The Tank Unveils Programming For PRIDEFEST 2024 Featuring Workshops, Performances & More
PrideFest will feature new work by artists including Regie Cabico and Drew Pisarra, Elijah Caldwell and Kyle Johnson, Jude Cramer, Aliyah Curry, and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz May. 16, 2024
The Tank has revealed initial programming for its annual PrideFest. Now in its 10th year, PrideFest will take place June 21-30 at The Tank.
PrideFest 2024 highlights work that celebrates the queer community. This year's festival includes work that addresses a range of queer experiences, providing laughter and joy, addressing challenges as we strive for rights, representation, and justice, and dreaming up new futures. At PrideFest 2024, you'll see art in a range of mediums including theater, comedy, puppetry, storytelling, and music by queer artists creating work for our communities and beyond. These performances shed light on the dynamic individuals and groups who make up the vibrant LGBTQIA+ community in order to help us understand where we've come from, where we are, and where we can go.
PrideFest will feature new work by artists including Regie Cabico and Drew Pisarra, Elijah Caldwell and Kyle Johnson, Jude Cramer, Aliyah Curry, Troy Defour, Nick Eibler, Kaila Galinat, Isa Garcia, Brendan Germain, Ruth Geye, Emma Goldman-Sherman, Jonah Harrison, Moshe Henderson, Loey Jones-Perpich, Ben Langhorst, Jessica Marie Lorence, Alle Mims, Brandon Monokian, Magpie Park, David Quang Pham, Joe Rubenstein, SMJ and Jaden Tyler Urso.
This year's PrideFest has been curated by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin and produced by Alejandra Venancio.
The Tank also announced additional Pride programing including Midnight Coleslaw's Tales From Beyond The Closet!! by Joey Merlo and directed by Nick J. Browne, We Had Not Ceased Desiring by Kev Berry and directed by Jackson Paul Walker, and Prism Festival Of New Queer Musicals.
More information about PrideFest 2024 programming is below. Tickets begin at $15 and are available by visiting TheTankNYC.org/PrideFest-2024. Additional programming and details for PrideFest will be announced at a later date.
yo ho. (a play about Mary Read & anne bonny)
By SMJ
Directed by Emily Bubeck
June 21 at 7pm
Aboard Calico Jack's pirate ship, Andy & Mark are drawn to each other through mutual attraction, shared trauma, and a love of games, especially Marco Polo. They meet in a closet to hook up but discover that they have been hiding a dangerous secret: they're actually... Anne & Mary. This revelation forces them to carry on a genderqueer love story in the shadows - Anne, exploring her bisexuality for the first time & Mary, discovering that they're trans. As they are chased and haunted by a myriad of people including Jack (the polyamorous, gender-questioning captain), Vanessa (a double agent bartender), James (Anne's ex-husband), Chad (a mysterious crewmate who knows too much), The Governor (a pirate hunter with a lengthy body count), & Reverend Thomas (who doesn't like pirates or trans people), Anne & Mary must become their truest selves before their inevitable capture. yo ho. investigates gender, roleplaying, sexuality, power dynamics in pirate society, and finding someone who loves you for you.
MOMDY: THE NON-BIRTHING LESBIAN MOM
By Jessica Marie Lorence
June 21 at 9:30pm & June 22 at 3pm
Through video and shadow puppetry, Jessica Marie Lorence documents her non-traditional journey to parenthood and explores what it means to be a mother when your wife is the one giving birth.
ANNA MAY MUFF
Created by Alle Mims
Featuring Katryna Marttala and Alle Mims
June 22 at 7pm
Anna May Muff has followed her best friend WHO SHE IS DEFINITELY NOT IN LOVE WITH from Texas to New York in order to figure out what went wrong in their PLATONIC relationship. Anna's dad thinks she's there to further their shared goal of her becoming a pop country start, so she has to at least play a few open mics in the mean time. That's how she found herself here, at this bar, which has an unusual amount of rainbow flags everywhere. Will she find her best friend? Will she become a pop country star? Will she finally accept how she felt watching Shania Twain in her video for "That Don't Impress Me Much" for the first time? Find out in this short sapphic southern musical, created by Alle Mims, starring Katryna Marttala and Alle Mims.
