Joseph Papp News

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, a hilarious, incisive satire that takes on the world of professional wrestling—while, in the process,  powerbombing racism, xenophobia, and the American appetite for spectacle—opens at TheatreSquared on April 13 and will run through May 8. 

Special Offer - Fat Ham: A new kind of Hamlet 👑

Special Offer - Fat Ham Casting: Meet Juicy

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents a radical reinvention of Shakespeare's KING LEAR, starring Emmy Award and NAACP Image Award winner Joe Morton (ABC's “Scandal,” the legendary Brother from Another Planet, Netflix's “The Politician,” Justice League) and directed by John Gould Rubin, opening Saturday, May 14 and running through Sunday, June 5, 2022, with previews May 10 through 13, in The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater.

The Public Theater will begin performances for the New York premiere of THE VAGRANT TRILOGY on Friday, April 8 with a Joseph Papp Free Performance, after the cancellation of the 2020 production just five days before the first performance and a two-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

TFANA will present Alice Childress’s Wedding Band. Director Awoye Timpo’s new staging, running April 23–May 15, brings Childress’s masterpiece to New York audiences for the first time since 1972, when it made its New York premiere in a production directed by Childress and Joseph Papp.

The Public Theater and National Black Theatre announced complete casting today for the upcoming New York Premiere of FAT HAM written by James Ijames and directed by Public Theater Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director Saheem Ali.

Penn Live Arts (PLA) and the Tony and Obie Award-winning Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) have announced a new residency that brings together one of the most important Black theatre producers in the United States and the University of Pennsylvania's nexus of the performing arts, two legacy organizations that share a mission of advancing innovative, contemporary theatre.

Scribner has announced the April 2022 reissue of the award-winning play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange, in celebration of its upcoming Broadway revival by Tony nominated choreographer and director, Camille A. Brown.

Ma-Yi Theater Company and The Public Theater will begin performances for the upcoming presentation of THE CHINESE LADY, written by Lloyd Suh and directed by Obie Award-winning Ralph B. Peña. 

Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre in association with The Peccadillo Theater Company will present the World Premiere of Gong Lum’s Legacy by Charles L. White.

The Public Theater announced casting today for the New York premiere of THE VAGRANT TRILOGY, a Public Theater commission written by Emerging Writers Group alumna Mona Mansour and directed by Obie Award winner Mark Wing-Davey.

Special Offer - How Director Les Waters conceived OUT OF TIME

SHE'S GOT HARLEM ON HER MIND, an evening of three award-winning one-act plays, was originally scheduled to run from February 3 through February 27, 2022.  The pervasive spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, though waning in the New York City metropolitan region, still poses too great a threat to the health of artists and patrons to warrant attempting to stage the production.

Special Offer - New Musical SUFFS Heads to The Public

Special Offer - Out Of Time: a tapestry of age, memory, and parenthood

As the first production of GableStage's 23rd season, The Price, draws to a close after being met with rave reviews, the award-winning theatre is excited to announce the second production of the season, Joe Papp at the Ballroom, in alliance with Yiddishkayt Initiative (YI Love Jewish) and sponsored by The Sue & Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami.

Special Offer - CULLUD WATTAH is 'haunting and eye-opening' - NYT

The Public Theater announced casting today for the World Premiere of SUFFS, a new musical with book, music, and lyrics by Public Theater Artist-in-Residence Shaina Taub, choreography by Obie Award winner Raja Feather Kelly, and direction by Tony Award nominee Leigh Silverman.

Harlem Stage today announced that multidisciplinary artist Carl Hancock Rux has joined the organization in a newly created role as associate artistic director/curator-in-residence. The hire is a major component of Harlem Stage’s plan to strengthen and nurture leadership roles and employment opportunities for artists of color.