Target Margin Theater Will Present P*SSYC*CK KNOW NOTHING in March

 

As part of its third season in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Target Margin Theater will continue its multi-year exploration of The One Thousand and One Nights with P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing, a new work that wrestles with The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad stories from the collection of classic Silk Road tales. Directed by Founding Artistic Director David Herskovits, this extended workshop presentation marks another milestone for Target Margin as Herskovits and his team of artists lay the groundwork for One Night, a massive, twelve-hour retelling of The One Thousand and One Nights set to premiere in the Spring of 2021. P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing is scheduled to run at Target Margin Theater's THE DOXSEE (232 52nd Street, Brooklyn) from March 5-14, 2020, with an opening on March 5. P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing is offered as a limited preview of that larger work in progress.

The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad stories are a nested system of tales that grapple head on with power, sex, and the body. At first, the stories appear to center on a hapless Porter who meets and then gets picked up by three unbelievably attractive women. But soon, the story soon turns rich and strange. Who are these powerful women? They control the men gathered around them ruthlessly yet they seem to suffer so painfully themselves. After a cascade of tales exploring sex and power, all is revealed. Using the powerful lens of storytelling, this new work extends Target Margin's reach through the boundless collection by exploring justice, gender, and orientalism.

P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing continues Target Margin Theater's multi-year exploration of The One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of classic Silk Road stories. This body of work began in 2018 with the critically-acclaimed production of Pay No Attention To The Girl, which Ben Brantley, in his New York Times critic's pick review, wrote, "Stories are shape shifters, as mutable and capricious as genies, in Pay No Attention to the Girl, Target Margin Theater's timely gloss on the rich and strange ancient tales known as The One Thousand and One Nights." It continued in 2019 with Marjana and the Forty Thieves, which centered on the tale of Ali Baba.

The cast for P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing includes Ali Andre Ali, James Tigger! Ferguson, Anthony Vaughn Merchant, and Lori Vega.

The creative team includes Carolyn Mraz (scenic design), Kate McGee (lighting design), Dina El-Aziz (costume design), David Herskovits (sound design), Michelle Tuite (Production Stage Manager), and Moe Yousuf (Associate Artistic Director).

Eight performances of P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing will take place March 5- 14, 2020 (see above schedule) at Target Margin Theater's THE DOXSEE, located at 232 52nd Street in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased by visiting targetmargin.org or by calling OvationTix 212-352-3101.

About the Creative Team

David Herskovits (Director) is the Founding Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater, based in Brooklyn, NY. For Target Margin he has directed a broad range of work, classics and neglected older work, new opera and music-theater, and adaptations of history and literature for the stage. His Target Margin works have won five OBIEs and been presented nationally and internationally. He has most recently been working on adaptations of stories from the 1001 Nights tradition, its many versions, variants and history. 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 Daughter's (HERE and Spoleto USA) and The Argument and The Dinner Party (The Kitchen).

Outside of Target Margin, Herskovits has 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.

Kate McGee (Lighting Design) is a trans*everything lighting designer. Recent work includes: Emily's D+ Evolution World Tour Esperanza Spalding, Galileo (Playmaker's Rep), My Lingerie Play (Rattlestick Playwright's Theater), A Hunger Artist (Sinking Ship Productions), Masculinity Max (The Public Theater), Infinite Love Party (Bushwick Starr), Pay No Attention to the Girl (Target Margin Theater), 50/50 old school animation (Under the Radar, The Public Theater), SoundHouse (New Georges), Kidnap Road (La Mama), Carnival of the Animals and The Bremen Town Band (The Miller Theater) Early Plays (New York City Players/Wooster Group, Henry Hewes Award Nomination). BA Oberlin MFA NYU

Carolyn Mraz (Scenic Design) is a Brooklyn-based theater designer. As an associated artist of Target Margin, she has happily collaborated with David and many other Target Marginers over the last 10 or so years. Some favorite designs include: Pay No Attention to the Girl (TMT), The (*) Inn (TMT), Porgy and Bess (Spoleto), Pioneers! #GOFORTH (JACK), I'll Never Love Again (Bushwick Starr, Hewes nomination), I'll Get You Back Again (Round House), Beardo (Pipeline), and Spaceman (Loading Dock). Carolyn teaches at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and is a company member of A Host of People in Detroit. She is an Oberlin College alum with an MFA in design from NYU/Tisch.

Dina El-Aziz (Costume Designer) is a British-Egyptian costume and character designer, currently based in New York.. Regional Theater: We've Come To Believe, The Corpse Washer, and How To Defend Yourself, for the Actor's Theater Louisville (Humana Festival) Heartland at the Geva Theater; Off-Broadway: The Russian and The Jew at The Tank; Dead Are My People at NYTW's Next Door Theater; Daybreak at the Beckett Theatre for the Pan Asian Repertory Theater; Freedom Riders at The Acorn Theater (NYMF). Other Theater: Pay No Attention To The Girl for Target Margin Theater; Alternating Currents for The Working Theater; Blood Wedding, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, for The Atlantic Theater Company Stage 2; Unity 1918, Wayward at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute; Evensong at the Astoria Performing Arts Center.

About Target Margin Theater

Target Margin Theater was awarded a 2019 Obie Award Grant in recognition of their artistic achievements and commitment to excellence in theater. For 29 years, Target Margin has been praised for its aggressive interpretations of classic texts, lesser-known works, and new plays inspired by existing sources. They exist to build a world where all people embrace the original, the challenging and the different. They energize audiences with plays that expand the possibilities of live performance and engage their community at all levels through partnerships and programs. The range of programming has been enormous, including classics, opera, new writing, and adaptation of literature and historical sources. The Company has served over 1,000 artists (emerging and established) through its annual LAB and is committed to nurturing the creative aspirations of the next generation of theater makers through their TMT Institute Fellowships, and Artist-in-Residence Programs. In 2017, Target Margin opened its first home in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.

Photo Credit: Gaia Squarci

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