SISTERHOOD
By Hannah Z. Morley
Directed by M. L. Redstone
Production, dramaturgy, and acting by Ryan O'Dea
June 22 at 9:30pm
Sisterhood follows three fifteen-year-old girls who, after being total jerks to each other, are haunted by the all-knowing Spirit of Sisterhood. This play is their quest for redemption as each girl, including our Spirit of Sisterhood, searches for emotional closure.
THE CAVES
By Adrienne Gomez
June 23 at 3pm
One snowy night, Prima stumbles across Maggie, nearly frozen to death, out in the wilderness. Prima takes Maggie into her home and nurses her back to health. Jocelyn, the local madame in the small town of Gold Ditch, is a devoted friend of Prima who has suspicions that Maggie is trouble. Despite her friend's misgivings, Prima and Maggie create a beautiful home and together they find a love neither has ever felt before. However, Maggie was mixed up with some dangerous folks before Prima found her and lives in fear of her past catching up with her. When Jesse, a young man trying to learn the fate of his older brother, arrives in Gold Ditch, Maggie will find herself in the fight of her life to protect everything she and Prima have built together.
SOUP'S ON
By D.A. Mindell
June 23 at 3pm
Matzo ball soup makes everything better. Come find out why. A one man show about life, love, and how we take care of ourselves.
EAT YOUR MOTHER / ES, ES!
Presented by GLYK
June 23 at 7pm
Eat Your Mother is a patchwork performance piece stitching together works from the archive of the Yiddish theater, original compositions, and brand-new translations into Yiddish. Featuring The Petoskey Breasted Mermaid of Adrienne Rich, a Yiddish-language trans reclamation and recrimination of the poet's life and afterlife; Jewish Drag Kings; a visit from the Beep-Boop Barry Sisters; a never-before-staged one-act by early 20th century Yiddish playwright Jane Rose; and more.
GLYK is a queer Yiddish theatre collective dedicated to f-ing around in the archives. Inspired by the tradition of kleynkunst (literally meaning "little art), an early 20th century Yiddish theater mode attempting to overcome the distinctions between amateur/professional, art/life, and audience/performer, GLYK weaves our 21st c. queer sensibility with that of 20th c. shund ("trash") theatre, through short scenes, poems, and songs. Eat Your Mother / Es, es! examines our relationship to queer and feminist lineages, and maybe our actual mothers.
QUEER TO TELL: CAPTURED IN COLOR
Created and produced by Nick Eibler
Photography by Dustin Dale Barlow
Hosted by André Jordan
June 24 at 7pm
Queer To Tell is a NYC-born national storytelling series. A traditional show features 5-6 LGBTQIA+ storytellers sharing stories inspired by a theme that allows them to share the universal experiences of our community and the nuances of their different identities. The show is hosted by a local drag/queer performance artist and takes place at Queer-owned/affirming spaces across the city and country. With Captured in Color, producer Nick Eibler and photographer Dustin Dale Barlow, are elevating a traditional Queer To Tell show with an added photo series – displayed onstage during the show – based on the six initial colors of the Pride Flag and their meanings (Red - Life, Orange - Healing, Yellow - Sunlight, Green - Nature, Blue - Harmony, Purple - Spirit). Each storyteller will share a moment inspired by one of the different color meanings and reveal a portrait of themselves that reflects what that word means to them. In addition, audience members will have the option to contribute to the structure by writing on post-it notes – corresponding with the respective colors – a memory, person, or word that comes to mind when they think of that color and its meaning, helping to create a community art piece.
GREAT AUNTS
Written and directed by Aliyah Curry
Produced and cast by Jamilah Felix and Irene Christodoulakis
Co-Stage Managed by Bryson Lima and Brooke Yunis
Technical Management and dramaturgy by David Quang Pham
June 24 at 7pm
Great Aunts is a surrealistic testament to matriarchy and the bodies that rule them. Audiences will be transported to Gran's home for some Southern cooking, spirited phone calls, and a look into family photo albums that are full of diagnoses and revelations.
