime true story. It's bloody. I mean over. Sorry, I have murder on the brain. Over over over.

I thought I would die but I didn’t is a participant in New Georges Supported Productions program, in which the company provides resources, mentorship and an institutional platform to its affiliated artists who are producing their work independently.

The cast will include Matthew Bovee (The Nomad at The Flea), Caitlin Morris* (The Things That Were There at The Bushwick Starr), and Bailey Williams. The design team will include Sound Design by John Gasper (Bonnie's Last Flight at Next Door at NYTW), Set Design by Brittany Vasta (Happy Birthday, Wanda June with Wheelhouse Theatre Company) with Assistant Scenic Design & Props by Rhys Roffey (Sehnsucht at JACK), Lighting Design by Ken Wills (Associate Designer on Dear Evan Hansen), and Producer Ryan Gedrich. *Appearing courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association.

BAILEY WILLIAMS (Playwright) is a Brooklyn-based writer, performer and producer. Her most recent play, Buffalo Bailey's Ranch for Gay Horses, Troubled Teen Girls and Other: a 90 Minute Timeshare Presentation, premiered with the Exponential Festival in January 2018. It toured in August 2018 at The Brick in NYC, The Annex (Baltimore), and The Whole Shebang (PA). It was developed at the Barn Arts Collective and Panoply Performance Lab from 2016 -2017. Previous works have been developed and workshopped at Ars Nova, Cloud City, Curious Theatre, La MaMa, Drop Forge & Tool, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Tank, Vital Joint, Dixon Place, Wide-Eyed Productions, The Amoralists, University Settlement, and many gay bars around Brooklyn. Upcoming: Buffalo Bailey's Salute to the Troops Sponsored by America, TBD, July 2019; Untitled Cult Show, Barn Arts Collective, October 2019. www.buffalobaileysranch.biz

SARAH BLUSH (Director) creates and develops new work. She is the artistic director of the theatre company TV, whose plays include the critically acclaimed Sehnsucht(NYT Critics Pick; JACK), Power Couple (Ars Nova ANT Fest), and My Favorite Character Was the Talking Vase (HERE). Other directing: Clubbed Thumb, The Bushwick Starr, The Playwrights Center, NYU Graduate Acting, Playwrights Realm, The Atlantic Acting School, The Flea, The Tank, Dixon Place, NYU Abu Dhabi, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Associate/assistant directing: Daniel Aukin, Rachel Chavkin, Mark Wing-Davey, Young Jean Lee, Richard Nelson, among others. In VR, Sarah developed CAVE, the largest multi-viewer virtual reality experience to date, which premiered at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver, Canada in 2018. 2018-19 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow; New York Society Library's Emerging Female Artist Grant; The Habitat's Directors Playground; New Georges Affiliated Artist. Upcoming: be mean to me by Sofya Levitsky-Weitz at IATI; associate directing Mona Mansour's The Vagrant Trilogy at The Public Theater; 2019-20 New Georges Audrey Resident. sarahblush.com.

THE TANK is a non-profit arts presenter and producer. Our mission is to remove economic barriers from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers and experimenting within their art form, and to do so in an environment that is inclusive and accessible. We serve over 2,000 artists every year in over 800 performances, and work across all disciplines, including theater, comedy, dance, film, music, puppetry, and storytelling. The heart of our services is providing free performance space in our two-stage theater complex Manhattan, and we also offer a suite of other services such as free rehearsal space, promotional support, artist fees, and much more. We support work at all phases of development, from readings and residencies to fully-produced world premieres. We keep ticket prices affordable and view our work as democratic, opening up both the creation and attendance of the arts to all.

Recent Tank-produced work includes Drama Desk-nominated productions Ada/Ava (2016), youarenowhere (2016), The Paper Hat Game (2017), the ephemera trilogy (2017), and The Hunger Artist (2018), as well as New York Times Critics' Picks The Offending Gesture by Mac Wellman, directed by Meghan Finn (2016) and Red Emma & The Mad Monk by Alexis Roblan, directed by Katie Lindsay (2018). www.thetanknyc.org