Tariq’s Interlude
Beep…beep….beeeeeeeep…….An NYC train singer named Tariq wakes up in Purgatory with no memory of his death. Despite a rocky past and with big plans for the future - including an impending proposal to his pregnant girlfriend, Marissa - Tariq convinces God to let him live one more day to prove his life deserves more living. Except God is a bad communicator, the music of the city is loud, and there’s something going on with Marissa that everyone except Tariq seems to know about…
Created by The Village’s 2024 Artists-in-Residence Antonyio Artis and Tessa Bagby, Tariq’s Interlude is a physical, joyous, visceral solo show that explores personal responsibility, perseverance, faith, and what it means to choose how we express love. With only his body and a chair, Antonyio channels the sounds and motion of New York City, transforming between six characters and transporting the audience through purgatory, the park, the subway, and even a McDonalds in Queens. This show is hilarious and soulful and serves as a love letter to NYC and to the born-and-bred underground artists who populate it.
The Village Collective is proud to present Tariq’s Interlude in full for the very first time in 2025! We are honored to collaborate with Antonyio and Tessa to bring this play-in-progress to fruition. As the saying goes, “It takes a village.” We hope we can count on your donation to Tariq’s Interlude as we continue to expand what is possible when we bring audiences and artists closer together.
Meet the Team
Antonyio Artis (he/him)
2024 Performance Artist-in-Residence
“I create work that marries the nerd and the black experience within me!”
Antonyio Artis is a multi-faceted NYC artist who graduated with his BFA in Acting from Brooklyn College. Since graduating, Artis has performed in the national tour of “New Jack City,” ’24 NYTF Winning production of “Underground,” and has self-produced 3 short film adaptations of the plays “Thoughts of a Colored Man” (Keenan Scott II), “Boy’s Life” (Howard Korder), and “Jitney” (August Wilson), to name a few things. His solo show, “Tariq’s Interlude,” had its first full-length workshop this past week and will be heading into a full production later this year.
Tessa Bagby (she/they)
2024 Performance Artist-in-Residence
“Assembler of living collages”
Tessa Bagby is a Bay Area-born, Brooklyn-based director, dramaturg, and nurturer of original live performance. Proscenium-averse in practice, Tessa collaborates with candor, rigor, and care to develop and present new work. They’re interested in questions about the dissonant relationships between the spiritual and the corporal, desire, personal responsibility, environment, transformation, embodied queerness and unbalanced power. Recent directing credits include MAiD in America (Dramatists Guild Foundation, NYU), Spew’s Little Baby (The Tank), The Angry Brigade (Drew University), God and Abraham Play Ping Pong (Minnesota Fringe Festival). As an assistant/associate director, Tessa has worked with Emma Went, Will Frears, Jolie Tong, and Jack Serio on his hyper-intimate production of Uncle Vanya (3 Drama Desk Nominations, including Outstanding Revival of a Play). Wearing many different hats, they have supported processes on and off-Broadway with The Public, The Apothetae, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Juniper Street Productions, The Tank, Mercury Store, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and, best of all, in basements/roofs/living rooms across the city. With Antonyio Artis, Tessa was The Village’s 2024 Performance Artist-in-Residence, developing Antonyio’s solo show Tariq’s Interlude (full production upcoming in 2025).