THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE Musical Coming to Public Theater in 2014-15 Season

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced today that it will continue its collaboration with Dallas Theater Center to co-produce the new musical THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE in 2014. Following the success of the musical Giant, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, based upon the bestselling novel by Jonathan Lethem, will premiere at Dallas Theater Center in March and continue in New York as part of The Public's 2014-15 Season at Astor Place.

Conceived and directed by Daniel Aukin, THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, with book by Itamar Moses and music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, is a story of how racial differences impact two boys, Dylan and Mingus, growing up in 1970s America. It is the story of impossibly joyful afternoons of games in the street and of living in a society in which you don't belong. It is the story of prison and of college; of Brooklyn and Berkeley; of soul and rap; of murder and redemption. And, it is the story of what would happen if two teenage boys obsessed with comic book heroes actually ... maybe ... had superpowers.

"This is a New York musical if ever there was one," said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "Friedman and Moses have created an extraordinary coming of age story that flies through the last 40 years of American history and blows a fresh wind through both Brooklyn and the theater. This is a musical about friendship, about race, about class, about us. Under the wise leadership of Daniel Aukin, this team is creating a show we will be talking about for many years to come. We are delighted to continue our partnership with Dallas Theater Center and Kevin Moriarty in the development of this show."

The Public Theater has a long history of producing new musicals, including this season's David Byrne musical HERE LIES LOVE in April and the free Shakespeare in the Park production LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, A NEW MUSICAL in July with songs by Michael Friedman. Friedman last worked with The Public on the award-winning new musical BLOODY BLOODY Andrew Jackson.
JONATHAN LETHEM (Novel) is the author of nine novels including The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, which was named Novel of the Year by Esquire and won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Salon Book Award, as well as the Macallan Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger. He has also written four short story collections, a novella and a collection of essays, edited The Vintage Book of Amnesia, guest-edited The Year's Best Music Writing 2002, and was the founding fiction editor of Fence magazine. His writings have appeared in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, McSweeney's and many other periodicals.

Itamar Moses (Book) has written numerous full-length plays including Outrage, Bach At Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us, Yellowjackets, Back Back Back, and Completeness, as well as various short plays and one-acts. His work has appeared Off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theatres across the country and in Canada, and has been published by Faber & Faber, Heinemann Press, Playscripts Inc., Samuel French, Inc., and Vintage. He has received new play commissions from the McCarter Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Wilma Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and South Coast Rep Repertory. Mr. Moses holds an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, MCC Playwrights Coalition, Naked Angels Mag 7, and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect.

Michael Friedman (Music and Lyrics) wrote the music and lyrics for The Public's critically acclaimed musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, as well as the upcoming Shakespeare in the Park production, Love's Labour's Lost, A New Musical. His additional works at The Public include Romeo and Juliet, The Seagull, and Cymbeline. He is also the co-author of Paris Commune (which recently played at the BAM Next Wave Festival). As a founding associate artist of The Civilians, he has written music and lyrics for The Great Immensity; This Beautiful City; In the Footprint; Gone Missing; [I Am] Nobody's Lunch; and Canard Canard Goose? Other works include Saved and The Brand New Kid. He has been a MacDowell Fellow, a Princeton Hodder Fellow, a Meet the Composer fellow, a Visiting Professor at the Princeton Environmental Institute, and an artist-in-residence at Spring Workshop Hong Kong. He performed in a Lincoln Center's American Songbook concert of his songs and received an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement.

Daniel Aukin (Concept and Director). His select credits include the world premieres of The Ugly One at Soho Rep.; 4000 Miles at Lincoln Center; This by Melissa James Gibson at Playwrights Horizons and for Center Theater Group; Paraffin by Adam Rapp; Mark Schultz's Everything Will Be Different; Quincy Long's The Year of The Baby; and Maria Irene Fornes' Molly's Dream, for which he received an Obie Award. Also, Itamar Moses' Back Back Back, Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine and Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. His work has been seen at Center Theater Group, Lincoln Center (LCT3), The La Jolla Playhouse, The Guthrie, Arena Stage, The Children's Theater of Minneapolis, Manhattan Theater Club, Playwrights' Horizons and Woolly Mammoth.

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 120,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its Mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas and at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Heather M. Kitchen, DTC produces a seven-play subscription series of classics, musicals and new plays and an annual production of A Christmas Carol; extensive education programs, including Project Discovery, SummerStage and partnerships with Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; and community outreach efforts including leading the DFW Foote Festival and recent collaborations with the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Public Library, Dallas Holocaust Museum, North Texas Food Bank, Dallas Opera, and Dallas Black Dance Theater. Throughout its history, DTC has produced many new works, including The Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones in 1978, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, adapted by Adrian Hall, in 1986, and recent premieres of Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson, The Trinity River Plays by ReGina Taylor, the revised It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Give It Up! (now titled Lysistrata Jones and recently on Broadway) by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, Sarah, Plain and Tall by Julia Jordan, Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin and The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson.

Completed in October 2012, the revitalization of The Public Theater's downtown home at Astor Place physically manifests the Company's core mission of sparking new dialogues and increasing accessibility for artists and audiences by dramatically opening up its landmark building to the street and community, and transforming the lobby into a public piazza for artists, students, and audiences. Designed by Ennead Architects and constructed by Westerman Construction, the project encompasses enhancements to the building's interior and exterior while preserving the historic structure. Key elements of the design include infrastructure updates to the 158-year old building, as well as construction of new exterior entry stair and glass canopy; installation of ramps for improved accessibility; an expanded and refurbished lobby; the addition of a mezzanine level with a new lounge, The Library at The Public, designed by the Rockwell Group; expansion and remodeling of restroom facilities; and comprehensive exterior restoration, ensuring stability of the landmark façade.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public Theater is the only theater in New York that produces Shakespeare and the classics, musicals, contemporary and experimental pieces in equal measure. The Public continues the work of its visionary founder, Joe Papp, by acting as an advocate for the theater as an essential cultural force, and leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. Creating theater for one of the largest and most diverse audience bases in New York City for nearly 60 years, today the Company engages audiences in a variety of venues-including its landmark downtown home at Astor Place, which houses five theaters and Joe's Pub; the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, home to its beloved, free Shakespeare in the Park; and the Mobile Unit, which tours Shakespearean productions for underserved audiences throughout New York City's five boroughs. The Public's wide range of programming includes free Shakespeare in the Park, the bedrock of the Company's dedication to making theater accessible to all, new and experimental stagings at The Public at Astor Place, and a range of artist and audience development initiatives including its Public Forum series, which brings together theater artists and professionals from a variety of disciplines for discussions that shed light on social issues explored in Public productions. The Public Theater is located on property owned by the City of New York and receives annual support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust provides leadership support for The Public Theater's year-round activities. www.publictheater.org

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski