The Tank Announces Casts and Dates For IN SCENA! ITALIAN THEATER FESTIVAL NY

The Tank will present two Mario Fratti Award-winning plays, The Land of the Swollen Faces by Paolo Bignami, translated by Carlotta Brentan, and directed by Laura Caparrotti and Jay Stern and Hide and Seek by Tobia Rossi, translated and directed by Carlotta Brentan. Presented by Kairos Italy Theater in collaboration with The Tank as part of Play It Again In Scena! A Very Special Coming Back Edition of the Italian Theater Festival, performances will take place May 5-15, 2022 at The Tank's Proscenium Theater (312 W 36th St, New York, NY, 10018).

Named for the legendary Broadway playwright and part of In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the Mario Fratti Award has been awarded every year since 2014 to a never-before-produced play. The winning play is then translated into English, published, and eventually produced by Kairos Italy Theater, the main Italian theater company in New York. This year, KIT presents the 2017 and 2019 winners of the Mario Fratti Award in repertoire in May at the Tank. Both works address universal social issues: The Land of Swollen Faces by Paolo Bignami (MFA 2017 winner - directed by Jay Stern and Laura Caparrotti) is a solo show about an industrial workplace accident in Italy and one rising voice that denounces it, and Hide and Seek by Tobia Rossi (MFA 2019 winner - directed by Carlotta Brentan) tells the dark story of Giò and Mirko, two boys both looking for an escape, for revenge, and for love.

The New York City-based Kairos Italy Theater along with the Italy-based KIT Italia and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU have announced that Play It Again In Scena! A Very Special Coming Back Edition of the Italian Theater Festival will take place in all five boroughs of NYC, running May 3-18, 2022. Participating venues include Italian Cultural Institute in NY (686 Park Ave, New York, NY 10021), BAAD! - Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (2474 Westchester Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461), St. John's Lutheran Church (81 Christopher Street, New York, NY 10014), Bernie Wohl Center at Goddard Riverside (647 Columbus Avenue, NY 10024), Greek Cultural Center (2680 30th Street b2, Astoria, NY 11102), Culture Lab NYC (5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NY 11101), The Tank (312 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018), and I Am Books (124 Salem St, Boston, MA 02113). All shows will be presented in Italian with English supertitles, unless otherwise noted. For more information, please visit www.inscenany.com.

Each year In Scena! presents a survey of the best Italian theater from Italy, in New York City. The festival features full productions that have already toured in Italy as well as readings of Italian plays in translation, lectures and exchanges between Italian and International Artists. The goal is to promote greater awareness of Italian theater and Italian artists among New York theatergoers, and to build a bridge between the artistic scenes in Italy and New York.

In 2013 Kairos Italy Theater, the preeminent Italian theater company in New York City, created In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the first Italian theater festival to take place in all five New York City boroughs and beyond. The festival's first edition was part of the 2013 Year of Italian Culture in the United States. The festival has since become an annual event.

THE LAND OF SWOLLEN FACES

By Paolo Bignami

Translated by Carlotta Brentan
Directed by Laura Caparrotti and Jay Stern
Starring Joseph Franchini
Set Design by Sarah Edkins

Based on an industrial workplace accident in Italy, The Land of Swollen Faces features one rising voice, alone and essential, that denounces it. A one-voice live narration of tragic events portrayed with heartbreaking lyricism to highlight a vulnerable underdog's love for life, in the face of powerful people and their reckless arrogance.

The performance schedule for The Land of Swollen Faces is as follows: Thursday May 5 at 9:30pm; Friday May 6-Sunday May 8 at 7pm; Wednesday May 11 at 7pm; Thursday May 12 at 9:30pm; Friday May 13 at 7pm; and Saturday May 14 at 9:30pm.

HIDE AND SEEK

By Tobia Rossi

Translated and directed by Carlotta Brentan
Starring Joseph Monseur and Michael Luszczak
Set Design by Sarah Edkins

Fifteen-year-old Gio is firmly convinced that nobody in his small Italian town will ever understand him. Not his parents or his teachers, let alone his classmates, who mock him relentlessly and bully him for his sexual orientation. Gio decides to run away and live out his days in a secluded cave. When a classmate, Mirko, stumbles upon his hiding place by accident, Gio begs him to preserve his secret, making him an accomplice to his plan, with unexpected and dark consequences.

The performance schedule for Hide and Seek is as follows: Thursday May 5 at 7pm; Saturday May 7 - Sunday May 8 at 3pm & 9:30pm; Wednesday May 11 at 9:30pm; Thursday May 12 at 7pm; and Sunday May 15 at 3pm.

Tickets for both plays begin at $25 and are available at thetanknyc.org.

All attendees and artists of in-person performance at The Tank NYC will be required to display proof of full covid vaccination before being admitted to the space, either by showing a vaccination record (vaccination card) at least two weeks out from the final dose of an approved vaccine, or by using New York's free Excelsior Pass service, available here.

Patrons will also be required to wear medical grade masks while indoors at all times, and for the time being, no food or beverage will be permitted to be consumed at the theater.

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, and welcomes 36,000 audience members annually. The company fully produces a curated season of 10-18 theatrical World or New York premieres each season. During the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis, The Tank launched CyberTank, a virtual gathering space and programming platform for artists to share work.

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