Public Theater Announces 'Fever Chart' Discussions

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus) announced today that post-show discussions will follow performances of THE FEVER CHART: THREE VISIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST by Naomi Wallace on Tuesday, April 29 and Sunday, May 11. Both discussions will immediately follow performances of THE FEVER CHART and no additional tickets are necessary.
 
On April 29, following the 8 p.m. performance, journalist and scholar Alisa Solomon will talk with playwright David Henry Hwang, a recent Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Yellow Face (The Public Theater, Fall 2007), and Savitri D, who directs the radical performance community known as The Church of Stop Shopping.  Following the discussion, Ms. Wallace will sign editions of her published plays and Ms. Solomon will sign copies of Wrestling With Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, a book she edited with Tony Kushner.
 
On May 11, following the 2 p.m. performance, playwright Kia Corthron and writer/directors Steven Cosson and Robert O'Hara will speak about how artists immerse themselves in a topic after deciding to write what they don't already know. 
 
THE FEVER CHART: THREE VISIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST will begin previews on Saturday, April 26 at 8 p.m. and run through Sunday, May 11. Tickets for THE FEVER CHART are $10 and available by calling (212) 967-7555 or ordering online at www.publictheater.org.
 
Conceived and presented in association with LAByrinth Theater Company, PUBLIC LAB is designed to respond to new work immediately, and present fresh, raw and relevant plays that embrace the Public's history as a theater receptive to the big issues, the public issues of our time.  In so doing, this innovative program creates a new model for the ways in which The Public engages with our artists and audience.  This important initiative will give writers the essential opportunity to realize their work in collaboration with director, designers and actors through production and most importantly, to see their work in front of an audience.  The plays will be minimally designed and have short rehearsal periods. 
 
ALISA SOLOMON directs the Arts and Culture concentration in the MA Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. A long-time theater critic and political journalist, she has written for such publications as The New York Times, www.GuardianAmerica.com, The Nation, The Forward, www.nextbook.com, and The Village Voice, where she was on the staff for 21 years. Her book Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. She is the co-editor, with Tony Kushner, of Wrestling with Zion: Progressive-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
 
SAVITRI D began directing the radical performance community known as The Church of Stop Shopping after working in a number of mediums, especially dance and theater. Her work in creative resistance has taken her to Europe, Africa, South America and venues throughout the United States and Canada. Savitri collaborated with Morgan Spurlock in producing the top documentary of late 2008, "What Would Jesus Buy?" She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Reverend Billy.
 
DAVID HENRY HWANG is the author of M. Butterfly (1988 Tony Award, 1989 Pulitzer Finalist), Golden Child (1998 Tony nomination, 1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), The Dance and the Railroad (1982 Drama Desk Nomination), Family Devotions (1982 Drama Desk Nomination), Sound and Beauty and Bondage.  His Broadway musicals include the books for Disney's Aida (co-author), Tarzan and the revised Flower Drum Song (2002 Tony nomination).  He was the librettist for Philip Glass' 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, The Voyage (Metropolitan Opera) and The Sound of a Voice; as well as Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards) and Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland (Opernwelt 2007 "World Premiere of the Year").  Hwang also penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate, and Possession (co-author). His latest play, Yellow Face, which premiered at the Mark Taper Forum and the Public Theater, was a Finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.
 
KIA CORTHRON's plays include Moot the Messenger (Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival), Light Raise the Roof (New York Theatre Workshop), Snapshot Silhouette (Minneapolis' Children's Theatre), Slide Glide the Slippery Slope (ATL Humana, Mark Taper Forum), The Venus de Milo Is Armed (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Breath, Boom (London's Royal Court Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Yale Rep, Huntington Theatre and elsewhere), Force Continuum (Atlantic Theater Company), Splash Hatch on the E Going Down (New York Stage and Film, Baltimore's Center Stage, Yale Rep, London's Donmar Warehouse), Seeking the Genesis (Goodman Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club), Digging Eleven (Hartford Stage Company), Life by Asphyxiation (Playwrights Horizons), Wake Up Lou Riser (Delaware Theatre Company), Come Down Burning (American Place Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre), Cage Rhythm (Sightlines/The Point in the Bronx).  Awards include the Rockefeller Center's Bellagio Creative Arts Residency (Italy), Playwrights Center's McKnight National Residency, VCCA Award for Excellence in the Arts, Barbara Barondess MacLean Foundation Award, AT&T On Stage Award, Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, Mark Taper Forum's Fadiman Award, National Endowment for the Arts/TCG, Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, New Professional Theatre Playwriting Award, Callaway Award, Connections Contest winner, and in television a Writers Guild Outstanding Drama Series Award and Edgar Allan Poe Award for The Wire.  She has developed work through the Hermitage Artists Retreat, Norton Island retreat, Sundance retreat at Ucross, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Women's Playwrights Festival in Seattle, Hedgebrook retreat, Shenandoah International Playwrights Retreat and elsewhere.  She traveled to Liberia in 2004 under the auspices of the Guthrie Theater's Bush Foundation grant, inspiring her to write Tap the Leopard.  Kia is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Writers Guild of America, and an alumnus of New Dramatists.
 
