Public Theater Begins Previews for THE AGONY AND THE ECSTACY OF STEVE JOBS, 10/11

The Public Theater will begin previews on Tuesday, October 11 for the New York premiere of THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS, created and performed by Mike Daisey and directed by Jean-Michele Gregory. THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS will run through Sunday, November 13 with an official press opening on Monday, October 17 at 8 p.m. Single tickets, priced at $75-$85, are on sale now at (212) 967-7555 or www.publictheater.org.

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 AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS will feature scenery and lighting design by Seth Reiser.

Mike Daisey (Creator and Performer) has been called "the master storyteller" and "one of the finest solo performers of his generation" by The New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His monologues include last season's critically acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult, the controversial How Theater Failed America, the six-hour epic Great Men of Genius, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. He has performed across five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at The Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to abandoned theaters in post-Communist Tajikistan. He's been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman," as well as a commentator and contributor to WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR, and the BBC. His first film, Layover, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and a feature film of his monologue If You See Something Say Something is currently in post-production. His second book, Rough Magic, a collected anthology of his monologues, will be published in 2011. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and has been the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, four Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation's Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship. His most recent monologue All the Hours in the Day, a 24-hour performance that charts the epic story of America's essential character as a weaving together of puritanism and anarchism, which was performed at the Time Based Art Festival in Portland, and will be performed at the Under the Radar Festival in New York.

Jean-Michele Gregory (Director) works as a director, editor, and dramaturg, focusing on extemporaneous theatrical works that live in the moment they are told. Working primarily with solo artists, for the last decade she has collaborated with monologist Mike Daisey, directing at venues across the globe including The Public Theater, the Sydney Opera House, Yale Repertory Theatre, the Cherry Lane Theater, the Under the Radar Festival, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the Barrow Street Theatre, Chicago's Museum for Contemporary Art, American Repertory Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Noorderzon Festival, Intiman Theatre, Performance Space 122, the T:BA Festival, and many more. She has also directed New York storyteller Martin Dockery (Wanderlust, The Surprise) and the Seattle-based performer and writer SuzAnne Morrison (Yoga Bitch, Optimism). Her productions have received four Seattle Times Footlight Awards (21 Dog Years, The Ugly American, Monopoly!, The Last Cargo Cult), the Bay Area Critics Circle Award (Great Men of Genius), and nominations from the Drama League and Outer Critics Circle (If You See Something Say Something).

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Joey Parnes, Interim Executive Director) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals and productions of classics at its downtown home and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public Theater's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through extensive outreach programs. Each year, more than 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public Theater's productions have won 42 Tony Awards, 158 Obies, 42 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. Fifty-four Public Theater Productions have moved to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; For Colored Girls...; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Passing Strange; the revival of HAIR; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice. www.publictheater.org.

Photo Credit: Kevin Berne