Mixed Blood Announces An Evening With Oskar Eustis

As our nation becomes increasingly polarized and socially disconnected, how do we find ways to engage honestly with others? Join Oskar Eustis and Mixed Blood Theatre to explore these questions and more at "An Evening with Oskar Eustis."

Mixed Blood Theater presents "An Evening with Oskar Eustis," an opportunity for community members to learn from and engage with the renowned Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of The Public Theater-a playhouse known for being a hub for rapidly burgeoning titles like "Hamilton," "Fun Home," and "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson," collecting 59 Tony Awards. Oskar joins Mixed Blood to discuss, among other things, his passionate belief that theatre has a place in democracy.

From Free Shakespeare In The Park to the Mobile Unit to Joe's Pub to Under The Radar to Public Works to the Emerging Writers Group to Digiturgy and more, Oskar curates the largest non-profit theater in the nation (with a budget of $66M). His conversation will encompass his Minneapolis childhood to his time at the Eureka Theater of San Francisco, commissioning and producing Angels in America, to becoming Associate Artistic Director of the Mark Taper Forum before leading Trinity Rep to have a resident acting company and professional training program with Brown University that led him to become the fourth leader of the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Says Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler, "Oskar Eustis is my sage. I channel his preachings and those of the very foundation of The Public Theater: theater is the essential art form of democracy. He proclaims that truth comes from the collision of different ideas, and theater plays an essential role in showing us that truth. The conflict of different points of view leads to that truth. From those truths, combined with the emotional muscle of empathy, come the necessary tools for a democratic citizenship. He believes that artistry is not something that is the possession of a few, but rather inherent in being a human being. He is still a Minnesotan and the philosophies of his stepfather, once the head of our state's Communist Party, still echo in Oskar."

As Artistic Director of The Public Theater, Oskar guides the organization's civic engagement that seeks to deliberately blur the line between performer and audience by inviting community members to attend workshops, take classes, watch performance, and engage in the creation of participatory theatrical works.

About The New York Shakespeare Festival

The New York Shakespeare Festival was founded by Joe Papp as an extension of his "Free Shakespeare in the Park," a series of performances held every summer night in Central Park for the public at no cost. Papp's desire to bring theater to the people led him to establish Public Theater in 1967, with its first performance was the massively successful "Hair." Since then the theater has produced work that has participated in the shifting of American culture such as "A Chorus Line," "Normal Heart" and "Angels in America." Oskar Eustis took over from George C. Wolfe as Artistic Director in 2005. During this period the theater introduced The Mobile Unit, fashioned after our own Ten Thousand Things, which brings Shakespeare to prisons, homeless shelters, and community centers.

About Mixed Blood Theatre:

Similar to The Public Theater, Mixed Blood uses theater to illustrate and animate, modeling pluralism in pursuit of interconnections, shared humanity, and engaged citizenry. Mixed Blood's Radical Hospitality - eliminating barriers to participation in live theater - drew its inspiration from Free Shakespeare In The Park. Using theatre to change attitude, behavior, and policy, Mixed Blood Theatre has invited the global village into its audience and onto its stage for its unique brand of provocative, inclusive, and predictably unpredictable theater since 1976.