World Premiere Staging of Shakespeare's PERICLES to be Presented at Target Margin Theater in February

The Obie Award-winning Target Margin Theater will present a world premiere staging of Shakespeare's Pericles, a rarely-seen tragicomedy that explores themes of healing, redemption, and reconciliation. Running February 25 - March 26, 2023, with an opening set for March 8, Pericles stars Eunice Wong, a longtime associate artist of Target Margin Theater, in the title role. Wong leads a cast of seven that includes Shawn K. Jain, Anthony Vaughn Merchant, Peter Romano, Hannah Tamminen, Susannah Wilson, and Mary Neufeld, a founding member of Target Margin Theater. Tickets are now on sale at www.targetmargin.org/pericles/.

The story of Pericles unfolds like a mystery play, or a fable, or a Sindbad sea-voyage tale: the action wanders episodically as the hero ages, suffers, and ultimately shares a wonderful, wondrous restoration of lost life and love. Pericles is also generally agreed now to be the product of a collaboration between Shakespeare and at least one other author, probably George Wilkins. With this premiere, Target Margin Theater further develops its work in oral storytelling and delves deeper into questions of authorship.

Founding Artistic Director David Herskovits said, "After five years working on One Night, a nine-hour performance, I wanted to work small and traditional. So here comes Pericles as a chamber play, something brief and intimate. But Target Margin's exploration of group authorship continues. With One Night we asked how stories are shared, passed on, and live continuously through the people who give them voice. This work is expressed in all our programs, here with the local Sunset Park community and in the broader artistic community. Pericles itself is a perfect example of how authorship has always been shared by working artists; the play opens up new space for us to explore playmaking together. It also brings back the amazing Eunice Wong (Faust, Mourning Becomes Electra), my longtime friend and an important artistic partner. After thirty years, Target Margin continues to deepen the connections of storytelling, theater, authorship, and community in new ways."

Pericles finds Target Margin Theater returning to a 'classical' text or as Herskovits calls them, "plays you could get at your local library," which were a hallmark of the company when it began. In fact, Target Margin started with a bloody bang, in 1991, with another rarely seen Shakespeare play, Titus Andronicus, whose cast of 26 included Neufeld. Target Margin's signature extravagant theatricality, the dense layering of design elements, and the detailed celebration of language all grew from its work on plays like Ibsen's Little Eyolf, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, and Dorothy and DuBose Heyward's Mamba's Daughters, to name a few.

The creative team for Pericles includes Scenic Designer Kaye Voyce, Costume Designer Dina El-Aziz, and Lighting Designer Cha See with Sound Design by Herskovits. Leonie Bell serves as Sound Demon with Stage Manager Ann Barkin, Assistant Director Adam Kassim, and Production Manager Mike Mroch.

Thirty performances of Pericles will take place February 25 - April 2, 2023, at Target Margin Theater's The Doxsee, located at 232 52nd Street in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Critics are welcome as of Thursday, March 2, for an opening on Wednesday, March 8. Performances take place Wednesdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 4pm with additional performances on March 6 at 7:30pm and March 4 at 4pm. Tickets, which start at $25, can be purchased at www.targetmargin.org. The anticipated running time is 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Please visit www.targetmargin.org/pericles/ for more information.

About the Cast

Shawn K. Jain

is thrilled to be working with Target Margin on this joyous project. Acting credits elsewhere include American Repertory Theater, Merrimack Repertory Theater, Gingold Theatrical Group, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, Nebraska Repertory Theatre, SoHo Shakes, Gloucester Stage Company, Moscow Art Theater, and Constellation Theatre Company. Film/TV credits: WeCrashed (Apple TV+), Billions (Showtime), Girls5eva (Peacock), Blue Bloods (CBS), Gossip Girl (HBO Max), Thespian (Amazon), and A Ring for Christmas (UPtv). Shawn is the lead in an ongoing TV and radio campaign for Universal Parks & Resorts and is an accomplished audiobook narrator. Originally from Northern California, Shawn received his B.A. from UC Berkeley and his MFA in Acting from A.R.T. Institute at Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre School. www.shawnkjain.com

Anthony Vaughn Merchant

actor, person (in that order). Anthony has become recognized for his work in classical plays. As well as two-time Audelco nominee. He is also a proud member of Epic Theatre, Less Than Rent and Shakespeare in the Square. Most recently he appeared with Lubdub Theatre as part of their residency at Theatre Row. Anthony can also be seen on screen, having worked on several shows including HBO's Vinyl, Netflix' Luke Cage and USA's Mr. Robot. During the year that wasn't, Anthony continued teaching and performed in an international internet performance of Black Henry with Atlantic Pacific Theatre Company.

