And Baby Makes Seven
Pericles
Based on the play by William Shakespeare
Music by Joe Popp, Brian McCabe and Tylor Durand
Lyrics by Joe Popp
Book by Neil Gobioff & Shawn Paonessa
Directed by David M. Jenkins
Aug. 6 – 23, 2009
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $24.50
Shimberg Playhouse, David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Winner!
- Creative Loafing Best of the Bay – Best Theatrical Composer – Joe Popp
- Creative Loafing 2009 Top 10 Production
World Premiere!
Jobsite Theater proudly concludes their 10th anniversary season amongst old collaborators and new friends with the world premiere of a rock musical based on William Shakespeare's Pericles.
Joe Popp (dogs on ice, The Hornrims; Jobsite's MAXWELL; American Stage's Macbeth) is bringing his power-punk music and oddball sense of humor back to Tampa and teaming up with perennial Jobsite contributors Neil Gobioff & Shawn Paonessa (The Curse of Milhaven, The March of the Kitefliers) in this 11th year of bringing new work to the stage.
Click to enlarge
Jobsite's Pericles is a wholesale adaptation of Shakespeare's play Pericles, Prince of Tyre – shifting in time and space to modern era United States. Perry, “Prince of Tires”, gets caught up in a web of intrigue, incest and the mafia as he tries to balance having a family while also running a “family.” His exploits take him through New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, while he dodges mob hits, lecherous carnies, multiple storms at sea, and losing his wife and daughter. As his epic journey reaches an end, he learns that saving both his biological family and his mafia family are rooted in truly understanding the value of loyalty, honor and love.
Shakespeare's Pericles centers around a young Greek prince as he travels to exotic locales in what's today Greece, Turkey and Lebanon. Despite many successful stagings over the years, Shakespeare's Pericles is typically considered one of his lesser plays. The first nine scenes of the original are often argued to not even be the Bard's work.
Jobsite's Pericles largely keeps the major plot and structure of Shakespeare's play and in many instances keeps the same character names (i.e. Diana, Marina, etc.). However, Jobsite's adaptation aims to be not only more accessible to the modern audience, but more relevant.
Theocratic royalty is replaced with underworld royalty, as the plot is spun with both dramatic and comedic elements that audiences will instantly recognize from modern classics like The Godfather and The Sopranos. The only piece of verse remaining from Shakespeare's text is the riddle given to Perry at the top of show, which is a now a song entitled “Viper.”
Anyone familiar with the original play will easily see the corollaries; those who aren't won't miss a thing. This adaptation was created to be a standalone experience.
Jobsite has produced an original or unpublished play in every year of their history. The first, Y2K: Yearn to Know, featured a 15-minute rock opera by Popp (JY2K) and an awarded one-act by Gobioff & Paonessa (Learning Swerve). Jobsite has since commissioned both Popp and the team of Gobioff & Paonessa for various projects over the years, but Pericles marks their first collaboration.
About the Artists
Joe Popp is no stranger to the Bard. In 1997, he composed a punk rock adaption of Macbeth for American Stage's Shakespeare in the Park, which still stands as the best-attended event in that series.
Gobioff & Paonessa's The March of the Kitefliers is the highest-attended original production in Jobsite history. After playing to capacity crowds in 2004, Jobsite returned an even more refined production to the stage in 2006. Backlash over critical plot spoilers appearing in a Creative Loafing review of the original production resulted in the alt-weekly giving a special Best of the Bay Award – Most Impassioned Theater Fans – to Jobsite's faithful.
Jobsite's Pericles features Joe Popp as the narrator John Gower, Stephen Ray as Perry, Ami Sallee Corley as his love interest Talia, Katie Castonguay as their daughter Marina, plus the ensemble of Jason Vaughan Evans, Amy Gray, Spencer Meyers and Chris Perez playing a multitude of roles throughout the show. Pericles is directed by Jobsite Producing Artistic Director David M. Jenkins and features designs by Katrina Stevenson (costumes) and Brian Smallheer (sets and lights).
See more about the cast and crew.
