United States Premiere of Sachiyo Takahashi's SHEEP #1 to Play The Tank

The Tank (Meghan Finn and Rosalind Grush, Artistic Directors) will present the United States Premiere of Sachiyo Takahashi's SHEEP #1 at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues), May 5-20. Performances will be Saturday, May 5, Sunday, May 6, Thursday, May 10, Friday, May 11, Saturday, May 12, Thursday, May 17, Friday, May 18, Saturday, May 19, and Sunday, May 20 at 7:30pm.Tickets ($20/$15 students) are available for advance purchase at www.thetanknyc.org.

Inspired by Antoine De Saint-Exupery's writings, sheep #1 is the adventure of a sheep in search of the meaning of life. The performance is in the style of Microscopic Live Cinema-Theatre, where the performer manipulates small characters that are magnified with a video camera and projector. This creates an intimate dream-like experience by combining cinematic presentation and live operation. An abstract storytelling, sheep #1 is presented without spoken words, accompanied by Electroacoustic soundtrack and a live musician.

Concept, Sound Design, Visual design and Performance for Sheep #1 are by Nekaa Lab / Sachiyo Takahashi with Live Music by Emile Blondel, Dramaturgy by Peter Eckersall, and Technical Advisor/Builder Willie Gambucci.

Sachiyo Takahashi (Creator/Designer/Performer) is an artist, composer and musician whose work centers around storytelling. Compositing sensory elements in a minimalist manner, she explores the border between narrative and abstraction to generate fables for the subconscious. Sachiyo founded Nekaa Lab in 2006 together with other "lab members" (stuffed toys and tiny figurines). She has been producing performances, installations and writings, while observing human nature from alternative perspectives. Sachiyo's Microscopic Live Cinema-Theatre - unique performances projected from a miniature stage - has been appraised as a quirky yet imaginative merging between theatrical and cinematic experiences. Her recent project Everything Starts from a Dot has been awarded The Jim Henson Foundation Workshop Grant in 2017 and Production Grant in 2018. It will premiere in November 2018 at La MaMa (Manhattan) as a part of Puppet Series. Sachiyo currently lives in Brooklyn yet sometimes can be seen strolling the back alleys of Japan, where she originated. More info: www.nekaa.org

Emile Blondel (Live Music) collaborates regularly with musicians, dancers and artists of all mediums. He received BM and MM degrees from the North Carolina School of the Arts under the guidance of Eric Larsen. In 2001 he moved to France, studying at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot. While in Paris, Emile was awarded a residency at the Cite International des Arts. Orchestral appearances include the Richmond Symphony, the Durham Symphony and the Heritage Chamber Orchestra. Emile was named a 2010 Kenan Performing Arts Fellow at Lincoln Center Education and most recently created the music for Marcel and Man Ray, which premiered in the 2016 Lalapalooza festival of new puppet theater at St Anne's Warehouse. He is currently on faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, a teaching artist with National Dance Institute.

The Tank is a non-profit arts presenter serving emerging artists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas and forms of expression. We serve over 1,000 artists every year in over 400 performances, and work across all disciplines, including theater, comedy, dance, film, music, public affairs, and storytelling. Our goal is to foster an environment of inclusiveness and remove the burden of cost from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers and experimenting within their art form. The heart of our services is providing free performance space in our 98 seat proscenium and 56 seat blackbox that we operate in Manhattan, and we also offer a suite of other services such as free rehearsal space, promotional support, artist fees, and much more. We keep ticket prices affordable and view our work as democratic, opening up both the creation and attendance of the arts to all. Since its founding in 2003, artists who have come through The Tank include Alex Timbers, Amy Herzog, Lucy Alibar, Mike Daisey, Reggie Watts, Kyle Abraham, Andrew Bujalski, We Are Scientists, and tens of thousands of others. www.thetanknyc.org

Photo credit: Nekaa Lab/Sachiyo Takahashi