ASÍ
Written and performed by Isa Garcia as ASÍ
Featuring Jordan Collazo as RAIDEN
Directed by Kenny Castro
Stage Managed by Cristina Neely
June 24 at 7pm, June 29 at 7pm
We meet ASÍ post bathroom break wearing a ginormous strap-on expecting to return to an evening of ravenous intercourse with a beautiful woman. Instead of the woman in question, they stumble upon a solo show with an audience just for them. Perfect. Using stand-up comedy, audience interaction, and childhood anecdotes doused in overconfident lesbian charm, ASÍ wins over their newfound crowd. That is, until their show is infiltrated by their toxically masculine habits and the entrance of their childhood nemesis, RAIDEN. What ensues is a literal WWE wrestling match between ASÍ and RAIDEN, exposing their internal battle between familial cycles of machismo and the pursuit of true love. This campy, form defying piece of dyke theater invigorates the traditional solo show with audio-visual spectacle, meta-theatrics, and the harsh truths of Texan, Latine, and lesbian life.
GAY FEMME MAYHEM
Hosted by Emily Drossell
Featuring Bianca Barragan, Daisy Walker, and More
June 24 at 9:30pm
Come one, come all to Gay Femme Mayhem, a night of stand-up featuring emerging and established queer femme comedians! Featuring Emily Drossell, Bianca Barragan, Daisy Walker, and more!
SO FAR AWAY
By Jaden Tyler Urso
Directed by Paige Schuyler Bakke
Featuring Marvelyn Rose Ramirez and Aliza Jane Cosgrove
June 24 at 9:30pm
So Far Away follows two women, Marla and Jess, as they navigate their relationship non-chronologically. As Marla's chronic illness begins to overtake her life when she discovers she needs an ostomy bag, Jess struggles with her substance abuse addiction along with finding her place in Marla's life. So Far Away asks the question: why do we stay with the people we know are wrong for us?”
WINNERS
Directed by Kate Trammell
June 25 at 7pm
Winners is a quirky, queer comedy about forgiveness in a competitive family with communication challenges. Settling scores against rough odds, Winners helps us manage our losses.
THE MAN OF MY DREAMS LIVES IN WEST HOLLYWOOD
Directed by Easton Michaels
June 25 at 7pm & June 27 at 9:30pm
The Man of My Dreams Lives in West Hollywood follows Mick, a young man, who's seemingly slow life takes a quick turn following a mysterious dream in which he finds himself chasing his "ideal" man. Inspired to take real life action, Mick sets out on a poorly planned, outrageous adventure to West Hollywood to find his dream stud, much to the disapproval of his loved ones.
THE CUNTRY CLUB
Written and performed by Brendan Germain
Directed by Scout Davis
June 25 at 9:30pm
The Cuntry Club is a one woman show about a one woman show — a comedic deconstruction of the form, an experiment that spirals out of control. We find Melinda, a stodgy Connecticut golf course member on the afternoon of the annual ladies luncheon rambling to herself in the women's powder room. After some time, we learn, in fact, that this very scene is simply a rehearsal, and Kathleen, the actress playing Melinda in the play, is done for the day. After everyone is gone from the theatre for the night, she has the stage to herself. What should she say? It is from here that character, artist and actor devolve into something unidentifiable altogether.
LINDWURM
Created by Magpie Park
June 25 at 9:30pm
Self-love. Erotic cannibalism. Queer relationships. Lindwurm tells the story of what it means to love and be loved, and the sacrifices we make in order to grow.
FAT FAGGOT
Written and performed by Ben Langhorst
Directed by Charlotte Murray
June 26 at 7pm & June 29 at 7pm
Welcome to “The Fat Faggot Variety Hour,” a biting yet fabulous 1960s musical variety show, broadcast in the deep recesses of the mind of Ben Langhorst (protagonist [also the writer]). Using his life as fodder for each new episode, Ben desperately clings to his sanity as a television audience cackles and jeers (a fat gay man looking for love and acceptance - now that's pathetic!). But even as Ben struggles to break free from old patterns, will the host (also named Ben Langhorst) allow the show to end?
13 nights in the woods somewhere north of lake Michigan
By Loey Jones-Perpich
Directed by Clara Livingston
June 26 at 7pm & June 27 at 3pm
The Man of My Dreams Lives in West Hollywood follows Mick, a young man, who's seemingly slow life takes a quick turn following a mysterious dream in which he finds himself chasing his "ideal" man. Inspired to take real life action, Mick sets out on a poorly planned, outrageous adventure to West Hollywood to find his dream stud, much to the disapproval of his loved ones.
