International Sensation THE BEARDED WOMAN To Make Its NYC Premiere

Producer/Director Gabriel G. Torres announced today that The Tank will be presenting the NYC premiere of Award Winning Colombian Performer Jei Osorio's Cabaret Experience "The Bearded Woman"

After performing to sold out audiences and rave reviews all over South America, The Caribbean, and the US, Jei brings his special and intimate portrayal of the fascinating and tragic Julia Pastrana. The Bearded Woman made its World Premiere in Bogota Colombia under the direction of Mario Benavides

It's New York Premiere is Co-Directed by Gabriel G. Torres and William Ruiz- Morales, who met and worked together on Bash Entertainment's Immersive hit "The House" which premiered in Brooklyn this past May.

The Bearded Woman is a musical one-woman show inspired by the real life of Julia Pastrana, a Mexican performer from the nineteenth century who toured with bizarre circuses of Europe and the USA. She had an enormous talent for singing and dancing but her illness, chronic hypertrichosis, made her into a rarity for the morbid public that frequented her shows. Named "The Ugliest Woman in The World" , She was studied by Darwin, and other contemporary intellectuals.

Jei Osorio (Countertenor), makes an introspective of Julia through a Classical & Cabaret repertoire through the setting of a bizarre circus, so we can honor the story of Julia, a woman seen as an oddity and a genius. The piece was conceived to make a tribute to people with physical differences who have suffered violence in their own flesh. A tribute to the marginalized, the underground and misunderstood...
All told through a true story of heartbreaking comedy and tragedy.

The Bearded Woman will perform a special limited engagement on Friday September 14th & Saturday September 15th at 8PM. Tickets are $40 and available online at http://www.thetanknyc.org or at the door.

About the Creative Team

Jei Osorio (Julia) is a colombian opera singer (countertenor), violinist and actor, he holds an MA on music and music education from the National university of Colombia. He has performed in important theaters all over south america. Credits: Lead Singer & Director, Bizarre Cabaret, La Tea, In The Eye of The Needle, Ramiro Sandoval - La Tea Lost child/Lisa, Peter Pan, Pedro Cano, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, Ensemble, Trece Sueños, Fabio Rubiano & Laura Villegas. Awards: Best male monologue, ACE award, & Best male monologue Hola Award. His piece The Bearded Woman has performed all over south American, in Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia and the United States in Spanish.

Gabriel G torres (Producer/Director) is a multidisciplinary Artist and Teacher from Bucaramanga, Colombia. He is a Candidate for a BFA/Ma dual degree at The New School and a Neighborhood Playhouse Theater one year certificate graduate. Interested in the conversations between design and bodies. Recent Directing Credits: Rodrigo Nogueira's Reading of Real at The Tank, Co Directed: La Pola by Oscar Cabrera as part of Serials at The Flea Theater, Disquiet at Sitting Shotgun Theater Co. Artistic Director Assistant at Theater For The New City for The LES Festival of The Arts 2018. Publications: "The Blizzard I was before I was 21" Eleven and a half, Literary Journal. "Dreamless" Ma'Am Magazine, Ivory University. "Monsters II", The Operating System. Plays: his play "Dreamless" was part of a series of readings in the SexOrgy Event at Hunter College, "Fifteen Years of Love" as part of LES Festival for The Arts 2018, "Let's Go to The World Cup", Casa Ensemble Colombia. https://gabrielgtorres.com/

William Ruiz- Morales (Co-Director) (Choreographer) is a performance-based artist living in New York. He thinks his work beyond specific disciplines and uses a wide variety of formats and methodologies. Originally from Cuba, he studied Theater Sciences at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, where he got his degree in 2007, he participated in Experimenta/Sur in 2014 in Bogota and in 2016 he completed the Research Cycle at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. Since 2017 he has combined his performance creation with cultural activism. Recent Credits: The House, (2018). New York ?2n Ensayo de duración (2017). Havana, Sharing Home (2016). Havana/Vienna/Brussels On movement, lecture by the Idiot (2016). Brussels Drama (2014), Havana William has teached workshops related to contemporary performing arts in Cuba, France, Mexico, Norway and Belgium. Recently, he has been sharing in his workshops his interest in listening as a creative practice and the way it articulates time. The Tank is a Manhattan-based multi-disciplinary arts presenter and producer. Our mission is to remove economic barriers from the creation of new work by artists launching their careers and experimenting within their art form. Our goal is to do this in an environment that is inclusive and accessible to all. The heart of our services is providing free performance space, and we also offer a suite of other resources such as free rehearsal space, artist fees, and promotional support. We keep ticket prices affordable and view our work as democratic, opening up both the creation and attendance of the arts to all.

Under the leadership of Co-Artistic Directors Rosalind Grush and Meghan Finn, in September of 2017, the company moved to our new home in the Theater Building at 312 W 36th Street where we took full control over two theaters: a 98-seat proscenium and a 56-seat blackbox theater. We anticipate that this year we will serve over 2,000 artists presenting 800 performances by emerging artists from throughout the five boroughs.