Mary Neufeld

gives credit to The Ridiculous Theatrical Company for her entry into the New York City downtown theater scene. An original member of Target Margin Theater company, her most recent role was Seth in their production of Mourning Becomes Electra. Most recently, Mary appeared as Chebutykin in Two River Theater's production of Three Sisters.

Peter Romano

is a Syrian-American Actor, Director, and Teaching-Artist. Off-Broadway: First Down (Noor @ 59E59), f-ing A (Signature Theater), Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream (CSC), Candida (Gingold). Regional: Yasmina's Necklace (Premiere Stages), Terror (Miami New Drama), Antigone in the World (International Tour) directed by Tony Award winner Gregory Mosher. Film/TV: New Amsterdam (NBC), Wu Tang (FX), The Blacklist (NBC), The Week Of (Netflix). Founding member of Apocalyptic Artists Ensemble, a company committed to bringing theatre education into New York City schools. BFA NYU Tisch, MFA Columbia. www.Peter-Romano.com

Hannah Tamminen

is thrilled to be working on her first show with Target Margin. Theater credits include: Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Linda Vista and The Mystery of Love & Sex (both at the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group), It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Ensemble Theatre Company in Santa Barbara), Richard II and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Kingsmen Shakespeare), Ether Dome (La Jolla Playhouse), Twelfth Night (Coeurage Theatre Company). TV credits include NCIS: LA (CBS) and Colony (USA). Films include: Home Team, Kink, The Starlight, Bull's Eye, and The Birch Grove. She holds a B.A. in Theatre & English from Skidmore College and an M.F.A. in Acting from UC - San Diego.

Susannah Wilson

(she/they) is a NY-based actor and voice over artist. Credits include: Aida (Metropolitan Opera); King Lear (Hamlet Isn't Dead); The Tragical Historie of Maximillien Robespierre (The Fled); Richard III, Macbeth (Commonwealth Shakespeare Co); Twelfth Night (Verdi Square Arts Festival); Both/And: A Quantum Physics Play (Catalyst Collaborative with MIT); Once a Blue Moon, Shahrazad (Double Edge Theatre); and the titular role in Richard III (Emerson Stage). Susannah spent a year training with New York's Siti Company as a Conservatory Artist and holds a BA in acting from Emerson College.

Eunice Wong

with Target Margin Theater: Lavinia in Mourning Becomes Electra; Gretchen in Faust. Other theatre includes McCarter, ART, Transport Group, Classic Stage, Atlantic, Guthrie, Huntington, Yale Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse. Awards include the Helen Hayes Award for Lead Actress, a Barrymore nomination for Best Actress, and 4 AudioFile Earphones Awards. 70+ audiobooks narrated for Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Harper, Audible, & more. Juilliard Drama. www.eunicewong.com

About the Creative Team

David Herskovits

(he/him; Director/Sound Designer) is the Founding Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater for which he has directed a broad range of work. His Target Margin productions have won multiple Obies and been presented nationally and internationally. In 2017, Herskovits directed a major production of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra, after three years of development. Other notable Target Margin credits include: Gertrude Stein's Reread Another (Bushwick Starr); a two-year program of Yiddish theater from 2012 to 2014 featuring Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man! (Chocolate Factory); The Tempest (HERE) and many other Shakespeare productions; The Really Big Once (Ontological); Faust Parts I and II (Classic Stage Company); Mamba's Daughters (HERE and Spoleto USA) and The Argument and The Dinner Party (The Kitchen).

