Micaela Diamond, Shuler Hensley and More Join The Public Theater 2025-26 Season

The Public Theater has revealed additional cast members for the upcoming productions of Ethan Lipton’s world premiere musical THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS, Else Went’s world premiere play INITIATIVE, and Elevator Repair Service’s ULYSSES. The new cast members join the previously announced cast members of THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS, for a total of 20 Public Theater debuts. Casting for The Public’s other Fall 2025 productions will be announced at a later date.

JOINING THE 2025-26 SEASON:

THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS

World Premiere

Adaptation, Music, and Lyrics by Ethan Lipton
Based Upon the Play The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder
Choreography by Sunny Min-Sook Hitt Directed by Leigh Silverman
October 24-November 30 (Opening: November 13)

Obie Award-winning playwright and songwriter Ethan Lipton and two-time Tony nominee director Leigh Silverman bring their irreverently funny new musical THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS to The Public this fall. A rollicking adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Skin of Our Teeth, this new musical about age-old problems tells the twisting, often absurd story of the Antrobus family, who have been alive for 5,000 years but live in the same existential dread as the rest of us. Mired in the hot mess of their everyday worries, the Antrobuses survive all manner of catastrophes in an endless quest to begin again, and again, and again. Choreographed by Sunny Min-Sook Hitt, this bracingly original spectacle is a musical reminder that surviving is what we do best.

THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS will feature Ben Beckley (Ensemble), Kelly Belarmino (Understudy), Ally Bonino (Fortune Teller), Bill Buell (Turkey/Ensemble), Cole Burden (Understudy), Damon Daunno (Henry Antrobus), Micaela Diamond (Sabina), Amina Faye (Glady Antrobus), Andy Grotelueschen (Announcer/Ensemble), Shuler Hensley (Mr. Antrobus), Allison Ann Kelly (Ensemble/Musician), Michael Lepore (Telegram Boy/Ensemble), Nat Lopez (Ensemble), Ruthie Ann Miles (Mrs. Antrobus), Geena Quintos (Mammoth/Ensemble), León Ramos Tak (Understudy), David Ryan Smith (Ensemble), Ruth Sternberg (Mr. Fitzpatrick), and Angela Travino (Understudy).

Principal production support for THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS at The Public provided by Teresa Tsai Productions. Generous support is provided by Steven & Benay Taub. Special thanks to the Laurents / Hatcher Foundation.

INITIATIVE

World Premiere
By Else Went
Directed by Emma Rosa Went
November 4-30 (Opening: November 20)

Playwright Else Went, alumnus of The Public’s acclaimed Emerging Writers Group, brings her transformative new play INITIATIVE to The Public this fall. A bittersweet reflection on adolescence at the dawn of the new millennium, INITIATIVE charts the intertwined lives of seven teens from 2000-2004, as they become friends and more than friends, wrestle with their potential, face incalculable loss, and struggle to find their way in (and get out of) “Coastal Podunk, California.” Emma Rosa Went directs this epic world premiere guaranteed to make you remember the most difficult and beautiful things about growing up.

INITIATIVE will feature Olivia Rose Barresi (Clara), Marisa Brau-Reyes (Understudy), Brandon Burk (Offstage Voice/Understudy), Greg Cuellar (Riley), Harrison Densmore (Ty), Carson Higgins (Lo), Andrea Lopez Alvarez (Kendall), Jamie Sanders (Tony), Jose Useche (Understudy), and Christopher Dylan White (Em).

ULYSSES

Created by Elevator Repair Service
Text: Ulysses by James Joyce
Co-Direction and Dramaturgy by Scott Shepherd
Directed by John Collins
January 2026

Elevator Repair Service  takes on the Mount Everest of twentieth-century literature. James Joyce’s ULYSSES has fascinated, perplexed, scandalized, and/or defeated readers for over a century. In this New York City premiere, seven performers sit down for a sober reading but soon find themselves guzzling pints, getting in brawls, and committing debaucheries as they careen on a fast-forward tour through Joyce’s funhouse of styles. With humor, pathos, and a richly layered design, ERS stitches together verbatim passages from Joyce’s epic masterpiece into a two-and-a-half hour tour de force.