The Public Theater Announces Artistic Leadership Promotions for Bryan Joseph Lee, Roxanna Barrios and Yuvika Tolani

The Public Theater today announced the promotions of Roxanna Barrios, Bryan Joseph Lee, and Yuvika Tolani. The promotions celebrate and recognize Barrios, Lee, and Tolani's continued leadership, growth, and significant impact across the organization during their tenures.

Barrios will serve as Associate Producer of Artistic Programs, Lee will serve as Director of Public Forum, and Tolani will serve as Director of Producing.

Barrios previously worked on The Public's Mobile Unit, most recently as Associate Director. In her new role, she will be overseeing and supporting all projects from The Public's Artistic Programs, which includes Joe's Pub, Mobile Unit, Public Works, Under the Radar Festival, Public Forum, and Public Shakespeare Initiative.

"Roxanna has, over the past six years, become one of the most beloved and irreplaceable members of our artistic staff. Her work with the Mobile Unit was exemplary: she created vital links between the artists of The Public and the communities we serve," said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "Her resilience, dedication, and humanity have made her a leader trusted by artists, staff, and community alike. We are delighted to promote her to Associate Producer of Artistic Programs, where she will have a wider brief leading, along with Shanta Thake, the work of all our Artistic Programs."

"I'm excited to deepen my relationship with all of The Public's beloved programs," said Associate Producer of Artistic Programs Roxanna Barrios. "It's an honor to work alongside my amazing colleagues, our artists, and our community partners in a time of deep introspection and change."

Lee previously worked on The Public's Special Artistic Projects and most recently led Public Forum as Associate Director. In his new role as Public Forum's director, he will focus on The Public's role and responsibilities as a civic institution and continue to create opportunities for communities to engage deeply with current events, original thinkers, and the most pressing social issues and activism.

"Bryan has been doing wonderful work for the Public Forum for the past year and a half, and it is overdue that we promote him to the title he has long deserved, Director of Public Forum," said Eustis. "Bryan has an incredibly deep and nuanced awareness of the intersection between social justice work and the theater, and he has created unique and exemplary events and programs where we celebrate and explode the impact of theater into the world of ideas and the world of politics. He is a gifted thinker and a creative leader, and I am looking forward to watching where he takes the Public Forum."

"Our field is reckoning with a systemic shift that's long overdue, and I'm excited to see so many talented and capable BIPOC artists, administrators, and producers step into leading roles. As a Queer Black man, I'm particularly thrilled to highlight stories of, by, and for the Queer, Trans, Black, and BIPOC communities at one of our country's leading theaters," said Director of Public Forum Bryan Joseph Lee. "Public Forum is an artistic program shaped by incredible humans like the intrepid Stephanie Ybarra, Forum's founder Jeremy McCarter, and the late, beloved Michael Friedman. We share a commitment to civic engagement and activism through theater, and I can only hope to do their legacies justice."

Tolani previously served as a Line Producer at The Public and was then promoted to Associate Producer. In her new role as Director of Producing, she will continue to oversee the Line Producer team and help guide Public Theater projects from their earliest stages through to their presentations across The Public Theater's stages on Astor Place and at The Delacorte Theater.

"Yuvika has been beautifully heading up our producing office for the last two years, and this promotion reflects how central she has become to the operation of The Public," said Eustis. "She is a brilliant leader, a creative and highly inventive thinker, and she has a moral core that is completely dependable. She will make a difference in our field for decades to come."

"In this time of great transformation, of our institutional practices and of the fundamental forms of our theatrical expression, I am above all grateful to be a part of the staff of The Public, always innovating, always with a profound sense of responsibility to our legacy and mission," said Director of Producing Yuvika Tolani.

BIOS:

ROXANNA BARRIOS (Associate Producer of Artistic Programs) (she/her) supports projects within Joe's Pub, Mobile Unit, Public Works, Under the Radar Festival, Public Forum, and Public Shakespeare Initiative. She is the former Associate Director of the Mobile Unit, which brings theater and music to community centers, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, and more. As a producer, she has worked with globalFEST, LAByrinth Theater Company, WP Theater, The Cherry Lane Mentor Project, and UglyRhino Productions. Prior to her time in New York, she did a brief stint in film in Los Angeles and spent just under a decade working for a children's performing arts training company in South Florida. She is a graduate of the University of Florida and a South Florida native.

BRYAN Joseph Lee (Director of Public Forum) (he/him) is a creative producer and arts manager dedicated to amplifying the stories of Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (QTBIPOC), and those at the intersections of multiple identities. In his role at The Public, he investigates civic advocacy and cultural changemaking. He is a 2018 Fellow of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at The University of Maryland and was named a 2016 Rising Leader of Color by Theater Communications Group (TCG). As an arts marketer and audience development consultant, Bryan has led conversations on a local, national, and international scale, including recent projects in Australia, Egypt, and across the United States. He holds a degree in Latin American Studies and Theater from Dartmouth College.

YUVIKA TOLANI (Director of Producing) (she/her) has been producing at The Public since 2015. She leads a team of extraordinary Line Producers -- Audrey Frischman, Garlia Cornelia Jones, and Kelly Kerwin, in guiding projects from their most nascent stages to fruition in one of the five theaters at Astor Place and The Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Prior to her time at The Public, she was part of the fundraising team at the American Repertory Theater. This fall, she joins Sarah Lunnie and Stowe Nelson as part of Telephonic Literary Union, which makes intimate theatrical experiences for very small audiences. TLU's Human Resources was commissioned by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company for their 2020 fall programming. Yuvika was a member of the 2016-18 WP Theater Lab. She holds a BA in Theater Studies from Yale University and currently sits on the Alumni Board of the Yale Dramatic Association.

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