Outside of Target Margin, Herskovits directed a major new production of Porgy and Bess for the 2016 Spoleto Festival, Edmund Thornton Jenkins' long-lost operetta Afram Ou La Belle Swita, and a new production of Michael Gordon's Van Gogh with Bang on A Can. Other notable productions include opera by composers Pascal Dusapin, Thomas Cabaniss, Nick Brooke, Phillip Johnston, and David Soldier, and plays by Chikamatsu, O'Neill, Kleist and Marlowe. He has directed at Lincoln Center Festival, The Spoleto Festival USA, The Bonn Biennale, The Prototype Festival, Theatre for A New Audience, Institut Internationale de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezieres, France, Cleveland Public Theater, The Kitchen, Mass MoCA, and others.

Leonie Bell

(she/her) is a German-American theater artist from Berlin, based in New York. In NYC, she has presented work at Target Margin Theater, Performance Space NY, BAM, The Whitney Museum, The Brick, Center for Performance Research, and other venues. Leonie produces much of her work as her free-form theater company LOCAL GRANDMA. She is a recent alumna of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, Mabou Mines Resident-Artist-Program, and BAX Upstart Program. www.leoniebell.org & www.localgrandma.org

Dina El-Aziz

(Costume Designer). [She/Her/Hers] Target Margin projects include One Night, P*ssyC*ck Know Nothing, Marjana and the Forty Thieves, Pay No Attention To The Girl; Regional Theater: Selling Kabul (Seattle Rep); Unseen (OSF); When Monica Met Hillary (Miami New Drama); This is Who I Am (OSF/Woolly Mammoth/The Guthrie/ART/PlayCo); 9 Parts of Desire (Portland Center Stage); King Lear (Northern Stage); Noura (The Guthrie); Noura (The Old Globe); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Off-Broadway: Weightless (WP theater), The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater); Spindle Shuttle Needle (Clubbed Thumb); Heartland (Geva Theater/59E59); First Down (Noor Theater/59E59); Hindsight (Fault Line Theater); Design for Stage and Film M.F.A. - NYU Tisch School of the Arts. www.dinae.me

Cha See

(Lighting Designer) is from Manila Philippines. Off-Broadway: You Will Get Sick (Roundabout Theatre), Lucy and The Fever (Audible Theatre), One in Two (The New Group), The Seagull Woodstock, NY (The New Group), Exception To The Rule (Roundabout Underground), What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Playwrights Horizons), Soft (MCC) and As You Like It (La Jolla Playhouse) to name a few. Upcoming: Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons), (pray) (Ars Nova) Training: MFA, NYU Tisch.www.seelightingdesign.com; @seethruuu.

Kaye Voyce

(scenic design) Previously for TMT: Mourning Becomes Electra, Uriel Acosta, Faust, The Seagull, Dido Queen of Carthage, and Cymbeline. Broadway: True West, Sea Wall/A Life (co-design), The Nap, Significant Other, The Real Thing, The Realistic Joneses, and Shining City. Other recent work includes: The Bedwetter (Atlantic, book by Sarah Silverman), The Seagull (Elevator Repair Service), Shhhh (Atlantic), Morning Sun (MTC), set and costumes for Mud/Drowning (Mabou Mines), and the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli's opera The Listeners (Den Norske Opera, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz).

About Target Margin Theater

Target Margin Theater is a multi-Obie Award-winning theater based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, founded on the principle that works of art return us to real truths most powerfully by their divergence from a strict illustration of reality. For over 30 years, Target Margin has been praised for their innovative, experimental interpretations of classic texts, opera, literature and historical sources. They exist to change our shared culture, to remake the world as a more engaged, aware, and humane version of itself. Everything about their programs and activities flows from this. They energize audiences with plays that expand the possibilities of live performance and engage their community at all levels through partnerships and programs. The company has served over 1,000 artists (emerging and established) through its extensive programming and is committed to nurturing the creative aspirations of the next generation of theater makers. In 2019, Target Margin was recognized for their impact on the field with the Obie Award for Sustained Artistic Excellence. www.targetmargin.org

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