Photo Flash: Taking Over Opening Night

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) officially opened TAKING OVER, the first new solo play by OBIE Award winner Danny Hoch in 10 years, on Sunday, November 23 at 7 p.m. Directed by Tony Taccone, TAKING OVER will run through Sunday, December 14.

In TAKING OVER, Hip-Hop Theater pioneer Danny Hoch storms the stage once again to chronicle the current state of gentrification of New York City. Blazing through a fierce spectrum of New Yorkers, Hoch gives voice to everyone from the developers evicting locals to make way for lofts, to the bar-hopping career hipsters who buy them, and those left in the wake of both. True to Hoch's signature style, TAKING OVER is a raw, explosive, hilarious and heartbreaking study of the impact of our obsession with economic expansion.

"Danny Hoch is more than a brilliant solo performer; he is a moral beacon, an explosive ethicist, the heart of everything that's great about New York," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "It's fantastic to have him back at The Public."

TAKING OVER features costume and scenery design by Annie Smart, lighting and projection design by Alex Nichols, sound design by Walter Trarbach, and original music by Asa Taccone.

Danny Hoch (Writer and Performer) last performed at The Public Theater in 1994 with his solo show Some People. As an actor, playwright and director, his other plays include Pot Melting and Jails, Hospitals, Hip-Hop and have garnered many awards including two OBIES, an NEA Solo Theatre Fellowship, Sundance Writers Fellowship, CalArts/Alpert Award In Theatre and a Tennessee Williams Fellowship. His theatre work has toured to 50 U.S. cities and 15 countries. He is a Senior Fellow at the New School's Vera List Center For Art & Politics and his writings on hip-hop, race and class have appeared in The Village Voice, New York Times, Harper's, The Nation, American Theatre, and various books: Out Of Character, Extreme Exposure, Creating Your Own Monologue and Total Chaos. His book Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop is in its second printing by Villard Books/Random House. His writing and acting credits for television and film include Bamboozled, Washington Heights, Prison Song, Some People, Subway Stories, Thin Red Line, Whiteboys, Blackhawk Down, American Splendor, War Of The Worlds, Lucky

You, HBO Def Poetry and the film version of Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop. Most recently he appeared alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes in We Own The Night. Hoch founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival in 2000 which has since presented over 100 Hip-Hop Generation plays from around the globe and now appears annually in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco/Oakland. He directed Will Power's hit show Flow at New York Theatre Workshop, as well as the bilingual Representa at the the SFIAF, and his own Till The Break Of Dawn at New York's Abrons Arts Center in 2007. He was the 2007 Sundance Theatre Lab's Playwright-In-Residence and was awarded a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship for Drama.

Tony Taccone (Director) is in his 10th year as Artistic Director of Berkeley Rep, where he has staged more than 35 shows, including the world premieres of Continental Divide, The Convict's Return, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, The First 100 Years, Geni(us), Ravenshead and Virgin Molly. He commissioned Tony Kushner's renowned Angels in America, co-directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum and has collaborated with Kushner on six projects. Their latest piece featured designs by beloved children's author, Maurice Sendak: Brundibar debuted at Berkeley Rep and then traveled to Yale Rep and the New Victory Theatre in New York City. Taccone made his Broadway debut with Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, which was universally lauded by the critics. He also staged the show's record-breaking off-Broadway run, workshopped it for Broadway at Berkeley Rep and directEd Jones' previous hit, Surface Transit. In 2004, his production of David Edgar's Continental Divide transferred to the Barbican in London after playing the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep and England's Birmingham Rep. Taccone frequently works in Ashland, where he has also directed Coriolanus, Othello, Pentecost and the American premiere of Seamus Heaney's The Cure at Troy. His other regional credits include noted theatres such as Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, San Jose Rep, Seattle Rep and San Francisco's Eureka Theatre, where he served six years as artistic director before going to Berkeley Rep.

THE PUBLIC THEATER (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 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 has won 41 Tony Awards, 145 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards, 24 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

TICKET INFORMATION

TAKING OVER began previews on Friday, November 7 at The Public Theater and runs through Sunday, December 14 with an official press opening on Sunday, November 23. The performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 p.m.; Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m.

There are additional performances on Wednesday, November 26 at 2 p.m., and Saturday, November 29 at 2 p.m. There will be no performance on Sunday, November 23 at 2 p.m. and Thursday, November 27 at 8 p.m.

The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street. Tickets are $60 for Tuesday-Friday performances, Saturday matinees, and both Sunday performances; and $70 for Saturday evening performances. Student tickets are available in advance, at the box office only, for $25 (1 per ID). There are a limited number of Rush Tickets sold an hour before curtain at every performance available to the general public (Two per person, $20 each, cash only).

To purchase tickets, please call (212) 967-7555 or visit www.publictheater.org.

Photos by Anita Shevett