WHAT MAKES US FEEL GOOD Premieres At The Tank

What Makes Us Feel Good begins with a cow attempting to put the audience at ease. In reality, however, this is an actor looking for self validation. We cannot be certain how the audiences at The Tank will respond, but Johnny the Cow will most certainly ignore them. Especially once he has asked them a question. You see, he wants to get to the good stuff. A trauma involving his mother. A lifetime of self doubt. Forgiveness. Anyway, there's another actor on stage now. They are preparing to present an educational children's theatre show based on the life of murderer William Bradford Bishop. They are certain that it will be both marketing and compelling. The resulting performance is an amalgam of children's broadcast programming, live educational theatre, and William Bradford Bishop's violent acts in Bethesda, Maryland in 1976.

In What Makes Us Feel Good, we meet William Bradford Bishop as he is burning the corpses of his victims and teaching us to spell "grave". Along with his loyal pals, Mrs. Teapot and Johnny the Cow, William Bradford Bishop flees from the authorities and searches for meaning in existence. Through it all, William is plagued by flashbacks of his marriage, self loathing thoughts, and visits from a poetic and profound life sized squirrel.

WHAT MAKES US FEEL GOOD will play at The Tank (312 West 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues), April 5-8 at 7pm. There will be a preview performance on April 4th. Tickets ($15) are available for advance purchase at www.thetanknyc.org.

The Equity approved Showcase will be performed by Marielle Young*, David Brummer, Alison Schilling, Gina Doherty, and Kelsey Lurie.

Costumes by Iliana Paris.

Lighting Design by Christina Tang.

*Appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association.

Brett Evan Solomon (playwright) is a writer and performer based out of New York City. His work as a playwright has been produced or developed through Nylon Fusion Theater Company, The Southampton International Theater Workshop, The Secret Theatre, Dixon Place, Muchmore's, Play Date at Pete's, The Tank, The Brick, Interrobang New Works Festival, Piggies Amusement Complex, The Exponential Festival, and The Drama League. He has held assistant positions with Young Jean Lee, Rachel Dickstein/Ripe Time, Target Margin Theater, New York City Players, A Collection of Shiny Objects, and Genee Coreno. B.A, Double Major in Theater and Performance/Playwriting and Screenwriting, Conservatory of Theatre Arts at SUNY Purchase College.

Gabriel Vasquez (director) is a director, performer, and native New Yorker. He has presented work at Muchmore's, Dixon Place, The Tank, Vital Joint, and The Brick among others. He was a 2017 resident artist at the Drama League with Brett Evan Solomon's queer reveng tale Such a Tragedy. He began serious work on a new piece titled Minor Kerouac as part of Barton Booth's Make Room residency on Governors Island this summer. He was last seen performing in SOMEONEPLEASELISTENANDUNDERSTAND (they're wiretapping our brains) as part of the Exponential Festival. As an assistant director or intern, he has worked with Rachel Dickstein/Ripe Time, The TEAM, The Wooster Group, Sanaz Ghajar, and Sponsored By Nobody. BA, Theater and Performance, SUNY Purchase College. cargocollective.com/gabrielvasquez.

Special Events (company) is a collaborative co-op that looks to constantly reconfigure its own definition of collaboration. Though the lead artist may change, we are all able to take joint ownership over the work that we present. We are interested in pushing experimentation in the form to greater lengths, which often manifests itself as big shifts in aesthetic or tone between pieces. A major driving force is the impossible quest to find authenticity in theater. Using self prescribed tools like cliche, genre, sound, pop culture, and dance to disrupt a play's complacency to narrative and form is our way of making theater that is as complex, weird, and self referential as everyday reality.

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.

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