Public Theater Announces NY Premiere of IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will present the New York premiere of IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING, a groundbreaking monologue about homeland security, created and performed by Mike Daisey and directed by Jean-Michele Gregory. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING will begin previews on Wednesday, October 15 and run through Tuesday, November 30 with an official press opening on Monday, October 27. Tickets will go on-sale to the general public on Friday, September 19.

Following the success of How Theater Failed America at the Under the Radar Festival in January, Mike Daisey returns to The Public to tackle a story at the very core of our world today. With his signature style commentary, at once biting and hilarious, 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.

"Mike Daisey is funny, earnest, wonderful company and so smart he'd burn holes in the ground if he wasn't wearing shoes," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "If You See Something Say Something is a remarkable analysis of the state of our nation, and Mike Daisey is the kind of theatre artist who ennobles our profession."

Mike Daisey (Creator and Performer) has been called "the master storyteller" and "one of the finest solo performers of his generation" by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His monologues, fourteen and counting, include the controversial How Theater Failed America, the six-hour epic Great Men of Genius, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. Over the past decade he has performed his unique extemporaneous monologues at venues such as the Public Theater, American Repertory Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Cherry Lane Theatre, Yale Repertory Theater, the Noorderzon Festival, the T:BA Festival, Performance Space 122, and many more. He's been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, a commentator for PRI's Studio 360 and NPR's Day To Day, a contributor to WIRED, Slate and Salon, a web contributor to Vanity Fair and Radar Magazine, and his work has been heard on the BBC, NPR, and the National Lampoon Comedy Hour. His first film, Layover, is being distributed by Lars von Trier's company Zentropa, and he stars in the Lawrence Krauser feature Horrible Child. His first book, 21 Dog Years: A Cubedweller's Tale, was published by the Free Press and he is working on a second book, Great Men of Genius, adapted from his monologues about genius and megalomania in the lives of Bertolt Brecht, P.T. Barnum, Nikola Tesla, and L. Ron Hubbard. His first work as a playwright, The Moon Is A Dead World, will be produced in Seattle this season. He has been the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, two Seattle Times Footlight Awards, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He lives in New York City with his director and collaborator, Jean-Michele Gregory.

JEAN-MICHELE GREGORY (Director) works as a director, editor, and dramaturg, focusing on unscripted, extemporaneous theatrical works that live in the moment they are told. For the last decade she's been engaged in a long-term collaboration with Mike Daisey, directing and conceiving their many monologues at venues across the globe, including the Barrow Street Theatre (How Theater Failed America), Yale Repertory Theatre (Invincible Summer), the Cherry Lane Theater (21 Dog Years), Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Great Men of Genius-winner of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award), Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (If You See Something Say Something), the Noorderzon Festival (The Envoy's Dilemma), American Repertory Theatre (Monopoly!-nominated for an Elliot Norton Award), the Under the Radar Festival (Invincible Summer), Performance Space 122 (All Stories Are Fiction), ACT Theatre (The Ugly American-winner of the Seattle Times Footlight Award), Portland Stage Company (Barring the Unforeseen), and many more. She recently directEd Martin Dockery's Wanderlust at the Barrow Group Theatre and Suzanne Morrison's Yoga Bitch at London's Theatre 503. Fascinated by storytelling in all its shapes and forms, she is at work on a memoir about her family's exodus from eastern Poland and what it means to forgive.

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

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING will begin previews on Wednesday, October 15 at Joe's Pub and will run through Tuesday, November 30 with an official press opening on Monday, October 27. The performance schedule varies; check www.publictheater.org for details.

The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street. Tickets are $40 - $60 for Tuesday-Friday performances and Sunday performances; and $40 - $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). For more information on Joe's Pub, visit www.joespub.org.

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

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.