Theatre for a New Audience Extends PERICLES, Starring Christian Camargo

Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience Founding Artistic Director, has just announced an extension of Pericles through Sunday, April 10 at Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, due to wide acclaim and box office demand. Pericles by William Shakespeare, with music composed by Shaun Davey and directed by Trevor Nunn, features OBIE Award-winner Christian Camargo in the title role and leading a company of 22 actors.

PERICLES began performances on Sunday, February 14 and opened on Thursday, February 25. The originally scheduled closing was Sunday, March 27.

PERICLES marks Mr. Camargo's third Shakespeare title role for Theatre for a New Audience, and the first time not only that Trevor Nunn has directed this play, but the first time he has directed Shakespeare with a U.S. company.

The complete cast includes Oberon K.A. Adjepong (Thaliard/Pandar), Earl Baker Jr. (Antiochus/Cerimon), Christian Camargo (PERICLES), Philip Casnoff (Helicanus), Patrice Johnson Chevannes (Bawd/Lychorida), Gia Crovatin (Thaisa), Lilly Englert (Marina), Nina Hellman (Dionyza), Zachary Infante (Leonine/2nd Fisherman), John Keating (Boult/1st Fisherman), Ian Lassiter (Lysimachus), Sam Morales (Daughter/Handmaid), John Rothman (Simonides), Will Swenson (Cleon), Raphael Nash Thompson (Gower), and PigPen Theatre Co. (Players and Musicians), with Alex Falberg, Ben Ferguson, Curtis Gillen, Ryan Melia, Matt Nuernberger, Arya Shahi, and Dan Weschler.

PERICLES, one of the group of Shakespeare's Late Plays, is part of Theatre for a New Audience's season-long celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death (April 23, 1616). Pericles relates a surging adventure story -- a hero wanders Odysseus-like through the world of the Mediterranean -- and climaxes with events that are seemingly miraculous. An original score written by Tony-nominated Irish composer Shaun Davey (with whom Trevor Nunn has worked six times, including his film of Twelfth Night) will help in telling the story and conveying the mystery and magic of the ending. The acclaimed storyteller-musicians of PigPen Theatre Co. will lend their voices and instrumentation to the production, playing Mr. Davey's score and performing various roles throughout.

Scenic design for Pericles is by Robert Jones, who has designed numerous productions for Broadway and the West End and more than 15 productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as Mr. Nunn's Rock 'n' Roll on Broadway. Costume design is by Constance Hoffman, the acclaimed opera, dance, and theatre designer whose previous work with Theatre for a New Audience includes Titus Andronicus, The Green Bird, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Lighting design is by Stephen Strawbridge, whose credits include more than 200 productions on and Off Broadway, including Theatre for a New Audience's Souls of Naples. Sound design is by Daniel Kluger, whose credits include work with Roundabout Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, and Lincoln Center Theater. Brian Brooks, whose choreography has toured nationally and internationally since 2002 and who collaborated on A Midsummer Night's Dream, is the choreographer. Renee Lutz is the production stage manager.

Trevor Nunn's most recent production in New York was in 2013 -- Samuel Beckett,s All That Fall. A four-time Tony and Olivier Award-winner and former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre, he is "as celebrated for his staging of blockbuster musicals (Cats, LES MISERABLES) as for his revitalizing of classic texts," wrote Ben Brantley, The New York Times.

Though Christian Camargo is making his first appearance on the Polonsky Shakespeare Center stage in Pericles, he performed with Theatre for a New Audience before the company had its own home: he starred in Coriolanus (2005) directed by Karin Coonrod, and Hamlet (2009, Drama League Nomination and Obie Award) directed by David Esbjornson. Mr. Camargo,s Shakespearean resume includes Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway, and also (for The Bridge Project in Brooklyn, in London, and on a world-wide tour) Orlando in As You Like It and Ariel in The Tempest. Other Shakespearean roles on either side of the Atlantic include major parts in Timon of Athens and Henry V. Mr. Camargo's major films include Twilight: Breaking Dawn Parts I and II, directed by Bill Condon, The Hurt Locker and K19: The Widowmaker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets, directed by Jon Turteltaub. His TV work includes recurring roles in Penny Dreadful, House of Cards, Haven, and Dexter.

Photo Credit: Gerry Goodstein

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