How can I help you?
By Ruth Geye
Dramaturgy by Daria Kerschenbeum
Featuring Sophie Kreitzberg and Ben Natan
June 26 at 9:30pm
A Friday. Late August, 2020.
Claire doesn't work Fridays. She's been called into the office on her day off to accommodate a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor with a cracked tooth and a love of Wagner. The practice is run by a dentist couple and their dentist son, all named Dr. Meyer. The elder Drs. Meyer are out on the island for the weekend, leaving the jittery young Dr. Meyer in charge. The phone won't stop ringing. Everyone keeps asking for Lorna. If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to see it, are you still a woman?
THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA
Produced and Directed by Allie Kroeper
June 26 at 9:30pm
It's 2024, and gay people still want rights?! Don't you just hate that? If you answered "Yes!" then join the anchors of StraightForward, the only News Show that exposes the queer-backwards media for what it is: a child-indoctrinating, God-hating gay-fest! (Celebrate pride month with the all-queer cast and crew in a sketch comedy show like no other!)
HOUSE OF LEGENDARY
Composer, Joe Rubinstein
Conductor/Orchestra Contractor, Eli Spindel
AOP Interim General Manager, Charles Jarden
June 27 at 7pm
Famed drag performer Dee Legendary embarks on a passionate love affair with Officer John, whose fascination with Dee takes an unexpected and dangerous turn. Inspired by a true story, House of Legendary is an opera about double lives and destructive desires set in the glory days of New York City's underground drag culture.
okay, bye!
Written and performed by Kaila Galinat (she/they)
Directed by Jasmine K. Bernard (she/they)
June 27 at 7pm
This ‘dramedic' one-person show explores the grief, wisdom, and humor of rejection through sketches, monologues, parody, and characters. Inspired by the works of Mike Birbiglia, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Abbi Jacobson, and Amy Poehler, okay, bye! covers romantic heartbreak, bad friends, therapists who've ghosted, an exploration of gender identity and sexuality, and one irritated cat. In a show that's equal parts clever comedy and sincere search for meaning, Kaila asks herself: “Why have people let me down in so many ways? Who am I without them, and what am I looking for?” This show is for lovers, poets, artists, queer people, women, bisexuals, people outside the binary, anyone in the middle of a huge life transition, storytellers, grievers, people who take themselves on dates, cat lovers, funny people, therapy goers, and fans of Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter.
VELVET RAGE
Written and directed by Moshe Henderson
June 27 at 9:30pm
When does the mask we wear as queer people interfere with our relationships? Through the lens of four queer-ass men on Pride Eve, Velvet Rage explores the queer lexicon, gay iconography, and pop-culture references that connect members of the queer community.
ECHO & NARCISSUS BLAST THIRD EYE BLIND OUTSIDE A DINER IN NEW JERSEY AT 2AM
By Brandon Monokian
Directed by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin
June 28, July 1, July 3, and July 5 at 7:00 PM, June 30 at 3:00 PM, July 6 at 9:30 PM
In 1999, two teenage boys deal with their closeted sexuality and a violent incident that will change them both forever. In 2012 and beyond, we see how the scars of their past define their present and future. This new play written by Brandon Monokian received a developmental reading at PrideFest 2023 and now continues its development at PrideFest 2024 with this fully staged workshop production directed by Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, assistant directed by Elizabeth Worley and featuring live music by Sam Kwietniak.
TURNOVER: A NEW LEAF
Written and composed by David Quang Pham
Directed by Aliyah Curry
Produced by Caitlin Mayernik
June 28 at 7:00pm
Turnover: A New Leaf is a plant-based musical set in Dirty City that follows a Vietnamese mother-child pair of Cilantros who run a salon that neighbors the Crabapple family and their FigLeaf Nightclub. When their queer children – Parsley R?m and Pyrus Crabapple - befriend one another and uproot their families' social orders, the plants and transplants discover what it truly means to earn one's Green Card. In this coming-of-age story, the musical theater science communicator David Quang Pham plants themes of family dynamics, immigrant assimilation, performative activism, body image, the duality between nature versus nurture, and songs teaching photosynthesis! At Theatre on the Verge's 2024 New Musicals Festival in Philadelphia's Abington Art Center, Turnover: A New Leaf was nominated for Best Musical and won Best Book and Best Director (Aliyah Curry). Queer Theatre Kalamazoo is set to have a production of Turnover: A New Leaf in their 2024-2025 Season. The Tank's Pridefest concert reading is directed by Aliyah Curry and produced by Caitlin Mayernik.
