Public Theater's Free Mobile Shakespeare Will Tour PERICLES Throughout the Boroughs

Continuing its commitment to bringing free Shakespeare to the community and strengthening audience engagement with the arts, The Public Theater will mount its MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT again this October with a free three-week tour to the five boroughs of Shakespeare's PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, directed by Rob Melrose. The free mobile unit tour (October 20 - November 8) will bring free Shakespeare to audiences who have limited or no access to the arts by visiting prisons, homeless shelters, centers for the elderly, and other community venues, including stops at our Public Works community partner venues: Brownsville Recreation Center in Brooklyn, Fortune Society in Queens and DreamYard Project in the Bronx. Following the mobile tour, PERICLES will have a sit-down run at The Public Theater from November 11 to November 30, with an official press opening on Tuesday, November 18.

"Shakespeare's extraordinary story of Pericles' journey, through loss and redemption, will make a powerful impact on the incredibly diverse audiences who will see the Mobile Shakespeare Unit production," said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "Rob Melrose, the brilliant Artistic Director of Cutting Ball in San Francisco, is a longtime colleague and friend, and I'm delighted he is making his Public Theater debut at last."

Member tickets for PERICLES at The Public are on sale now. Single tickets, priced at $20, go on sale Tuesday, September 23. Tickets can be purchased by calling (212) 967-7555, visiting www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at 425 Lafayette Street. All tour performances are free but performances at Charlotte's Place, Brownsville Recreation Center, Faber Park Field House, St. John's Recreation Center, and Pelham Fritz Recreation Center are also open to the general public. To further the mission and reach of the MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT, 20 tickets for each performance of the limited run at The Public Theater will be given to community organizations that cannot host a visit from the tour.

The Public Theater's MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT, part of The Public Theater's long-standing commitment to making Shakespeare accessible to all, returns with a tale of riddles, revenge, and perilous adventure. PERICLES, one of Shakespeare's most popular plays in his own time, is the story of a prince whose life is threatened after he solves the puzzle of a murderous king. Forced to flee across the seas, he embarks on an odyssey that will see him fall in love, lose a daughter, and eventually recover everything he thought he'd lost.

"One of the great joys of the Mobile Shakespeare Unit is the electric exchange between the audience and actors," said Director of Special Artistic Projects Stephanie Ybarra. "When we go out on tour, there is a kind of dialogue that occurs between the two that rarely happens in traditional theater spaces with traditional theater audiences. To watch Shakespeare's stories unfold inside that 14x14 foot square space surrounded by some of the best audiences in New York, is to witness The Public's mission at its best."

Now in its fourth year, MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT is a reinvention of Joseph Papp's Mobile Shakespeare program, which began in 1957 to bring Shakespeare to the masses, evolving into the New York Shakespeare Festival and ultimately becoming The Public Theater. Recent Mobile Shakespeare Unit productions include Measure for Measure, Richard III, and Much Ado About Nothing. MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT will also present educational workshops at selected tour venues, expanding The Public's existing community outreach and education program. This program will continue the expansion of The Public's Shakespeare Initiative, which includes the recent Public Works productions of The Tempest and The Winter's Tale staged at the Delacorte Theater for three nights for free; free Shakespeare in the Park; and The Public's other affordable productions at its downtown home at Astor Place, all reinforcing the company's commitment to the ongoing exploration of Shakespeare's canon.

THE MOBILE SHAKESPEARE UNIT is made possible with the support of the Ford Foundation and The Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Additional generous support is provided by Bloomberg; and Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, LLP.

TOUR DATES WILL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING VENUES (October 20 - November 9):

Charlotte's Place, Manhattan, part of Trinity Wall Street Church - a free and open space for the diverse communities living, working, and going to school in lower Manhattan (October 20).

Park Avenue Armory Women's Mental Health Shelter, Manhattan, provides short-term, safe, and supportive environments to address immediate needs for mentally ill, homeless women (October 21).

Brownsville Recreation Center, Brooklyn, a Public Works community partner, is an NYC Parks' recreation center is located in the Brownsville Playground with extensive resources for youth and seniors. The center offers a vibrant space to tap into pursuits artistic and athletic alike (October 22).

Crossroads Juvenile Detention Center, Brooklyn, a secure center for juveniles awaiting resolution on their court cases. (October 23).

Queensboro Correctional Facility, Queens, is a minimum security prison in Long Island City, (October 24).

Faber Park Field House, Staten Island, is an NYC Parks' recreation center located in Staten Island (Saturday, October 25).

Fortune Society, Queens, a Public Works community partner, is a social service and advocacy organization, supporting successful reentry from prison, and promoting alternatives to incarceration (October 28).

Taconic Correctional Facility, Westchester, is the largest maximum security prison for women in New York (October 29).

The GO Project, Manhattan, is a program that provides year-round educational and family support services; and offers critical academic, social, and emotional support starting in the early elementary years. (November 1).

St. John's Recreation Center, Brooklyn, is an NYC Parks' recreation center located in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Wednesday, November 5).

DreamYard Project, Bronx, a Public Works community partner, uses project-based arts learning to ignite the transformative spirit (November 6).

Hamilton Partnership for Paterson, Paterson, New Jersey, a community development organization near the Great Falls National Park (November 7).

Pelham Fritz Recreation Center, Manhattan, is an NYC Parks' recreation center located in Harlem (Saturday, November 8).

The complete cast of eight features Raffi Barsoumian (Pericles); Christopher Kelly (Lysimachus, and others); Ben Mehl (Boult, and others); Flor De Liz Perez (Marina, and others); Amanda Quaid (Dionyza, and others); David Ryan Smith (Antiochus, and others); Tiffany Rachelle Stewart (Thaisa, and others); and J.D. Webster (Helicanus, and others).

PERICLES features scenic design by Wilson Chin; costume design by Moria Sine Clinton; composer Michael Thurber; and movement direction by Christopher Windom.