The Public Theater Announces Casting For Upcoming Shows

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced initial casting for Christopher Durang's WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM and Craig Lucas's THE SINGING FOREST. Nicholas Martin will direct Why Torture Is Wrong... with a cast of seven that includes Amir Arison, David AaRon Baker, Kristine Nielsen and John Pankow. MarK Wing-Davey will direct a cast of nine that includes Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis in The Singing Forest.

The cast for Why Torture Is Wrong..., which runs March 24 to April 26, will include Amir Arison (Queens Boulevard at Signature), David AaRon Baker (Dead Man's Cell Phone at Playwrights Horizons), Kristine Nielsen (Crazy Mary at Playwrights Horizons), and John Pankow (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at The New Group).

Early casting for The Singing Forest, running April 7 to May 17, will feature Olympia Dukakis (Academy Award winner for Moonstruck) as Loe Reiman. Ms. Dukakis' New York stage credits include the Encores! production of 70, Girls, 70, Barra Grant's A Mother, A Daughter and a Gun, Social Security directed by Mike Nichols, Rose (Outer Critics Award and Drama Desk nom.), Who's Who in Hell, The Aspern Papers, Night of the Iguana, Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class, Peer Gynt, Titus Andronicus, Electra, Vaclav Havel's Memorandum, Brecht's A Man's a Man (Obie Award), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and A View From the Bridge (Theatre World Award).

Nicholas Martin (Why Torture Is Wrong... Director) is the artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival and former artistic director of Huntington Theatre Company. He has directed the New York productions of Saturn Returns (Lincoln Center Theater), The New Century (LCT), Observe The Sons Of Ulster... (LCT),Chaucer in Rome, The Time of the Cuckoo (LCT), Fully Committed (Vineyard Theatre), Bosoms and Neglect (Signature Theatre), Sophistry, Betty's Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons; Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination), You Never Can Tell, The Rehearsal (Roundabout Theatre Company), Full Gallop, Overtime (Manhattan Theatre Club), Oblivion Postponed (Second Stage), and It Changes Every Year (Malaparte). His many regional credits include The Globe Theatre and the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London productions of Full Gallop. MR. Martin is a 1998 recipient of the TCG National Artist ResidenCy Grant with Williamstown, where he has directed The Royal Family, Dead End, Dreading Thekla, The Matchmaker, Evolution, Camino Real.

MarK Wing-Davey (The Singing Forest Director) is an Obie Award-winning director whose Public Theater credits include School of the Americas; Henry V; 36 Views; The Skriker (seven Drama Desk Award nominations, including Best Director); Troilus and Cressida; and Silence, Cunning, Exile. He directed the acclaimed, Obie-winning production of Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy for Playwrights Horizons as well as Lucas's musical The Listener at Juilliard. His Berkeley Rep credits include 36 Views; The Life of Galileo; The Beaux' Stratagem; and Mad Forest. Additional productions include the world premiere of The Lights at Lincoln Center (Drama Desk, Best Director nomination); Blood Wedding at the La Jolla Playhouse; and a production of West Side Story in South Africa. He has worked extensively with playwright Caryl Churchill and directed the revival of her play Light Shining in Buckinghamshire for the Royal National Theatre. From 1988-90 he was Artistic Director of the Central School of Speech and Drama in London where he originated the project about the Romanian Revolution, which was to become Caryl Churchill's award-winning play Mad Forest. This played in London, The National Theatre in Bucharest and finally transferred to The Royal Court Theatre. In 1991 he was invited by New York Theatre Workshop to direct the American premiere, an event which led directly to his subsequent U.S. directing career. He is the new Chair of the NYU Graduate Acting Program.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its 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 41 Tony Awards, 145 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards, 24 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.