The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes) will present post-show discussions following select performances of KNICKERBOCKER, written by Jonathan Marc Sherman and directed by Pippin Parker. The Public LAB Speaker Series for KNICKERBOCKER will be held following the Tuesday, May 17 and Tuesday, May 24 performances. Tickets are $15 for all performances of KNICKERBOCKER and include free admission to the post-show discussions.
On Tuesday, May 17, immediately following the 7:00 p.m. performance, a panel moderated by Lisa Belkin (The New York Times' "Motherlode" Blog) and featuring
Lenore Skenazy (founder of the Free-Range Kids movement) and Steven Mintz (President of the Society for the History of Children and Youth) will focus on "Naptime in the City That Never Sleeps: A Conversation About Parenting in New York."
On Tuesday, May 24, immediately following the 7:00 p.m. performance, a panel moderated by Jocelyn Prince (
Public Theater Artistic Associate) and featuring Alan Berliner (acclaimed filmmaker) and
Jonathan Marc Sherman (Knickerbocker playwright) will discuss "Childhood Memories and Grown-Up Dreams."
"Are you ready?" Jerry confronts this question from the womb of his favorite restaurant booth while the months pass by and the son he and his wife Pauline are expecting grows from the size of a peach to the size of...a baby. As the due date approaches, can friends and family members help Jerry feel prepared, or just feel worse, like some un-anonymous sperm donor terrified of making the transition from being the son of a father to being the father of a son? Staged just blocks from the titular restaurant where it is set, the latest play by
Jonathan Marc Sherman (Things We Want, Sophistry) is sharp, funny, and deeply felt.
Public LAB, originally conceived in association with
LAByrinth Theater Company, is an annual series of new plays that lets New Yorkers see more of the work they love from The Public in scaled-down productions. Public LAB allows The Public to support more artists, and gives audiences immediate access to new plays in development. The
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported Public LAB with one of the largest grants ever received by
The Public Theater.
LISA BELKIN covers life, work, families and parenting for The New York Times in the "Motherlode" Blog. A long-time contributing writer, she has also been the paper's "Life's Work" columnist and a reporter on the National, Metro and Business and Style desks. The author of three books, including Life's Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom, her own personal "Motherlode" is her husband, two teenage sons, and one dog who seems to think he's her baby.
ALAN BERLINER is one of America's most acclaimed independent filmmakers. According to The New York Times, "Alan Berliner illustrates the power of fine art to transform life." Berliner's films include Intimate Stranger, Nobody's Business, and Wide Awake. He is a recipient of Rockefeller, Guggenheim and Jerome Foundation Fellowships, multiple grants from the NEA, NYSCA, and NYFA, and three Emmy Awards. His films are in the
Permanent Collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
STEVEN MINTZ is a Columbia University history professor and author of Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood and Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. He is the president of the Society for the History of Children and Youth and the former national chair of the Council on Contemporary Families. Frequently quoted in major publications including The New York Times and USA Today, Mintz has also appeared on CBS News and NPR.
JOCELYN PRINCE is the Artistic Associate at
The Public Theater, where she produces the Public LAB Speaker Series. Her dramaturgy credits include the Juilliard School of Drama,
Lookingglass Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Writers' Theatre, eta Creative Arts Foundation, European Repertory Company, Congo Square Theatre Company, and
Steppenwolf Theatre. Prince holds an MA in Performance Studies from
Northwestern University and has written for Time Out Chicago, Time Out New York, The Chicago Reporter, and the African American Review.
Jonathan Marc Sherman wrote The Public LAB's newest production, Knickerbocker. His other plays include Things We Want, Sophistry, Veins & Thumbtacks, Evolution, Sons & Fathers, Jesus on the Oil Tank, Serendipity & Serenity, Wonderful Time, and Women & Wallace. They have been performed at Malaparte Theatre Company (which he co-founded),
The New Group,
Playwrights Horizons,
WPA Theater, Los Angeles Theatre Center, and the
Williamstown Theater Festival, as well as in England, Australia, Israel, and Japan. He adapted Women and Wallace for PBS-TV's "American Playhouse," and Veins & Thumbtacks was the basis for the movie The Jimmy Show.
Lenore Skenazy is founder of the book, blog and movement, "Free-Range Kids," which launched the anti-helicopter parenting movement. A frequent guest on talk shows, she speaks internationally, and has written for everyone from The Washington Post to Mad Magazine. She also invented "Take Our Children to the Park...And Leave Them There Day," which is coming up May 21. In January, she will host a new reality show about Free-Range parenting.
The Public Theater (
Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director;
Joey Parnes, Interim Executive Director) was founded by
Joseph Papp in 1954 and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals and productions of classics at its downtown home and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.
The Public Theater's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through extensive outreach programs. Each year, more than 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 Theater's productions have won 42 Tony Awards, 151 Obies, 41 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. Fifty-four Public
Theater Productions have moved to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; For Colored Girls...; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Passing Strange; the revival of HAIR; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice.
www.publictheater.org.
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