Anna Fitzgerald's REVERSE CASCADE Brings Intricate Puppetry to The Tank Tonight

REVERSE CASCADE - a play by Anna Fitzgerald featuring intricate puppetry - will be given its New York premiere by The Tank theater company. Previews begin tonight, Feb. 26th, prior to opening on March 3rd. Performances of REVERSE CASCADE will run at The Tank's main stage located at 151 West 46th Street on the 8th Floor. The performance is scheduled to run through March 13th 2016.

Rosalind Grush and Rania Jumaily, Co-Artistic Directors announce the production as part of The Tank's Flagship Theater Program, Flint & Tinder. Josh Luxenberg and Jon Levin of Sinking Ship Productions co-curate the series with Rosalind Grush.

The Tank most recently presented to critical acclaim - including NY Times and Time Out critics' picks - the world premiere of Mac Wellman's newest work, THE OFFENDING GESTURE. The Thank also presented last summer's smash-hit ADA/AVA, also a NY Times and Time Out critics' pick.

REVERSE CASCADE is described, as follows: After building a career as a circus performer and juggler with remarkable physical control, Judy's body began to fail her. For years, she searched for an answer and was eventually given a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. Slowly, Judy lost control of her body, her spirit, and the juggler that was inside of her. But the circus called her back, and Judy found new ways to challenge herself, pushing her body to the limits once again. Through the simple magic of found object puppetry and live music, this production will lead you through a story inspired by Judy Finelli's amazing journey from legs, to wheels, to new heights.

Directed and performed by Anna Fitzgerald (the Jerry Rojo Award for Production Excellence at The University of Connecticut), and the cast includes Emily Hall (Lee Breuer's La Divina Caricaturaat La MaMa), Sophie Hinderberger (Baltimore City Paper's BEST ACTRESS of 2013), Jeanine Padgett (O'Neill National Puppetry Conference), Sarah Nolen, Moira Horowitz(Murdercastle and Grundlehammer with the Baltimore Rock Opera Society). The piece also features Ellen Cherry on cello (Emmy nominated song-writer).

All tickets: $15. Visit www.thetanknyc.org or call 212-563-6269. The Tank is located at 151 West 46th Street on the 8th Floor; NY, NY.

The Tank - a midtown theater company dedicated to developing and presenting new works for the stage by emerging artists, announces this new work as part of The Tank's flagship program, Flint & Tinder that is curated by Josh Luxenberg, Jon Levin, and Rosalind Grush.

Flint & Tinder is a series of exciting new shows featuring physical or devised theater, clowning and puppeteering. Past shows have included Mac Wellman's The Offending Gesture (NY Times Critics' Pick), Manual Cinema's Ada/Ava (NY Times Critics' Pick) and Split Knuckle Theater's The Curious Case of Phineas Gage (recent Time Out New York Critics' Pick in the New York International Fringe Festival). The Flint & Tinder season as presented by The Tank fills a gap in the New York art scene by showcasing incredibly imaginative physical and devised theater pieces, and by providing a unique package of resources for emerging artists pushing the boundaries of the theatrical artform.

Remaining shows in the series' 2015-16 season include: Andrew Schneider's Obie Award-winning YOUARENOWHERE, a co-production with 3-Legged Dog at 3LD (first New York City full-length run), followed by, Ariel Lauryn's and Lucy Shelby's WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT (New York premiere), a slapstick send-up of the dramatic ladies of the 20th century theater -May 6 - 21, 2016; and Torry Bend's PAPER HAT GAME (first New York City full-length run), a true tale of a prankster bringing whimsy to subway commuters using puppets and projections - June 2016 (Exact Dates TBD).

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 the intimate 62-seat blackbox that we operate in Manhattan, and we also offer a suite of other services such as free rehearsal space, promotional support, and a cut of the box office. We keep ticket prices affordable and view our work as democratic, opening up both the creation and attendance of the arts to all.

REVERSE CASCADE CREATIVE TEAM:

Anna Fitzgerald is a puppeteer and performer based in Baltimore, MD. She has an MFA in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut and has performed at festivals and in theaters around the United States. Anna began working in puppetry as a company member if Liebe Wetzel's Lunatique Fantastique in San Francisco after training in clown and physical theater at The Clown Conservatory of San Francisco. it was while she was at the Clown Conservatory that Anna began working with, learning from, and assisting Judy Finelli. Anna was an Emerging Artist at the 2013 National Puppetry Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center with REVERSE CASCADE. She was a recipient of the Jerry Rojo Award for Production Excellence at The University of Connecticut. In 2015 she was an artist-in-residence at A Studio in The Woods in New Orleans and is a part of the 2015-2016 Mead Theatre Lab's Works-in-Progress Series at The Source in Washington, DC for her new family production Adventures! which was also just awarded a grant from The Jim Henson Foundation. She teaches puppetry at The Baltimore School for the Arts' TWiGS program and is a proud board member of UNIMA-USA. www.annafitz.com

