Stephen Sondheim, Tony Kushner, et al. to Take Part in Public Theater's Forum Series

The Public Theater will continue the 2011-2012 Public Forum season in October with "Users or Used?," a provocative discussion with Mike Daisey, the creator and performer of The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, and Dan Lyons, the technology editor at Newsweek Daily Beast and creator of the "Fake Steve Jobs," the persona behind the notorious tech blog The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Single tickets, priced at $25, go on sale Thursday, September 29 for "Users or Used?"

In November, to coincide with The Public's production of King Lear featuring Sam Waterston, The Public Forum will explore the question "Does Culture Make Us Who We Are?" This dynamic evening, presented in association with the Aspen Institute Arts Program, will feature David Brooks, Dr. Mary Schmidt Campell, Oskar Eustis, and Damian Woetzel. In January, Stephen Sondheim and Tony Kushner will return to the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts for another exhilarating, one-on-one conversation, hosted by NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman.

The Forum began its second season earlier this month with "The 9/11 Decade," an incisive look at the legacy of the World Trade Center attacks. Host Alec Baldwin led a conversation that featured the insights of Kurt Andersen, Carl Bernstein, and Richard Nelson, the writer and director of the play Sweet and Sad.

The popular series continues on Sunday, October 23, at 7:00 p.m. in The Public's Martinson Theater with "Users or Used: Is Our Technological Future Locked Down and Less Free?" Mike Daisey, the creator and performer of The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, will consider how our relationship with iPhones, iPads, and all the other gadgets that we love - and the companies that make them - is changing our society. He will be joined by Dan Lyons, the technology editor at Newsweek Daily Beast, who created "Fake Steve Jobs," the persona behind the notorious tech blog "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs."

On Monday, November 21 at 8:00 p.m., the third program in the fall Public Forum season draws its inspiration from Thomas Jefferson's remark that a sense of filial duty is better instilled by King Lear than all the volumes on ethics ever written. To coincide with The Public's production of Shakespeare's great tragedy, The Public Forum, in association with the Aspen Institute Arts Program, will ask: "Does Culture Make Us Who We Are?"

This special event will feature noted author and New York Times columnist David Brooks; Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, the Dean of the Tisch School of the Arts and the Vice-Chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities; and Damian Woetzel, former principal dancer at New York City Ballet and the new Director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program. The evening will also feature remarks by Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis on the arts and our democracy. Tickets for "Does Culture Make Us Who We Are?" go on sale Monday, October 24.

In one of the highlights of The Public Forum's inaugural season, Stephen Sondheim and Tony Kushner held a dazzling one-on-one conversation about their work, their inspirations, and the theatrical life. To mark the publication of the second volume of Sondheim's memoir and lyric anthology, Look, I Made a Hat, Sondheim and Kushner will continue their conversation, with a special focus on the shows covered in the new book, including the masterful Sunday in the Park with George, the politically charged Assassins, and more. The Public Forum on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts will be hosted by Rocco Landesman, the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Tickets for "Sondheim/Kushner" go on sale in late November.

THE PUBLIC FORUM is a high-profile series of lectures, debates, and conversations now entering its second season. Curated by Jeremy McCarter, the Forum features leading voices in politics, media, and the arts. Alec Baldwin, Sam Waterston, Cynthia Nixon, and NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman hosted programs in its inaugural season, which featured the insights of Stephen Sondheim, Jay McInerney, Arianna Huffington, Richard Foreman, Hendrik Hertzberg, and young veterans of the war in Afghanistan - plus performances by Anne Hathaway and Michael Cerveris, among others.

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY'S Jack H. Skirball CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS is the premier venue for the presentation of cultural and performing arts events for NYU and lower Manhattan. Led by Executive Producer Jay Oliva (President Emeritus, NYU) and Director Michael Harrington, the programs of the Skirball Center reflect NYU's mission as an international center of scholarship, defined by excellence and innovation and shaped by an intellectually rich and diverse environment. A vital aspect of the Center's mission is to build young adult audiences for the future of live performance. www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu

THE ASPEN INSTITUTE ARTS PROGRAM was established to support and invigorate the arts in America and to return the arts and artists to the center of the Aspen Institute's "Great Conversation." It brings artists and art works to the Institute, and it also brings together leading artists, arts managers, sponsors, and patrons to generate, exchange, and develop ideas and policies to assure vibrancy and dynamism in all artistic realms, and to enrich civic culture in ways only the arts can do.

The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners.

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, 158 Obies, 42 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.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos

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