Target Margin and CFL put on show made by local kids

Aliens! Zombies! Islands with sentient breakfast foods! What do all these things have in common? All were parts of BOOM!, a live show put on by Target Margin Theater and the Center for Family Life (CFL) on Friday, December 12th and Saturday, December 13th at PS1 and Target Margin’s space on 52nd Street, respectively.

The show was conceived, written, and performed entirely by elementary and middle school age students with the guidance of artists and educators from Target Margin and CFL. This is the third year in a row a show has been produced in this format.

The young performers, all 12 of them, worked on the show since September, twice a week for ninety minutes, in what Tatyana Kot, CFL’s Performing Arts Specialist, describes as an “after after school program.”

During those sessions, the students learned the basics of live performance from Kot, along with Leonie Bell and Rawya El Chab, two associate artists with Target Margin.

“Some of these students are very young, so many of the games we play begin with just learning about body awareness, even just awareness of your periphery, helping them build their physical senses of self,” said Bell. “Then we can move onto the more practical things like, cheating out towards the audience, projecting to the back of the theater.”

Kot also highlighted that this program allows the participating students to learn about careers in the arts, learning they can pursue careers outside of only what their parents do for work.

Two returning students to the program, Melissa Zarate and Joaquin Lopez, are both now pursuing performance opportunities outside of Target Margin/CFL. Zarate attends a performing and visual arts middle school and has performed as Olaf in a student production of Frozen and the Witch in Into the Woods.

Zarate had endless positive things to say about the experience of making theatre with the teaching artists and her fellow students.

“We all have each other’s backs,” she said.

Further, she was proud of the work. During a break between the first and second shows on Saturday, she talked about overcoming nerves while performing.

“You’re always scared at the beginning. You’re asking yourself, ‘Will people like it?’ But then you get into it, and you say to yourself, ‘Why should I be scared? I worked hard; I cancelled things just so I could be at rehearsal to get this right. This show is something to be proud of.’”

The final product, although entirely driven by the students, is shaped by the artist-teachers.

“We figure out what scenes are repeating over and over again and then help them figure out how we’re going to put those scenes in an order that makes sense,” said El Chab. “But still with as little intervention as possible.”

“For example, if a kid writes ‘wooooow’ we’re not going to shorten that to ‘wow,’” said Bell.

The show, which is bilingual in English and Spanish (trilingual if you count alien language), is about a meteor hitting earth, which brings about aliens, zombies, and an island where humans and sentient pancakes live together. One of the humans, hungry, at one point approaches a pancake and tells it that they will be eating it now. The pancake begins crying. “Don’t cry,” says the human. “I don’t like my food soggy.”

The play ends with a news report (news reports being a major motif throughout the show) that shares that the aliens and humans have learned how to coexist. “Let’s check in to see what they’re up to,” the reporter intones, at which point the entire cast lines up, human and alien alike, and does a macarena-style dance while an electronic song plays.

Both Saturday shows garnered huge applause from the audience.

Target Margin has a busy season ahead, including hosting several works from January’s Exponential Festival and their anchor show, This is Real, inspired by the work of Jean Genet, in March, but they remain committed to working with local schools and other community partners, a mission the founder of the theatre, David Herskovits, is passionate about.

“It’s not just about making theatre in a community. It’s about actually listening to the needs of the community around you.”