Jobsite Theater, resident theater company of Tampa's Straz Center (was Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center) is touring their award-winning Pericles: Prince of Tires in a showcase format to New York's HERE. 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. Pericles runs for a limited engagement April 15-17, 2010, at HERE.
"... a raucous force of nature ... a butt-kicking, rocked-out adaptation ..." - The Tampa Tribune
"Popp's songs have never been better, with great hooks and melodies tempered with punkish rawness." - St. Petersburg Times
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 traveling 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.
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 the St. Petersburg, FL, series.
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 Talia, Katie Castonguay as 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 Kevin Kennedy (sound), David M. Jenkins (video), Katrina Stevenson (costumes) and Brian Smallheer (lights).
Pericles contains adult language and subject matter and is intended for mature audiences only.
Pericles runs April 15-17 in New York at the HERE: Thursday through Saturday at 8:30pm and Saturday at 4pm with all tickets priced at $15 and may be purchased at the HERE box office (145 6th Avenue - between Spring & Broome, enter on Dominick), by calling 212.352.3101 or at HERE.org.
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.
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.
