Target Margin Theater (David Herskovits, Artistic Director; John Del Gaudio, Artistic Producer) has announced plans for the upcoming 2012-2013 season with the launching of a two-season exploration of Yiddish Theater with Beyond the Pale, a look at domestic drama, philosophical drama, verse drama, avant-garde experimentation, political statement plays, and the good old nostalgic drama of the Shtetl. Like a comet across the sky, Yiddish culture exploded in creativity in the 19th and 20th centuries, and then went tragically dark. But the literature lives on.
Target Margin Theater, now in its 22nd season, works on the principle that works of art return us to real truths more powerfully by their divergence from a strict illustration of reality. TMT plans to bring to bring the richness of Yiddish Theater into the present with the complete understanding that these classic works are as vibrantly contemporary as any in world drama. Through classic and contemporary texts, TMT seeks to continuously expand the conception of what can take place in a theater and has created aggressively re-imagined versions of classics and new creations inspired by existing sources. The exploration of these Yiddish dramas will be unique and thrive with immediacy. This is will not be your grandpa’s Yiddish Theater.
Plans over the next two years call for an array of productions, workshops, readings and panel discussions, and even concerts. The theatergoer who sees a range of offerings over the two year process will share in a remarkable survey of the flowering of Yiddish Theater. TMT aspires to give audiences an experience greater than the sum of its many parts.
TMT Artistic Director David Herskovits was inspired to launch this ambitious program after spending 9 weeks doing research in 2011 as a Fellowship at The American Academy in Jerusalem. Says Herskovits, “The breadth and diversity of Yiddish theater astonished me. The literature goes far beyond what we often think of as “Yiddish.” I want to show our community how rich that culture is, and how relevantit is today.”
TMT launches the 2012-13 season in Brooklyn with their annual Target Margin Laboratory curated by TMT Artistic Producer John Del Gaudio that begins performances tonight, October 17 for a limited engagement through Saturday, November 3, 2012 at The Brick (575 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn).
In March 2013, TMT’s journey will continue with a re-imagined classic work from the canon of Yiddish Theater that will be presented at Abrons Art Center at Henry Street Settlement (466 Grand Street at Pitt Street).
TMT’s programming is made possible through major support from Axe-Houghton Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Clinton-Walker Family Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Fred Alger Management, Inc., The Fund for Small Theatres, a project of Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York), The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts and The Shubert Foundation.
Additional information is available by visiting the Target Margin Theater website at www.targetmargin.org.
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