"This year at The Public, we are going to have an explosion of Shakespeare activity that is going to demonstrate the breadth and quality of the work that we can do with the greatest writer in the English language. We also believe that The Public must be part of the ongoing civic dialogue, that we should talk about the big issues of our time, and that theater has something to bring to that conversation that can't be gotten in any other way."
- Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director
Read on for all details about the 2011-2012 DOWNTOWN SEASON and the 2011-2012 PUBLIC LAB SEASON.
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SECURE YOUR TICKETS WITH A PUBLIC THEATER MEMBERSHIP AND SAVE!
Become a Member today for only $55 (fully tax-deductible) and save throughout the 2011-2012 Season. In addition to exclusive discounts, you will have access to tickets to all our programming before the general public, securing your seat to sold-out events like Gatz and our popular Public Forum discussion series. You will also enjoy other benefits including exchange privileges, discounts on area restaurants, and more!
3 EASY WAYS TO ORDER:
1) CLICK HERE to order online
2) Call 212-967-7555 from noon - 8pm, Mon-Sun
3) Visit the Public Theater Box Office at 425 Lafayette Street. Box Office Hours: Tues-Sat 1-7:30pm, Sun & Mon 1-6pm
RETURNING MEMBERS:
To renew your Membership, please call your Member Hotline at 212-539-8650.Want to make more of an impact? Partner with us and be guaranteed seats to the entire 2011-2012 Season!
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THE 2011-12 DOWNTOWN SEASON
New York Premiere
THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS
Created and performed by Mike Daisey
Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory
NOW - March 18, 2012
"I will never be the same after seeing that show." - Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder
Following the success of The Last Cargo Cult, Mike Daisey turns his razor-sharp wit to America's most mysterious technology icon in this hilarious and harrowing tale of pride, beauty, lust, and industrial design. He illuminates how the CEO of Apple and his obsessions shape our lives, while sharing stories of his own travels to China to investigate the factories where millions toil to make iPhones and iPods. Daisey's dangerous journey shines a light on our love affair with our devices and the human cost of creating them. The New York Times has hailed Mike Daisey as "the master storyteller" and "one of the finest solo performers of his generation."
NO PLACE TO GO
Written by Ethan Lipton
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Music composed and performed by Ethan Lipton and his Orchestra
March 14 - April 18, 2012 at Joe's Pub
The company where he’s worked for the past ten years is moving to another planet, and playwright Ethan Lipton doesn’t want to go. Part love letter to his co-workers, part query to the universe, part protest to his company and country, No Place to Go delivers a hilarious, irreverent and personal musical ode to the unemployed.
The Public Theater is proud to present the return of
Elevator Repair Service's GATZ
Text: THE GREAT GATSBY by F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Directed by JOHN COLLINS
March 15 - 25 & April 5 - May 6, 2012
“A work of singular imagination and
intelligence.”
- Ben Brantley, The New York Times
One morning in the office of a mysterious small business, an employee finds a copy of The Great Gatsby in the clutter of his desk. He starts to read it out loud and doesn’t stop. At first his coworkers hardly notice. But after a series of strange coincidences, it’s no longer clear whether he’s reading the book or the book is transforming him. GATZ is a theatrical and literary tour de force, not a retelling of the Gatsby story but an enactment of the novel itself. Over the course of a single 6 1/2 hour production, Fitzgerald’s American masterpiece is delivered word for word, startlingly brought to life by a low-rent office staff in the midst of their inscrutable business operations.
World Premiere Production
FEBRUARY HOUSE
Music and Lyrics by Gabriel Kahane
Book by Seth Bockley
Directed by Davis McCallum
May 8 - June 10, 2012
Carson McCullers. Benjamin Britten. W.H. Auden. Gypsy Rose Lee. Visionary and flamboyant editor George Davis transforms a dilapidated Brooklyn boardinghouse into a bohemian commune for these leading lights of 1940s New York. The residents of 7 Middagh Street create a tumultuous and remarkable makeshift family searching for love, inspiration, and refuge from the looming war in Europe. Inspired by true events, this powerful and funny new musical marks the first commission of The Public's Musical Theater Initiative. The exciting score, written by up-and-coming composer Gabriel Kahane, mixes elements of classical operetta, jazz, and musical comedy with modern folk-pop.
