The Tank (theater)

The Tank
The Tank's logo
A yellow brick building with two double glass doors, one to the left, the other to the right, runs out of the frame at the top. A person is entering through the left glass doors. A black and white banner hangs from the second story with The Tank's logo and the words "THE TANK".
The Tank's entrance (left), 2018
Address 312 West 36th Street, Manhattan, New York
Coordinates 40°45′13″N 73°59′36″W / 40.7535298°N 73.9932606°W / 40.7535298; -73.9932606Coordinates: 40°45′13″N 73°59′36″W / 40.7535298°N 73.9932606°W / 40.7535298; -73.9932606
Type Off-Off-Broadway
Genre(s) Dance, theater, music, film, comedy
Opened May 2003 (2003-05)
Website
thetanknyc.org

The Tank is a nonprofit Off-Off-Broadway performance venue and producer in Manhattan, New York. The organization was founded in May 2003 and has since moved several times, currently residing on 36th Street. The Tank presents art across several disciplines (comedy, dance, theater, music, film), produced at no fee for use of the venue to the presenting artists. In addition to its space in Manhattan, The Tank produces shows performed elsewhere throughout New York City, collectively presenting as many as 350 events each year.

History

The Tank was founded in May 2003 in Manhattan, New York, by nine artists, all recent college graduates in their mid-20s.[1][2] Its founders included playwright Amy Herzog, playwright and director Alex Timbers, Justin Krebs, and Randy Bell, who collectively expressed the goal of offering young artists across disciplines the space to create work in the center of New York City.[1][2][3]

The organization was first housed on 42nd Street.[1] The Tank leased the space on a month-to-month basis from a landlord who intended to sell the building in which the theater was housed, and within 10 months, they had repaid their startup loans. The company derived its name from the architecture of its first space: a large window overlooking 42nd Street led to someone calling the space The Fishtank and later the Fish was dropped in favor of The Tank.[2] By 2006, the company had moved twice and by 2007, it had won an unsolicited grant of $10,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and was receiving money from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.[2] The Tank's third location, into which it moved in 2006, was on Church Street in the Tribeca neighborhood, where the organization shared space with Collective:Unconscious as late as 2008.[1][2][4]

By 2010, The Tank had returned to Manhattan's midtown Theater District, occupying a venue on 45th Street on the block between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.[1] The Tank had moved to 46th Street by 2013, where it resided until 2017.[3][5] That year, The Tank signed a ten-year lease on and moved to a two-stage venue on 36th Street, the former home of Abingdon Theatre Company, with one 56-seat black box theater and one 98-seat proscenium theater.[6][7][8] The Tank's move coincided with the relocations of several other New York City theaters in mid-2017, including the Flea Theater and the Chocolate Factory.[8]

A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, which premiered at The Tank in 2003, received an Obie Award special citation in 2004.[9] The Tank has received six Drama Desk Award nominations. Two shows, ADA/AVA and YOUARENOWHERE, were nominated in 2016, and another two, the ephemera trilogy and The Paper Hat Game, were nominated in 2017, all in the category of Unique Theatrical Experience.[10][11] In 2018, A Hunger Artist received two nominations: Outstanding Solo Performance and Outstanding Puppet Design.[12]

The Tank's artistic directors are Rosalind Grush and Meghan Finn as of 2017.[6]

Operations

Categorized as an Off-Off-Broadway venue, The Tank presents up to 350 events each year across several disciplines.[1][13] Each discipline–including dance, music, theater, comedy, and film–is curated by one or more curators.[1][2] Artists do not pay to use the venue and are paid a portion of the ticket sales, a practice made sustainable by surplus value generated by better-selling shows.[1] As a nonprofit producer, the organization relies mostly on volunteers.[1][14] Oftentimes, The Tank runs multiple shows in a single night.[1] In addition to presenting shows at its 36th Street location, artists have also produced pieces with The Tank at other venues in New York City, such as the 3LD Art and Technology Center in Lower Manhattan and Standard ToyKraft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[14][15] The theater runs several festivals each summer, including LadyFest and DarkFest, the latter of which requires performers to create shows using no stage lighting.[16][17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hodges, Mary Love (February 3, 2010). "Spotlight on The Tank". The Brooklyn Rail. Archived from the original on May 12, 2013. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lambert, Craig (March–April 2007). "Avant-Garde Incubator". Harvard Magazine. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  3. 1 2 "The Tank: A Theasy Interview with Josh Luxenberg, curator of the Flint & Tinder theater series at The Tank". Theatre Is Easy. June 2013. Archived from the original on October 13, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
  4. ↑ Williams, James R., ed. (2007). Inside New York 2008. New York City: Inside New York. p. 158. ISBN 978-1892768407.
  5. ↑ Heins, Scott (January 16, 2017). "5 Fun Things To Do In NYC This Week". Gothamist. Archived from the original on January 29, 2017. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  6. 1 2 Fujishima, Kenji (August 25, 2017). "The Tank Announces New Season, New Home". TheaterMania. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  7. ↑ Clement, Olivia (August 31, 2017). "The Tank Finds New Home in Old Abingdon Theatre Company Space". Playbill. Archived from the original on September 14, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  8. 1 2 Felton-Dansky, Miriam (September 12, 2017). "This Fall, Rent-Challenged Downtown Theaters Are Battling to Stay in Place". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
  9. ↑ Hernandez, Ernio (September 15, 2006). "A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant Returns to NYC". Playbill. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  10. ↑ Editorial staff (June 5, 2016). "Shuffle Along, The Humans, and More Take Home 2016 Drama Desk Awards". TheaterMania. Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  11. ↑ Gerard, Jeremy (April 27, 2017). "'Hello, Dolly!' And 'The Hairy Ape' Lead Drama Desk Musical, Drama Nominations". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 28, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  12. ↑ "2018 Nominees". Drama Desk Awards. Drama Desk. April 26, 2018. Archived from the original on April 27, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Study of Off-Off-Broadway Performance Venues" (PDF). New York Innovative Theatre Foundation. December 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 16, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  14. 1 2 Roberts, Shoshana (November 15, 2016). "Vera & Valya & The Magical One Cat Circus". Theatre Is Easy. Archived from the original on January 29, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  15. ↑ Brantley, Ben (June 26, 2016). "Review: Urban Nightmares as Puppets in 'The Paper Hat Game'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  16. ↑ Vincentelli, Elisabeth (August 21, 2018). "Review: Besties With Rasputin in 'Red Emma and the Mad Monk'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 30, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
  17. ↑ van Laarhoven, Kasper (July 27, 2017). "Let There Be Dark! at This Electricity-Free Theater Festival". Bedford + Bowery. New York. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
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