Target Margin Theater Concludes 2015 Season With New David Greenspan Play, & More, Beginning May 27
Contact:
Rick Miramontez/Philip Carrubba
rick@oandmco.com / philip@oandmco.com
(212) 695-7400
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
TARGET MARGIN THEATER
CONCLUDES THE 2015 SEASON
AND ITS EXPLORATION OF THE WORKS OF GERTRUDE STEIN
WITH THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
“COMPOSITION…MASTER-PIECES…IDENTITY”
A NEW SOLO WORK CONCEIVED AND PERFORMED
BY OBIE AWARD WINNER DAVID GREENSPAN
AND
THE TMT STEIN SPRING LAB:
“WHEN THIS YOU SEE REMEMBER ME”
MAY 27, 2015 – JUNE 27, 2015
THE CONNELLY THEATER
New York, NY (April 27, 2015) – Target Margin Theater (David Herskovits, Artistic Director; John Del Gaudio, Artistic Producer), dedicating its 24th season to the exploration of works created by the great American novelist, poet and playwright, Gertrude Stein, concludes the 2015 Season with the world premiere of Composition…Master-Pieces…Identity, a new solo performance piece from Obie Award-winner David Greenspan, and The TMT Stein Spring Lab: When This You See Remember Me, that will run in tandem at The Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street, Manhattan).
Target Margin Theater’s exploration of works by the legendary Gertrude Stein concludes with the world premiere of Composition…Master-Pieces…Identity, a new solo work conceived and performed by Obie Award-winner and TMT Associated Artist David Greenspan. With his “lively trickster mind” and movement “like origami that knows how to fold itself,” David Greenspan brings a new signature solo piece to Target Margin. In the vein of The Argument (2007, TMT) and Greenspan’s own The Myopia, Composition…Master-Pieces…Identity will bring to life two ‘lectures’ and a ‘play’ written by Gertrude Stein. Stein’s thoughts on artistry and authenticity changed as her own reputation morphed to ‘celebrity’ status. Earlier in Stein’s career Composition as Explanation expressed her belief that the creator of an authentic work of art is an outlaw until sufficient time has passed for his work to be accepted as a classic. In What Are Master-Pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them, Stein as author of international renown defines an authentic work of art as one in which the artist’s self-consciousness has been suppressed. As Stein’s fame reached ‘mainstream’ status, her meditation on the relationship between artist and audience yielded Identity A Poem. Greenspan shapes Stein’s heady wordplay as only he can, and the result is a startlingly clear diversion of the senses and for the mind.
Composition…Master-Pieces…Identity begins performances May 27, 2015 for a limited engagement through June 27, 2015 at The Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street, Manhattan). Tickets are priced at $15, if ordered by June 1, or $25, thereafter. There is a special benefit performance on Thursday, May 28, 2015 with tickets priced at $100. Opening Night is set for Monday, June 1, 2015. Tickets are available at www.targetmargin.org.
Running in tandem with Greenspan’s solo show is The TMT Stein Spring Lab: When This You See Remember Me curated by TMT Artistic Producer John Del Gaudio which brings together artists Jessica Brater, Jesse Freedman, Sarah Lurie, Handan Ozbilgin, Natalie Robin, Noah Scalin, and Patrick Scheid who will explore additional works by the great writer. Performances begin May 30, 2015 for a limited run through June 22, 2015 at The Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street, Manhattan). Tickets for all performances are priced at $15 and are available at www.targetmargin.org.
The TMT Lab offers smaller, fully produced productions and enlists the talents of over 1,000 theater artists since 1993. At the helm of each production is a Lead Artist – whether it’s a director, actor, writer, designer, or puppeteer, TMT believes anyone can drive a piece! Each season TMT curates a Lab under an overarching theme, working with each Lead Artist to find the right source material, and providing the resources – stipend, budget, artistic – and, most importantly, the freedom to shape their work.
David Herskovits, Target Margin Theater’s Artistic Director, stated, “Gertrude Stein is a natural for us at TMT. No writer is more challengingly experimental; no writer is more playfully child-like. All of our artists aspire to capture her spirit of play and rigor, of brainy fun and playful curiosity, and David Greenspan embodies that spirit like no one else.”
Permission for the texts has been granted by the Estate of Gertrude Stein, through its Literary Executor, Mr. Stanford Gann, Jr. of Levin & Gann, P.A.
TMT’s programming is made possible through major support from The Andrew W. Mellon New York Theater Program, Axe-Houghton Foundation, The Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, The Clinton-Walker Family Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Fred Alger Management, Inc., The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Iger Bay Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts and The Shubert Foundation.
Target Margin Theater, concluding its 24th season, has been at the forefront of New York’s alternative theater scene and has been praised for its bold and sometimes wild interpretations of classic dramas and lesser-known works. TMT has presented ambitious re-thinkings of plays by Shakespeare, Chekov, Brecht, Gertrude Stein, and Beaumarchais, among others. TMT has also created original works and new music/opera over the years and has served over 1,000 artists (mostly emerging) through its annual Lab. The company’s production of Mamba’s Daughters received the Obie Award and was a sensation of the 1999 Spoleto Festival, and its recent epic production of Goethe’s Faust received critical acclaim. Recent productions include The (*) Inn at Abrons Arts Center, Uncle Vanya and The Tempest at HERE, and Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man! at The Chocolate Factory.