World Premiere
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MAN
By Nathan Englander
Directed by Barry Edelstein
New dates: November 2012
Best-selling author Nathan Englander (For the Relief of Unbearable Urges) adapts this warm and deeply moving new play from his acclaimed short story of the same name.
A Soviet prison, 1952. Stalin's secret police have rounded up 26 writers, the giants of Yiddish literature in Russia. As judgment looms, a twenty-seventh suddenly appears: Pinchas Pelovits, unpublished and unknown. Baffled by his arrest, he and his cellmates wrestle with the mysteries of party loyalty and politics, culture and identity, and with what it means to write in troubled times. When they discover why the twenty-seventh man is among them, the writers come to realize that even in the face of tyranny stories still have the power to transcend. Barry Edelstein (Timon of Athens and Julius Caesar at The Public) directs.
"Englander's voice is distinctively his own -- daring, funny and exuberant, keenly attuned to both the absurdities of life and its undertow of sadness and disappointment." - The New York Times
PAST PRODUCTIONS
KING LEAR
By William Shakespeare
Directed by James Macdonald
Featuring Che
Ayende, Craig Bockhorn, Kristen Connolly, Michael Crane, Herb Foster,
Seth Gilliam, Enid Graham, Bill Irwin, Michael Izquierdo, Michael
McKean, Arian Moayed, Kelli O'Hara, John Douglas Thompson, Richard
Topol, Sam Waterston, and Frank Wood
October 18 - November 20, 2011
In no other play is Shakespeare's tragic vision more terrifyingly clear -- and nowhere in his canon does he dramatize more powerfully or humanely that only kindness and love are potent enough to counter mankind's darkest impulses. When King Lear divides his kingdom among his three daughters, he sets in motion a cascade of violence that sweeps the civilized world to the brink of chaos, and Lear to the edge of madness. Featuring Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Sam Waterston in the title role.
"Sam Waterston is what might be called a pure actor -- versatile, dedicated, intelligent and very good indeed, at home in any medium and any period." - Los Angeles Times
GOB SQUAD'S KITCHEN (You've Never Had It So Good)
Devised and Performed by Gob Squad
January 19 - February 5, 2012
Limited Run
Gob Squad's Kitchen returns after its hit run at The Public’s 2011 Under the Radar Festival.
It's 1965 and everything is just about to happen. The German/British collective Gob Squad invites you to take the hand of the King of Pop himself, Andy Warhol, and take a trip back to the underground cinemas of New York City, back to where it all began. Gob Squad's Kitchen reconstructs Warhol's films in the quest to illuminate the past for a new generation, reflecting on the nature of authenticity, the here and now, and the hidden depths beneath the shiny surfaces of modern life.
PAST PUBLIC LAB PRODUCTIONS
Written and directed by Richard Nelson
Featuring Jon DeVries, Shuler Hensley, Maryann Plunkett, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders and J. Smith-Cameron
The Apple Family finds themselves together again for the first time since Election Night, 2010. Marian, reeling from a personal tragedy, now lives with her sister Barbara; sister Jane is back with her boyfriend Tim, their brother Richard has come up from Manhattan, and Uncle Benjamin prepares for his first dramatic performance in years. Over Sunday brunch on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the Apples find themselves talking about loss, memory, remembrance and the meaning of compensation.
With Sweet and Sad, Tony Award-winner Richard Nelson (Conversations in Tusculum, James Joyce's The Dead) continues his series of plays exploring the immediate present and the ever-changing state of the nation through the story of the liberal Apples.The critically acclaimed ensemble cast first introduced to Public Lab audiences in last season's That Hopey Changey Thing returns.
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GATZ
THE HUMAN SCALE
IN THE WAKE
THE GREAT GAME: AFGHANISTAN
COMPULSION
THE INTELLIGENT HOMOSEXUAL'S GUIDE TO CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM WITH A KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
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The fine print: All productions, announced cast and directors are subject to change and tickets are subject to availability. Memberships are subject to a $5 handling fee and are non-refundable. Members may purchase one ticket per show for every Membership they hold. The exclusive Member discount is valid for all regular Public Theater Membership shows and excludes rentals and other special events, such as benefits. Ticket exchanges may be made up to 48 hours prior to scheduled performance date and are subject to availability. Memberships are valid for one year from the date of purchase.