HOW GLORY GOES
By Lena Horné
June 28 at 9:30pm
A night of love, loss, and Audra McDonald covers, “How Glory Goes” takes us through the highs and lows of an artist coming to terms with what it means to create and what “success” can look like, with or without the Tony Awards. With songs that span the breadth of Audra McDonald's career, covered in this work by Lena Horné, a story of fear and triumph that has been her life so far will be set free.
REGICIDE
By Jude Cramer
Directed by Gavin Petersen
June 29 at 3:00pm
When a veteran drag queen takes “death drop” too literally, a hosting gig is up for grabs at one of Milwaukee's last gay bars. A seasoned queen bee and a talented newcomer are both poised to take her crown and secure their spot at the top of the food chain — but only one can reign supreme. Let the queer catfight commence! Jude Cramer's Regicide is a drag dramedy dripping with shade, show stopping lip syncs, and existential dread, probing why anyone, queer or otherwise, wants to be special in the first place, and what it means if you're simply not.
A RABBIT NAMED RAINER
Written by and featuring Regie Cabico and Drew Pisarra
June 29 at 9:30pm
An hour-long evening of queer poetry from spoken word legend Regie Cabico and poet Drew Pisarra. Both authors have released new collections in the last year: Cabico's A Rabbit in Search of a Rolex (Day Eight, 2023) was hailed as one of the ten best poetry books of 2023 in Poetry Mutual; Pisarra's Fassbinder: His Movies, My Poems (Anxiety Press, 2024) was dubbed "a party in poetry, a wry sly burst of beauty, attitude, and art” by Monica Drake in "The Folly of Loving Life." Moving past conventional readings of their material, both artists will be pushing the genre into performance in fresh and exciting ways – a natural approach considering Cabico is a founding member of New York's Neo-Futurists (and the recipient of a NY Innovative Theater Award) while Pisarra had three theatrical premieres in 2023 alone – including Click, a presented work at The Tank.
PARENTING: A QUEER CONCERT
Music and lyrics by Troy Defour
A.D. Cadence arrangement by David Lancelle
June 30 at 3:00pm
A concert of original songs and musical theatre moments on parenting as LGBTQ2I.
THE FIRES
By Jennifer Rumberger
Directed by Lindsey Barlag Thornton
Featuring Paul D'Addario, Brendan Donaldson and Rebekah Brockman
June 30 at 7:00pm
Two men, Meatball and Arthur, sit outside a 7/11 in downtown Los Angeles as a wildfire approaches, the latest in a series of natural catastrophes that has caused massive casualties all over the United States. Other than a traveling reporter bringing stories of the fates of other Americans, they are the last people alive. The Fires is a pitch black surrealist comedy about love trying to survive the existential perils of the world.
In addition to the PrideFest programming, The Tank will also present the following:
MIDNIGHT COLESLAW'S TALES FROM BEYOND THE CLOSET!!!
By Joey Merlo
Directed by Nick J. Browne
May 31-June 23
Join the infamous Drag-Vamp, Midnight Coleslaw as she hosts a campy and terrifying evening of one-acts conjured up by Joey Merlo (On Set with Theda Bara) and director Nick Browne. The Tank presents Midnight Coleslaw's Tales from Beyond the Closet!!! An evening of queer horror including a chair made of skin that turns into a humanoid third-wheel in a couple's relationship, a father back from the dead to make sure his little (unbeknownst to him lesbian) girl is thriving, and a party of disappearing guests. Exit the closet and enter (if you dare) the bizarre and titillating world of Midnight Coleslaw and her bag of One-Act tricks and treats. WARNING: You may laugh until you can't catch your breath, you may be scared enough to piss yourself, you may get up and dance at the end of the show like you're a middle-aged white person at a matinee of Mamma Mia. In short: This show may turn you gay.
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