Since its inception, Target Margin has worked with children, from elementary to high school. Currently, this dedication has found a home in our Young Artist Program. The Young Artist Program works with multiple partners in the Sunset Park community year-round. Sunset Park is a neighborhood of expressive, talented, and bright young people who are excited about discovering their creative voice in the arts. Current collaborations include The Center for Family Life, PS1 and PS971.
Upcoming Young Artist Program events:
HEY JUDE & STRAWBERRY CREW
Saturday, June 6, 2026
1 pm and 1:30 pm
Free admission
Target Margin artists Kate Budney, Malena Dayen, and David Rosenmeyer work with students from PS971 to create an original theatrical work using Target Margin’s exploration of the traditions of oral storytelling and shared authorship as a jumping off point.
TMT ARTISTS FOR PS 971
Kate Budney (she/her) is so excited to be joining Target Margin for their Young Artist Program! Kate is a theater maker and teaching artist based in Bed-Stuy. She has worked with Target Margin previously on their productions One Night and Pericles, and is overjoyed to be back. Recent acting credits include We Do The Same Thing Every Week and Katie Laid an Eggy (Attractive Nuisance Theater), The Play That Goes Wrong and Come From Away (Northern Stage), and Interstellar Cinderella and Frederick The Musical (Long Island Children’s Museum). As a teaching artist, Kate also works with Dancing Classrooms NYC teaching ballroom dance to fifth graders. She is also an avid baker, gamer, and cat fosterer.
Malena Dayen is an Argentinian opera stage director. She recently directed the world premiere of Derrick Wang’s Fearless in Opera Delaware and a lab as part of the Degenerate Season at Target Margin Theatre. Last season, Ms. Dayen directed Dialogues des Carmélites at Montclair University as well as the first U.S. production of Menotti’s La Médium in Spanish for Fort Worth Opera. She also joined the Metropolitan Opera as an assistant stage director for Deborah Colker’s production of Ainadamar. Previous engagements include a concert version of Aida with Fort Worth Opera, and Roméo et Juliette, Carmen and Frida with Opera Naples. Malena co-created luzAzul, an opera for very young audiences that premiered in New York City before touring to Malta and Türkiye.
David Rosenmeyer is in his fourteenth season as Music Director of the Fairfield County Chorale, where he has led major works including Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Verdi’s Requiem, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. An active symphonic and operatic conductor, he has led orchestras throughout Latin America and the Israeli Chamber Orchestra in Jaffa. Now in his twentieth season as Associate Conductor of the Oratorio Society of New York, he has conducted numerous performances at Carnegie Hall, including Britten’s War Requiem and Stravinsky’s Mass, and recently led the ensemble in Carmina Burana.
TMT ARTISTS FOR PS1
Leonie Bell is a German-American theater artist from Berlin, based in New York. In NYC, she has presented work at Target Margin Theater, Performance Space NY, BAM, The Whitney Museum, The Brick, Center for Performance Research, and other venues. Leonie produces much of her work as her free-form theater company LOCAL GRANDMA. She is a recent alumna of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, Mabou Mines Resident-Artist-Program, and BAX Upstart Program. Teaching theater has been an important component of her artistic practice for over a decade. www.leoniebell.org
Rawya El Chab is a storyteller and teaching artist based in New York City. Her artistic journey has been shaped by classical theater training and immersive experiences in experimental and contemporary art forms. Having come of age in the aftermath of the Lebanese civil war, Rawya has keenly felt the absence of official and historical narratives surrounding that tumultuous period. At the heart of her artistic practice is storytelling, which she views as a vital tool for addressing this void. Through her work, Rawya endeavors to give voice to untold stories and illuminate the complexities and nuances of the events she recounts. As a teacher she aims to provide her students with the tools and confidence to develop and own their narrative. Rawya is an associated artist to the Target Margin Theater, and her latest piece, Lula19/85, was produced with the support of AFAC at the La MaMa Theatre.
FUNDING MADE POSSIBLE BY
THE AUCHINCLOSS FUND
&
Public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Alexa Avilés, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and our loyal individual donors.