Primordial is a new play from playwright + actor Lillian Isabella, and an original verbatim documentary theatre play centering Pregnancy and Childbirth.
Assembled from an array of interviews by Lillian with birthing people across the country, spanning a diverse range of race, gender, and age groups, Primordial is one of only a small handful of productions entirely focused on pregnancy and childbirth to be staged in the city in the past decade.
Brought to you by The Tank, Primordial is directed by The Tank's Artistic Director Meghan Finn. It ran from February 1 to February 25, 2024.
Assembled from an array of interviews by Lillian with birthing people across the country, spanning a diverse range of race, gender, and age groups, Primordial is one of only a small handful of productions entirely focused on pregnancy and childbirth to be staged in the city in the past decade.
Brought to you by The Tank, Primordial is directed by The Tank's Artistic Director Meghan Finn. It ran from February 1 to February 25, 2024.
|
Lillian Isabella
Playwright
Lillian Isabella is a Cuban-American playwright and actor. She is the first known playwright with the rare disorder Phenylketonuria (PKU). Her plays have been produced and developed in NYC at The Tank, Cherry Lane Theatre, Metropolitan Playhouse, NYC Fringe Fest, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and the United Nations. She grew up in The Bronx, NY and has a BFA in Theatre from NYU, Tisch School of the Arts. Lillian has acted in numerous independent films and NYC Theatre productions and is a proud member of the acting unions: SAG-AFTRA and AEA. More at lillianisabella.com |
|
Meghan FinnDirector
Meghan Finn (she/her) is the Artistic Director of The Tank. Her directorial work has been seen at the Tank, the V&A, Serpentine Galleries, The Wexner Center, SCAD, The Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, Museo Jumex Mexico City, The Power Plant, Canadian Stage, Carnegie Mellon, Brooklyn College, MIT, NYU, the Great Plains Theater Conference and others. She has directed three world premieres by playwright Mac Wellman, including most recently The Invention of Tragedy (2019). She holds a BA in Theater from The University of Southern California and an MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College. Leslie Galán GuytonCo-Director and Choreographer
Leslie Galán Guyton (Co-Director and Choreographer) is a Brooklyn-based Choreographer, Director and Producer. Her work includes choreographing for the band Foster the People's Grammy-nominated music video Houdini, Chadwick Stokes' Mother Maple and Our Lives Our Times, sElf's Top 10 Music Videos for Rolling Stone Runaway, a dance mash-up advertisement for Adidas, and an ad for NRG featuring NFL athletes among many others. Adrianna MateoComposer and Performer
(Composer-Performer, M.D.) is a unique multitalent: solo violinist, singer-songwriter, and actress. She is known for her depth, nuance, and appeal to both commercial and classical audiences. Her credits include solo violinist at a sold-out Carnegie Hall (conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya), Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bang on a Can Marathon, and on Emmy-winning fashion designer Alantude’s Fall 2023 show in a couture gown; singer-songwriter at MCU Park for an audience of more than 40,000 people, Jungle City Studios, and on the same online gala lineup as Alan Menken, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, Desmond Child, and Joshua Bell; singer on MTV and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert; and actress at the Met Opera (stage and film versions, “Manon Lescaut” with Anna Netrebko), in the New York Times-featured AAPI musical play, “Specially Processed American Me,” and on HBO’s “Succession.” She has opened solo for Alicia Keys, premiered a violin concerto written for her with a 50-piece orchestra, concert mastered on Broadway, been profiled in 25A Luxury Magazine (John Lennon cover edition), toured internationally, and performed on the same, slightly random house concert as Jon Batiste. She has been listed by Google three different ways - pop violinist, pop singer, and singer-songwriter - and looks forward to more. / @adriannamateo, linktr.ee/adriannamateo |
|
What's the show about?Tightly weaving the narratives of many birthing people’s experiences into overlapping stories that amplify one another, the play deals directly with pregnancy, childbirth, patient advocacy, birth without violence, birth equity, and other related topics. It puts the birthing person's perspective center stage.
|
Who is featured in the play?
Five diverse actors will perform 30+ unique pregnancy and birthing stories. Here's a snapshot of just five of the inspiring individuals featured in the play.
The InspirationLillian grew up in a single parent household and this play is a love letter to her mom and all birthing people without whom all of us would literally not exist. It’s also an exploration of what centering pregnancy and birth, arguably the most magical thing the human body is capable of, does to us as people and as a society on a visceral level.
A line from the play captures it perfectly, ‘How the f*ck are we not talking about this all of the time?’ |
|
WHY NOW?!
All 331 million people in the United States share the experience of being born. Yet a quick search on google reveals less than five plays about pregnancy or childbirth have been fully produced in NYC in the last 25 years. This despite over 3.6 million people giving birth in the US in 2021 alone. It doesn't make sense.
Wanting to stimulate a conversation playwright Lillian Isabella interviewed many birthing people about their experiences and created a 50-page verbatim documentary play from 1000+ pages of transcripts.
The play celebrates this innate connection we all share as human beings and encourages us to talk more openly about the birthing process. It's a timely and important play that celebrates community and reminds us of our shared experiences.
Wanting to stimulate a conversation playwright Lillian Isabella interviewed many birthing people about their experiences and created a 50-page verbatim documentary play from 1000+ pages of transcripts.
The play celebrates this innate connection we all share as human beings and encourages us to talk more openly about the birthing process. It's a timely and important play that celebrates community and reminds us of our shared experiences.
|
|
JOIN THE TEAM AS A PARTNER
We're looking for partners to ensure this NYC production of Primordial is of the highest quality and reaches as much of the pregnancy and birthing community as possible.
We'd love to explore what a partnership with YOU looks like.
Email us for more information.
We'd love to explore what a partnership with YOU looks like.
Email us for more information.
Reproductive Justice OrgsBirthing Rights, Equitable Care,
Self Advocacy, Informed Consent |
Parenting SupportPrenatal Classes, Childbirth Education, Postpartum Support, Other Support Groups
|
Health Orgs / ProfessionalsDoulas, Midwives, Birth Centers, Clinics, Perinatologists, Nurse-Midwives
|
The Tank is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. To claim a donation as a deduction on your U.S. taxes, please keep your email donation receipt as your official record. We'll send it to you upon successful completion of your donation.