STEVEN COSSON founded the Civilians in 2001. With the company: co-writer and director of This Beautiful City premiering at this year's Humana Festival with upcoming productions at Studio Theatre in D.C. and Center Theatre Group (Mark Taper Forum); writer/director of the long-running hit Gone Missing which was included in New York Times critic Charles Isherwood's Best of 2007 list; as well as (I Am) Nobody's Lunch, which won the 2006 Fringe First award at Edinburgh and was recently published by Oberon Books in the UK; and director of the company-created Canard, Canard, Goose?. The Civilians' work has been produced at A.R.T., Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse, HBO's Aspen Comedy Festival, London¹s Gate Theatre and Soho Theatre among many others. Cosson has directed and developed many new plays including Neal Bell's Shadow of Himself; Mat Smart's 13th of Paris; Tommy Smith's Air Conditioning, Anne Washburn's Communist Dracula Pageant, world premiere of Peter Morris' Square Root of Minus One; U.S. premiere of Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life, U.S. premiere of Sarah Kane's Phaedra's Love; also The Time of Your Life, Serious Money, The Importance of Being Earnest and Guys and Dolls. Steven has been a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia, a MacDowell Fellow, and Resident Director at New Dramatists.
 
ROBERT O'HARA received an OBIE Award for his direction of In the Continuum at Primary Stages/Perry Street Theater. He wrote and directed the world premiere of Insurrection: Holding History at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater,;the piece received the Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Play and was subsequently published by both Theater Communications Group and an Acting Edition by Dramatist Play Service. Mr. O'Hara has directed at New York Shakespeare Festival, Primary Stages, Yale Rep, Wooly Mammoth, Kirk Douglas Theater (CTG), American Conservatory Theater, Magic Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Edinburgh Fringe Fest, The Market Theater in Johannesburg, The Baxter Theater in Cape Town, The Culture Project, The Flea, Athenaeum Theater, Philadelphia Theater Company, The Goodman Theater and The Perry Street Theater. He has been an Artist in Residence at the American Conservatory Theater, New York Shakespeare Festival, and Theater/Emory as well as a Visiting Professor at DePaul University School of the Arts. His most recent projects have been directing the Sundance/Public Theater Workshop of Marcus Gardley's And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, directing the McCarter Theater/Public Theater Workshop of Tarell McCraney's Trilogy The Brother Sister/Plays, directing world premiere of Lights Rise on Grace (Fringe Award Best New Play and Best of Fest) and world premiere of The Maine Play, both by Chad Beckim.  Next season, his new play Antebellum will have its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theater next season, and his play Good Breeding will be produced by American Conservatory Theater.  He is currently under commission from LaJolla Playhouse and in development on several other directing and writing projects. He recently completed work on the revival of The Wiz directed by Des McAnuff. He has written for Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Avnet/Kerner, HBO, ABC, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, New Line/Fine Line Cinema and Artisan Entertainment.  He is currently a member of the 2008 Obie Jury.
 
THE PUBLIC THEATER (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus) 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 40 Tony Awards, 141 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards, 23 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.
 
TICKET INFORMATION
 
THE FEVER CHART: THREE VISIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST will begin performances on Saturday, April 26 at 8 p.m. and run through Sunday, May 11.  The performance schedule is Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM; Saturdays at 2 PM and 8 PM; and Sundays at 2 PM and 7 PM.  (No performance on April 27 at 7 PM.)
 
The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street.  All tickets are $10 and can be purchased at (212) 967-7555 or by visiting www.publictheater.org.

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