For additional information, please visit the website at www.targetmargin.org
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TMT’s Performance Schedule
The Connelly Theater
(220 East 4th Street, Manhattan)
May 27, 2015 – June 27, 2015
World Premiere
Composition…Master-Pieces…Identity
A New Solo Work Conceived and Performed by
Obie Award-winner and TMT Associated Artist David Greenspan
Composition…Master-Pieces…Identity will bring to life two “lectures” and a “play” by Stein, exploring ideas of celebrity, authenticity, outlaws, classics, self-consciousness, and writing for an audience. Greenspan’s “lively trickster mind” is the icing and the cake of our Stein season.
Performances
Wednesday, May 27 at 7:30pm
Thursday, May 28 at 7:30pm Special Benefit Performance
Friday, May 29 at 7:30pm
Saturday, May 30 at 5:00pm
Sunday, May 31 at 5:00pm
Monday, June 1 at 7:30pm
Thursday, June 4 at 7:30pm
Friday, June 5 at 9:30pm
Saturday, June 6 at 5:00pm
Thursday, June 11 at 7:30pm
Friday, June 12 at 7:30pm
Saturday, June 13 at 5:00pm
Thursday, June 25 at 7:30pm
Friday, June 26 at 7:30pm
Saturday, June 27 at 7:30pm
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May 30, 2015 – June 22, 2015
TMT Stein Spring Lab: When This You See Remember Me
Yes is For a Very Young Man
Lead Artists: Jessica Brater and Natalie Robin
Gertrude Stein loved melodramas. In 1947, she published one. Yes is For a Very Young Man ensnares the “silence stillness and quick movement” of melodrama in a Steinian landscape of language.
Performances
Saturday, May 30 at 7:30pm
Sunday, May 31 at 2:00pm
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Paisieu: A Work of Pure Imagination in Which No Reminiscence Intrude
Lead Artist: Jesse Freedman
Text: Paisieu
A virtuosic grammar play that may or may not take place at the 1904 Worlds Faire in Saint Louis Missury and may or may not be about turn of the century Race science, Doctor Seuss Doctor Pepper and was Stein a Fascist.
on a double bill with…
Rose Love Pepe
Lead Artist: Handan Ozbilgin
Text: The World Is Round
Black Dog named Pepe, White Dog named Love and a willful little girl named Rosa. It is their story. Their story of impossible love.
Performances
Wednesday, June 3 at 7:30pm
Thursday, June 4 at 9:30pm
Friday, June 5 at 7:30pm
Saturday, June 6 at 7:30pm
Sunday, June 7 at 5:00pm
Monday, June 8 at 7:30pm
Thursday, June 11 at 9:30pm
* * * * *
Mrs. Misses Kisses
Lead Artist: Sarah Lurie
Text: An Instant Answer or A Hundred Prominent Men
As we delve into the dissociation between word and meaning and explore the question of synthesis we ask: Who won one. Who won won. Can you colour it to satisfy the eye. What is the word. What is the thing.
on a double bill with…
Someday Americans
Lead Artist: Patrick Scheid
Text: Americans
Butter, thread, music, puppies and more make up this messy, meticulous meditation on Stein’s Americans. Mmm. Join us as we map out the landscape of Stein’s imagined America. Someday. Now.
Performances
Friday, June 12 at 9:30pm
Saturday, June 13 at 7:30pm & 9:30pm
Monday, June 15 at 7:30pm
Tuesday, June 16 at 7:30pm
Wednesday, June 17 at 7:30pm
Thursday, June 18 at 7:30pm
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I Made a Mistake
Lead Artist: John Del Gaudio
Text: Not Sightly / IIIIIIIIII.
“Slightly painful and really more satisfactory stinted…In a particular relief…In the rest of piles of candles…It’s not very active.” Mob mentality that actually makes you find the right angle so that you can hear the text in the correct way that makes you think of cows. The installation rises. The performance sets.
The performance will coincide with a special 3-day installation where the visitor can read Stein’s The Making of Americans to TMT Artistic Producer John Del Gaudio.
Performances
Friday, June 19 – Monday, June 22 at 7:30pm
Installation
Saturday, June 20 – Monday, June 22 from 10:00am – 6:00pm
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SPECIAL EXHIBIT
Portraits of Innovation: Gertrude Stein
Artist: Noah Scalin
Target Margin’s longtime visual collaborator creates a large-scale site specific anamorphic portrait installation in The Connelly Theater. In addition, all of the unique portraits of Stein from this season will be on display.
Viewable before all performances May 27 – June 27, 2015
Free and Open to the Public
For additional information, please visit the website at www.targetmargin.org
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