Target Margin Theater Presents FEAR IN THE WESTERN WORLD

By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 18, 2019

Target Margin Theater Presents FEAR IN THE WESTERN WORLD Image

Target Margin Theater (Founding Artistic Director David Herskovits, Associate Artistic Director Moe Yousuf) presents the world premiere of Fear in the Western World, a digital puppetry performance that examines gun control and fear in contemporary America. Created by David Commander (Steve Of Tomorrow, Big Art Group) and Rob Ramirez (Cycling '74), Fear in the Western World looks at the apparatus of fear and how both the repulsion and compulsion towards guns play into their power to oppress. Written and directed by Commander, Fear in the Western World runs January 2-19 at Target Margin Theater's THE DOXSEE as part of TMT Presents and The Exponential Festival. It opens on January 5.

In Fear in the Western World, a family's young daughter is attacked and abducted by spirits soon after moving into their new home in a gated community. In a desperate attempt to find their child, the couple set off on a journey through the catacombs under their house, leading them into a terrifying urban dystopia. As the story unfolds, Commander and his team weave horror film tropes, like 1979's Amityville Horror, with Greek mythology into the family drama and expose the mechanics behind their digital puppetry. This action not only offers the audience a sense of observational interactivity, but propels uncomfortable detours into violence, racial tension, and the tyranny of fear.

Fear in the Western World features performances by Nikki Calonge, Maria Camia, and Commander, along with lighting by Takaaki Ando.

Fourteen performances of Fear in the Western World will take place January 2-19 (see above schedule) at Target Margin Theater's THE DOXSEE, located at 232 52nd Street in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. Critics are welcome as of January 2 for an official opening on Sunday, January 5 at 3pm. Tickets, priced at $20-$25 ($18 students, seniors), can be purchased by visiting targetmargin.org or by calling 212-352-3101.

About the Artists

David Commander has written, directed and performed his particular style of modern toy theater since 2010, has been presented in New York City, Minneapolis (Toy Theater After Dark Festival), Portland (TBA Festival), Chicago (Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival), and Philadelphia. 2016 saw his first collaboration with Rob Ramirez (Cycling '74, Immediate Medium) to create Steve Of Tomorrow, a puppet performance about time travel using newer, more cutting edge technology. As well as his work in puppetry and toy theater, Commander is a long time member of Big Art Group, a NYC theater company dedicated to building culturally transgressive and challenging new works through using the language of media and blended states of performance.

Rob Ramirez is a performance artist, DJ, and computer programmer based in Brooklyn, New York. He has performed and exhibited works at SAT (Montréal), MANCC (Tallahassee), EMPAC (Troy), Borusan (Istanbul), and the festivals Novelum (Toulouse), Fusebox (Austin), Push (Vancouver), and COIL (NYC). Ramirez has collaborated with several multi-disciplinary artists, including Phil Soltanoff, Joe Diebes, Kurt Hentschlager, Koosil-Ja, David Watson, and David Commander. He is a member of the NYC based performance group Immediate Medium. He holds an M.S. in Integrated Digital Media from Brooklyn Polytechnic University and is a developer on Cycling '74's Max media software. Ramirez was born in Asheville, NC.

About The Exponential Festival

Now in its fifth year, The Exponential Festival is the only month-long January festival dedicated to New York City-based emerging artists working in experimental performance. The participants in this multi-artist, multi-venue festival are committed to ecstatic creativity in the face of commercialism. Exponential is driven by inclusiveness and a diversity of artists, forms, and ideas coupled with utopian resource-sharing, mentoring and the championing of risky, rigorous work in eclectic fields to keep theatre kicking. Exponential 2020 will feature 43 productions in 9 venues over 31 days.