The Public Announces Post-Show Discussions For THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will present post-show discussions following select performances of Richard Nelson's That Hopey Changey Thing, the first play of the 2010-2011 Public LAB season. The Public LAB Speaker Series for THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING will be held following the November 4th and November 9th performances and consist of engaging conversations with the artists and notable panelists. Tickets are $15 for all performances and include free admission to post-show discussions.

On Thursday, November 4, immediately following the 7:30 p.m. performance, a panel moderated by Dr. Andrew Gelman (Professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University) and featuring Charles M. Blow (visual Op-Ed Columnist of The New York Times), Maurice Carroll (Director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute), and Eugene Kiely (Philadelphia Director of FactCheck.org) will discuss "Why Voting Doesn't Matter: Politics in Contemporary American Life."

On Tuesday, November 9, immediately following the 7:30 p.m. performance, playwright/director Richard Nelson (That Hopey Changey Thing) will talk with Jeremy McCarter (Director of The Public Forum) about theater and the state of our American democracy in a discussion titled "Plays and Politics: A conversation with Richard Nelson."
THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING is set on election day, November 2, 2010. Uncle Benjamin's dog has died and his nieces and nephew have gathered for dinner in Rhinebeck, New York, to surprise him with a new one. While the polls close, the Apple family discusses memory, manners, and politics. Richard Nelson (Conversations in Tusculum at The Public, James Joyce's The Dead) returns to The Public with a timely new play that examines the state of the nation at this pivotal moment in our history.
Public LAB, 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.

The 2010-2011 Public LAB season will continue this spring with URGE FOR GOING by Mona Mansour, directed by Hal Brooks (March 25 to April 17) and KNICKERBOCKER by Jonathan Marc Sherman, directed by Pippin Parker (May 6 to May 29). An additional Public LAB show, opening this winter, will be announced at a later date.

Bios:

CHARLES M. BLOW is The New York Times' visual Op-Ed columnist. His column appears on Saturday. Mr. Blow joined The New York Times in 1994 as a graphics editor and quickly became the paper's graphics director, a position he held for nine years. In that role, he led The Times to a Best of Show Award from The Society of News Design for The Times' information graphics coverage of 9/11, the first time the award had been given for graphics coverage. He also led the paper to its first two Best In Show Awards from the Malofiej International Infographics Summit for work that included coverage of the Iraq war. Blow went on to become the paper's Design Director for News before leaving in 2006 to become the Art Director of National Geographic Magazine.

Maurice CarrOLL is Director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. He brings more than 40 years of experience as a political writer and columnist for New York and New Jersey newspapers. Carroll is the chief spokesman for Quinnipiac's New York and national polls and works with Douglas Schwartz to develop, analyze, and present the results of the many polls conducted by Quinnipiac. Carroll's experience as a journalist includes work with The New York Times, Newsday, the New York Post, the Passaic Herald-News, the Jersey Journal and the Newark Star-Ledger. Carroll taught journalism at Columbia University, New York University and Montclair State College and presently teaches in Quinnipiac's mass communications program.

DR. ANDREW GELMAN is a professor of statistics and political science and Director of the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University. He has received the Outstanding Statistical Application Award from the American Statistical Association, the award for Best Article Published in the American Political Science Review, and the Council of Presidents of Statistical Societies Award for outstanding contributions by a person under the age of 40. He most recently published Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do (with David Park, Boris Shor, Joe Bafumi, and Jeronimo Cortina). Dr. Gelman has done research on a wide range of topics, including: why it is rational to vote, why campaign polls are so variable when elections are so predictable, why redistricting is good for democracy, the probability that your vote will be decisive, and seats and votes in Congress.

EUGENE KIELY is a journalist who has covered government and politics for more than 20 years. Prior to joining FactCheck.org, Kiely was a Washington assignment editor at USA Today, leading a team of reporters who focused on Congress, politics and government accountability. Previously, he worked at The Philadelphia Inquirer, starting as a statehouse reporter in Trenton, N.J., and rising to become the Pennsylvania state editor. At The Inquirer, Kiely coordinated coverage of the Amish schoolhouse shooting, and was honored with a 2007 Sigma Delta Chi Award for breaking news. He also worked at The Record in Hackensack, N.J., where he served as the statehouse bureau chief in Trenton. He was the editor of "Open for Business," a series on then-Gov. Christie Whitman's environmental policies that won the 1996 John Oakes Award.

Jeremy McCarter is the director of The Public Forum. He writes about culture and politics for Newsweek and is the editor of Bite the Hand That Feeds You: Essays and Provocations by Henry Fairlie (Yale University Press, 2009). Until 2008, he was the drama critic for New York Magazine. He has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, Politico, and The New
York Sun. .

Richard Nelson is a playwright and director. Plays include Conversations in Tusculum (The Public), Goodnight Children Everywhere (Olivier Award, Best Play), Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony Nomination, Best Play), Some Americans Abroad (Olivier Nomination, Best Comedy), Madame Melville, New England, Frank's Home, Rodney's Wife, Franny's Way, The General from America, The Vienna Notes (Obie Award) and others. His musicals include James Joyce's The Dead with Shaun Davey (Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical), My Life with Albertine with Ricky Ian Gordon, Paradise Found with Ellen Fitzhugh and Jonathan Tunick, and Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano with Peter Golub. His films include "Hyde Park-on-Hudson" (Roger Michell, director), "Ethan Frome" (John Madden, director), "Sensibility and Sense" (David Jones, director). He is a recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which has produced ten of his plays.

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, 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 headquarters and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day onstage and through extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 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 has won 42 Tony Awards, 151 Obies, 41 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 54 shows to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk; On the Town; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Well; Passing Strange; the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair; and this fall, the rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the 2010 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Merchant of Venice. www.publictheater.org.