Ellen Cherry is a Baltimore based songwriter and performer who has recorded and released original music continuously since 1997. Her most recent project, Portraits in Song, features eleven original songs inspired by the stories of powerful women in history. The musical performance is accompanied by large scale projections of commissioned portraits by the artist Liz Downing. She was a Strathmore Artist-in-Residence in 2012 and a 2011 Baker Artist Award winner. She composed an original score for Nana Project's shadow puppet piece, "Alonzo's Lullaby" which was awarded a citation of excellence by UNIMA-USA. She wrote, performed and recorded an original song commissioned by the FOX Networks that was nominated for an Emmy in 2010 and has been awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards for Vocal Performance (2007) and Musical Composition (2009).

Emily Hall is a freelance performer, director, and educator based out of Baltimore, Maryland. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Theatre from Towson University, where she focused on the history of performance art. Her most recent puppetry ventures include Lee Breuer's La Divina Caricaturaat La MaMa and developing an original piece for AKIMBO, a site-specific movement festival.

Sophie Hinderberger grew up in Baltimore and is proud to be back here creating and enjoying an amazing assortment of arts. Sophie performs regionally at Everyman Theater in Baltimore, most recently in An Inspector Calls and as Laura in The Glass Menagerie. In 2013 Sophie was named Best Actress by The Baltimore City Paper. As a puppeteer, Sophie has performed in REVERSE CASCADE in several engagements around Baltimore. As an artist, she loves working with the classics as well as creating new, exciting performance art. Her training is primarily in acting from Baltimore School for the Arts and Bennington College. She is also member of the Acme Corporation, a theater company in Baltimore, MD.

Jeanine Padgett is an alumna of Maryland Institute College of Art and the O'Neill National Puppetry Conference. A recipient of a 2013 Seed Grant from the Henson Foundation, she is currently working on two new puppet shows to be released in 2016-17. She performed as a puppeteer with REVERSE CASCADE at the 2014 Artscape and at Single Carrot Theater. She resides in Baltimore, MD, with her husband, two sons, a hamster and two elderly cats.

Sarah Nolen is a puppeteer and filmmaker from Austin, Texas. She is completing her MFA in the Puppet Arts program at the University of Connecticut. Her thesis project, the pilot episode of a new children's television show Treeples, premiered at Slamdance 2016. Sarah was on the original devising team for REVERSE CASCADE in 2013 and 2014. In 2009, she earned her bachelor's degree in Cinema-Television with a second, interdisciplinary degree in Children's Educational Television from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She went on to work as a production coordinator for television shows on networks such as CMT & HGTV. Her short films have been featured in the SXSW Film Festival in Austin as well as the AFI Film Festival in Dallas. As a puppeteer, Sarah trained with Sandglass Theater and the National Puppetry Conference at the O'Neill Theater Center. In 2011, Sarah completed a year-long improvisational training program at the Dallas Comedy House, continuing there as an improviser for the house troupe "Roadside Couch," the long-form puppet improv troupe "Commerce Street," and also taught puppet-improv training workshops. She has performed as a puppeteer around the country.

Moira Horowitz is a singer, actress, book restorer and cat hero in Baltimore. In addition to performing as a puppeteer in REVERSE CASCADE in all of the Baltimore performances, Moira often performs in rock operas. She was a lead in 1814! the Rock Opera, which performed at the Star Spangled Spectacular Celebration, at the governor's mansion, at the 2014 DC Fringe Festival, and was featured in a Canadian documentary. She has also been seen performing in Baltimore and Philadelphia in Murdercastle and Grundlehammer with the Baltimore Rock Opera Society.

Recorded music by Nicholas Trautmann and Michael Albaine.

Devised by: Anna Fitzgerald, Sarah Nolen, Chris Mulllens, Karen Huizingh, Gavin Cummins, John Cody, Austin Costello, Krista Weltner, and Dana Samborski with help and consultation from Judy Finelli.

Made possible with the help of The Puffin Foundation and University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts.

Supported by a generous grant from The Jim Henson Foundation.

For more on REVERSE CASCADE, go to thetanknyc.org/theater/459-reverse-cascade, www.thetanknyc.org, www.facebook.com/thetanknyc, or www.youtube.com/user/thetanktheaternyc.

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