The Public Theater Announces Post-Show Discussions For TIMON OF ATHENS

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes) will offer post-show discussions following select performances of TIMON OF ATHENS, the inaugural production of Public LAB SHAKESPEARE featuring Richard Thomas in the title role. The Public LAB Speaker Series for TIMON OF ATHENS will be held following the Tuesday, February 22 and Thursday, March 3 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 Tuesday, February 22, immediately following the 7:00 p.m. performance, a panel moderated by Ian Hersey (Public Theater Shakespeare Initiative) and featuring David Segal (Business reporter for The New York Times) and Jan Yager (author of Friendshifts®:The Power of Friendship and How It Shapes Our Lives) will discuss "Going Broke in Contemporary America."

On Thursday, March 3, immediately following the 8:00 p.m. performance, a panel moderated by Michael Sexton (Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Society) and featuring Craig Muldrew (Cambridge University) and James Shapiro (author of Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?) will focus on "Money in Shakespeare's Time, Money in Shakespeare's Work." This discussion is co-sponsored by The Shakespeare Society.

TIMON OF ATHENS is Shakespeare's play for the post-Bailout Age. Its central concern--money's dark potential to corrupt every human interaction--couldn't be more timely or fascinating. As one of Shakespeare's least-familiar works, it is also one of his most unique: a comedy written with an acid pen, a morality tale told in a fury.

For four seasons, Public LAB has premiered exciting new works in scaled-down productions and at affordable prices. Now Public LAB expands to bring this approach to the Bard, where the focus with be on the actor, the text, and the story. Public LAB SHAKESPEARE will broaden the ranks of artists who work on Shakespeare in America, and it will bring Shakespeare at his most spare, clear, and muscular to a wider community of theatergoers.

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).

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.

IAN HERSEY is the Shakespeare Initiative Associate at The Public where he devises and runs educational programs. He serves on the faculty of Barnard College and is the director of The R.Evolucion Latina Shakespeare Project.

CRAIG MULDREW is a faculty member in the Department of History at Cambridge University. His research focuses on British social and economic History from 1500 to 1800. Publications include The Economy of Obligation: The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England. Dr. Muldrew has also written articles concerning debt litigation and its relationship to the nature of community, the cultural nature of money, and wages in the early modern period.

David Segal is a reporter in the Business section of The New York Times and has been for the last two years. Before that he spent about 15 years at The Washington Post, first in the Business section, then in the Style section, where he was the pop music critic and got to interview heroes of his, like Prince and David Bowie.

Michael Sexton is currently the Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Society in New York City. As a freelance director, he has worked at The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Manhattan Class Company, Soho Rep, PS122, Portland Center Stage, The Old Globe, Playmakers Rep, Rising Phoenix Rep, Cherry Lane Alternative, the Samuel Beckett Theater, and the Harold Clurman Theater, among others. He is a regular guest artist at NYU's Graduate Acting Program, the Juilliard School, and Columbia University. He co-edited Four Plays by Dawn Powell for Steerforth Press.

JAMES SHAPIRO is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He most recently published Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? His journalism has appeared in the Guardian, The London Review of Books, Los Angeles Times, and Financial Times. Shapiro has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and The New York Public Library Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

JAN YAGER is a friendship coach as well as the author of Friendshifts ®: The Power of Friendship and How It Shapes Our Lives and When Friendship Hurts. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from The City University of New York and is regularly quoted in the media and has been interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and National Public Radio.
THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY (Michael Sexton, Artistic Director; Madeline Austin, Executive Director), founded in 1997, is a multi-faceted, nonprofit cultural organization serving theatergoers, actors, directors, students and teachers throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The Society's ongoing mission is to increase the enjoyment, understanding and appreciation of William Shakespeare's works through performance, commentary and educational activities. In addition to its extensive educational programs, every year The Shakespeare Society presents a season of events featuring a unique blend of commentary and performance, in which the finest academics, writers and directors share the stage with prominent actors, singers, and dancers. Past participants include James Shapiro, Stephen Greenblatt, F. Murray Abraham, Julie Taymor, John Douglas Thompson, Wendy Whelan, Harold Bloom, Hilton Als, Brian Bedford, the New York City Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera.
The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Joey Parnes, Interim 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; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; and currently, the 2010 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Merchant of Venice. www.publictheater.org.

TICKET INFORMATION
TIMON OF ATHENS, a Public LAB SHAKESPEARE production, begins performances on Tuesday, February 15 and continues through Sunday, March 6 with an official press opening on Tuesday, March 1 at 7 p.m.

The performance schedule is Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

All tickets for Public LAB are $15. Single tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by calling (212) 967-7555, by visiting www.publictheater.org, or in person at The Public Theater box office. The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street.