Target Margin Theater – 25 Years of Difference from Target Margin on Vimeo.
ABOUT TARGET MARGIN
Target Margin Theater was founded in 1991 by David Herskovits on the principle that works of art return us to real truths more powerfully by their divergence from a strict illustration of reality. Through classic and contemporary texts, we seek continuously to expand our conception of what can take place in a theater. We create radically re-imagined versions of classics and new creations inspired by existing sources. Art twists the world in surprising ways, and that twist is the engine of all our work. When we program we gravitate toward plays or other sources that challenge assumptions in some way; they may be strange in language, surprising in content or subject matter, or formally adventurous. We hope that everything we do creates a different answer to the question, ‘what is a play?’
In 2017 we moved into our first ever performance home in Sunset Park Brooklyn. Service to the layered communities of our neighborhood has now grown into an anchor and focus of our work. We cultivate and nurture substantial relationships with many community partners, and we work to bring our artistic work into meaningful relationship with the city around us.
We aggressively cast and staff our work with the broadest range of people. That means racial diversity has been a guiding principle from the start, but it is no less true of gender and age differences. We are proud that people identify TMT shows by our history of diverse casts and crews.
We actively offer opportunities to people to work in new arenas. Our mainstage productions have given first jobs to designers straight out of grad school, to emerging directors, and to young actors just getting their union card; our Lab has nurtured hundreds of young artists. TMT is a place where new talent finds opportunity. TMT has had a significant impact on the field in New York and nationally by identifying, supporting and influencing generations of new artists. This influence on our cultural conversation is as much an achievement as the productions we create, and we hope its effect will be lasting.