The artistic heart of WP Theater lies in the Lab: a two-year residency for playwrights, directors and producers that has served over 350 artists since its founding as The Director’s Forum in 1983. The Lab has two main goals: to cultivate the work of women+ artists, and to give them the tools they need to succeed in the industry. Selected through a highly competitive process, the Lab provides its members with a vital professional network, entrepreneurial and leadership training, rehearsal space, and most significantly, tangible opportunities for the development and production of bold new work for the stage. In addition to developing their own unique work, the Lab residency culminates in the biennial Pipeline Festival, a festival of five new plays written, directed and produced by the Lab.

THE TANK PRESENTS ZOË GELTMAN’S PUFFY HAIR

DIRECTED BY JULIA SIRNA-FREST, NOVEMBER 4–20

Existential Stand-Up Meets Raw Feminist Rant in One-Woman Show

Puffy Hair is a night of existential stand-up laced with a theatrical embrace of the absurd. UsingVaudeville-cum-Fosse dance moves, Puffy Hair investigates one woman’s ambivalent and torturedrelationship to the male gaze, which she alternately cozies up to and execrates. The show is a catharsisof self-hatred, body dysmorphia, and self-aggrandizement. A vigorous dose of lipstick smears andshoulder pads. A marriage between Joan Rivers and gastrointestinal turbulence. A struggle to makespace for the existential pressure of a bun.“Confessional, cathartic, and theatrical – this is my mantra,” says Geltman. “I love making theater thatexamines the mundane and then pries it open to uncover the horrible weirdness that lurks inside all ofus. By embracing the confessional framework of stand-up, my hope is that audiences will recognize theabsurdity of living inside a body that is pulled between the burning desire for truth and the need forcomfort and avoidance.”The additional creative team for Puffy Hair includes costume and set designer Enver Chakartash andlighting designer Sarah Lurie.Nine performances of Puffy Hair take place Thursday through Saturday at 7pm from November 4–20 atThe Tank, located at 312 W 36th Street in Manhattan. Tickets, priced at $15–$25, can be purchased online atwww.thetanknyc.org or by calling (212) 563-6269.

Puffy Hair is a night of existential stand-up laced with a theatrical embrace of the absurd. Using

Vaudeville-cum-Fosse dance moves, Puffy Hair investigates one woman’s ambivalent and tortured

relationship to the male gaze, which she alternately cozies up to and execrates. The show is a catharsis

of self-hatred, body dysmorphia, and self-aggrandizement. A vigorous dose of lipstick smears and

shoulder pads. A marriage between Joan Rivers and gastrointestinal turbulence. A struggle to make

space for the existential pressure of a bun.

“Confessional, cathartic, and theatrical – this is my mantra,” says Geltman. “I love making theater that

examines the mundane and then pries it open to uncover the horrible weirdness that lurks inside all of

us. By embracing the confessional framework of stand-up, my hope is that audiences will recognize the

absurdity of living inside a body that is pulled between the burning desire for truth and the need for

comfort and avoidance.”

The additional creative team for Puffy Hair includes costume and set designer Enver Chakartash and

lighting designer Sarah Lurie.

Nine performances of Puffy Hair take place Thursday through Saturday at 7pm from November 4–20 at

The Tank, located at 312 W 36th Street in Manhattan.

Tickets, priced at $15–$25, can be purchased online at

www.thetanknyc.org or by calling (212) 563-6269.

Poet/Performer/Playwright Jane Elias has been writing Corona Style Poems (a series of poems in which the last line of a poem serves as the first line for the next poem) in the Time of Corona. Jane writes each poem for a specific actor. She has been writing a poem a day since April and will continue to do so until the vaccine is made available. I chose to compose a song for my sonnet and take advantage of our recent snow storm. Check out Jane’s other sonnets on Twitter: @eliastories

[Porto] is a New York Times and New York Magazine Critics Pick

"Porto (played by Julia Sirna-Frest, with a tremulous mixture of hope and resignation)"-The New Yorker"The ensemble cast, playing both individuals and recognizable types, delivers warm, sympathetic portraits of figures that, to a Brooklyn audience, …

"Porto (played by Julia Sirna-Frest, with a tremulous mixture of hope and resignation)"-The New Yorker

"The ensemble cast, playing both individuals and recognizable types, delivers warm, sympathetic portraits of figures that, to a Brooklyn audience, are familiar: evoking our own daily lives, with our own unexamined habits and pleasures, awaiting us after the lights go down."-Village Voice

Full Village Voice HERE

"Sirna-Frest radiate[s] sweetness"-TimeOut NY

Full TimeOut HERE

Julia Sirna-Frest’s compassionate portrayal of a strong woman – the fearful, insecure woman that every woman is, has been or will be – resonates with the complex image of femaleness in the present social moment.-Times Square Chronicles

Full Review Here

 

 

"excellent cast led by the wonderful Ms. Sirna-Frest."-New York Times

New York Times Critics Pick-Review HERE

“Our heroine is Porto, the expressive Julia Sirna-Frest [her] performance is a thoughtful, rewarding slow burn.”-NYmag

New York Magazine Critics Pick- Full Review Here

"Sirna-Frest’s Porto is an emphatic blend of warmth, pensivity and dread.  It’s a joy to watch her face process the beats of her inner monologue as the narrator moves through a laundry list of anxieties."-NY Theater Review

Photos by Maria Baranova

Photos by Maria Baranova