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
| Encore Performance | Off-Broadway Premiere |
| Apr. 7 – 11, 2010 | Apr. 15 – 17, 2010 |
| Wed. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm |
Thr. – Sat. 8:30pm, Sat. 4pm |
| Tickets: $15 | Tickets: $15 |
| Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center, Tampa |
HERE Theater, New York |
Winner!
- Creative Loafing Best of the Bay 2009 – Best Theatrical Composer – Joe Popp
- Creative Loafing 2009 Top 10 Production
- Creative Loafing Best of the Bay 2010 – Best Theater Production, Reader's Poll Runner-Up
Jobsite Theater is bringing back their production of Pericles: Prince of Tires in a showcase format to take to New York after playing a week of encore performances in Tampa. Pericles: Prince of Tires is a comic rock mob musical based on William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre.
Joe Popp (dogs on ice, The Hornrims, MAXWELL) has paired his power-punk music and oddball sense of humor with the estimable talents of perennial Jobsite wordsmiths Neil Gobioff & Shawn Paonessa (The Curse of Milhaven, The March of the Kitefliers) to create an ass-kicking good time.
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This telling of Pericles has been shifted 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 sometimes hilarious and sometimes poignant 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 ends, 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 travelling 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 some instances keeps the same character names. However, Pericles: Prince of Tires is considerably more accessible and immediate to a modern audience.
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. Anyone familiar with the original play will easily see the corollaries; those who aren't won't miss a thing.
Pericles contains adult language and subject matter and is intended for mature audiences only.
This production is being presented in New York through HEREstay, a curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical and administrative support.
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.
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Gobioff & Paonessa's The March of the Kitefliers is the highest-attended original production in Jobsite history that played to capacity crowds in 2004 and 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. 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.
About HERE
Since 1993, the OBIE-winning HERE Arts Center has been a premier arts organization in NYC and a leader in the field of new, hybrid performance work. Under leadership of Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting and Producing Director Kim Whitener, HERE has served over 12,000 emerging to mid-career artists developing work that does not fit a conventional programming agenda. Work presented at HERE has garnered 14 OBIE awards, including the 2009 Ross Wetzsteon Award, an OBIE grant for artistic achievement, three Drama Desk nominations, two Berrilla Kerr Awards, three NY Innovative Theatre Awards, an Edwin Booth Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.
HERE proudly supports artists at all stages in their careers through full productions, artist residency programs, festivals and subsidized performance and rehearsal space. Work at HERE is curated based on the strength and uniqueness of the artist’s vision.
HERE’s Artist Residency Program (HARP) provides development, commissions and full production for up to 20 artists over one-to-three years. In 2005, with the support of the FJC, a foundation of donor advised funds, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the City of New York, HERE Arts Center purchased its long-time home as part of a five-year "Secure HERE’s Future" campaign. With full-scale renovations to the space concluding in June 2008, thanks to generous support from the City of New York, HERE is poised to continue and expand its role as a downtown haven for the finest emerging art. Offering a comfortable, eclectic setting for artists and audiences alike, HERE features a café and two state-of-the-art performance spaces.
