Sondheim, Lucas and Durang To Head Public's 08-09 Season

The Public Theater's Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Mara Manus  announced today that the 2008-2009 Season will feature premieres by Mike Daisey,Christopher Durang,John Guare,Danny Hoch,Craig Lucas,Stephen Sondheim, and Tracey Scott Wilson.  JoAnne Akalaitis will return to her former home at The Public to direct THE BACCHAE as the second offering of the 2009 Shakespeare in the Park summer season.  In the same theater season, George C. Wolfe will return to direct his first downtown show since his departure as Producer in 2005. (Wolfe last directed Mother Courage and Her Children in 2006 in the Park for The Public).  Wolfe will direct John Guare's first major play in seven years, A FREE MAN OF COLOR, featuring Mos Def and Jeffrey Wright.

The Public's season will open in October with the New York premiere of the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical BOUNCE, directed by John Doyle.  In the spring, Craig Lucas will reteam with his Light in the Piazza Director Bartlett Sher for the New York Premiere of THE SINGING FOREST, and Christopher Durang will return to The Public with the world premiere of his dark comedy WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM.

In the fall, Hip-Hop impresario Danny Hoch will premiere his first solo show in 10 years, TAKING OVER, and controversial monologist Mike Daisey will premiere his latest monologue about homeland security, IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING.

Following a successful run at The Public's Public LAB initiative this season, THE GOOD NEGRO, by Tracey Scott Wilson, will have a full main stage production in February, directed by Liesl Tommy. THE GOOD NEGRO is a co-production with Dallas Theater Center.

"Each of next season's remarkable theater artists is working on the broadest canvas imaginable, dealing with the large issues that shape our public life.  It will be a season about America -- its present and its history," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis.  "From the gentrification of Brooklyn in Danny Hoch's Taking Over, to the Department of Homeland Security in If You See Something Say Something, from America's transition from Republic to Empire in A Free Man of Color, to The Crucible of the Civil Rights movement in The Good Negro, these artists are grappling with the heart of America."

"I am particularly proud to welcome back to The Public my two predecessors, JoAnne Akalaitis and George C. Wolfe," continued Eustis.  "One of The Public's great strengths is the continuity of its community of artists, and JoAnne and George are both an integral part of that community."

2008-2009 Season

BOUNCE
NEW YORK PREMIERE/Fall

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by John Weidman
Directed by John Doyle

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman make their Public Theater debut with their musical, Bounce.  Spanning 40 years from the Alaskan Gold Rush to the Florida real estate boom in the '30s, Bounce is the story of two brothers whose quest for the American Dream turns into a test of morality and judgment that changes their lives in unexpected ways.  Director John Doyle, acclaimed for re-imagining Sondheim's works, joins Weidman and Sondheim in exploring some of the great American issues: real estate, capitalism, and crooks.  

 

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING

NEW YORK PREMIERE/Fall

Created and performed by Mike Daisey

Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory

Called "The Master Storyteller" by The New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues, Mike Daisey returns to the intimate setting of Joe's Pub to tackle a story at the very core of our world today.  With his signature biting and funny commentary, Daisey investigates the secret history of the Department of Homeland Security through the untold story of the father of the neutron bomb and a personal pilgrimage to the Trinity blast site.  If You See Something Say Something takes us on a journey in search of what it means to be secure, and the price we are willing to pay for it.

 

TAKING OVER
NEW YORK PREMIERE/Fall

Written and performed by Danny Hoch
Directed by Tony Taccone

Hip-Hop theater pioneer Danny Hoch storms The Public stage once again to chronicle the current state of gentrification of New York City. Blazing through a fierce spectrum of New Yorkers, Danny 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 Danny's signature style, Taking Over is a raw, explosive, hilarious and heartbreaking study of the impact of our obsession with economic expansion.

A FREE MAN OF COLOR
WORLD PREMIERE/Winter

By John Guare
Directed by George C. Wolfe

Featuring Mos Def and Jeffrey Wright

 

In their first collaboration, theater powerhouses John Guare and George C. Wolfe team up to bring us an historical comedy of epic proportions.  A Free Man of Color re-creates the sexually progressive New Orleans of 1802 when the landscape of race was shifting and the Louisiana Purchase could complete America's unfinished maps.  Featuring a host of historical characters including Napoleon, Josephine, Jefferson, Talleyrand, and others (you name 'em, they're in it), A Free Man of Color is a racially charged re-telling of America's coming of age.  Both uproarious and profound, this grand production is all at once an hilarious sex farce, a tale of international intrigue and a story of slave rebellion.

 

THE GOOD NEGRO (Co-Production with Dallas Theater Center)

WORLD PREMIERE/Spring

By Tracey Scott Wilson

Directed by Liesl Tommy

 

Straight from a sold-out run during our inaugural season of Public LAB, this gripping new play tears through the pages of history to uncover the human story at the heart of the 1960's American civil rights movement.  In the increasingly hostile South, tensions build as a trio of emerging black leaders attempt to conquer their individual demons amidst death threats from the Klan and wire taps by the FBI.  Through personal and intimate stories that emerged from the political upheavals of the era, The Good Negro examines a world where people dare to hope for a better future. A co-production with Dallas Theater Center.

 

WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM

WORLD PREMIERE/Spring

By Christopher Durang

Back at The Public for another world premiere of a new play, Christopher Durang turns political humor upside down with this raucous and provocative satire about America's growing homeland 'insecurity'.  Why Torture is Wrong, And The People Who Love Them tells the story of a young woman suddenly in crisis: is her new husband, whom she married when drunk, a terrorist?  Or just crazy?  Or both? Is her father's hobby of butterfly collecting really a cover for his involvement in a shadow government? Why does her mother enjoy going to the theatre so much? Does she seek mental escape, or is she insane? Honing in on our private terrors both at home and abroad, Durang oddly relieves our fears in this black comedy for an era of yellow, orange, and red alerts.

 

THE SINGING FOREST

NEW YORK PREMIERE/Spring

By Craig Lucas

Directed by Bartlett Sher

 

The writer who brought us The Light in the Piazza, Reckless and Prelude to a Kiss, now interrogates how history collides with the human heart in the long shadow of the Holocaust. The Singing Forest takes you on a passage through time - from today's world of Starbucks, celebrity and therapy to Freud's inner circle in 1930's Vienna and to Paris at the end of WWII.  It's the story of three generations of a family whose lives are intertwined despite the secrets that have torn them apart.

 

DELACORTE THEATER/SUMMER 2009

 FIRST PARK SHOW (To Be Announced)

 THE BACCHAE (Second Play of the Park Season)

By Euripides
Directed by JoAnne Akalaitis
Music by Philip Glass
Adapted by Nicholas Ruddall

 JoAnne Akalaitis returns to The Public with this visionary interpretation of Euripides' classic story about what happens when a government attempts to outlaw desire.  Featuring a lush choral score by Philip Glass, this Bacchae will be presented as Greek tragedy was always meant to be seen – outside in the open air of the city.

 

ALSO SCHEDULED FOR NEXT SEASON AT The Public Theater:

 
The 2008-09 Season will see the second year of Public LAB, a groundbreaking initiative 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.  This important program gives 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 Native Theater Festival will return for a second season (November 10-16, 2008) to provide a rare and vital outlet for Native artists.  Under the Radar will enter its fifth year (January 7-18, 2009), showcasing cutting-Edge Theater from around the world on the many stages of The Public. New Work Now, the popular free readings series that showcases new works, will return in the spring to continue The Public's commitment to new voices.

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Mara Manus, 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 40 Tony Awards, 145 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards, 24 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
 

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