The Shakespeare Salon Welcomes Director Daniel Sullivan 4/22

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will continue its popular Shakespeare Salon series on Thursday, April 22 at 6 p.m. with Shakespeare Initiative Director Barry Edelstein and acclaimed director Daniel Sullivan discussing the upcoming Shakespeare in the Park production of The Merchant of Venice, featuring Al Pacino as Shylock.

The Shakespeare Salon will be held at Chinatown Brasserie (380 Lafayette St). Admission is $25 and includes a complimentary glass of wine. Tickets can be reserved by calling (212) 539-8734 or emailing partners@publictheater.org. Space is limited and reservations are strongly encouraged.

""Dan Sullivan's Shakespeare productions in Central Park have been highlights of The Public's recent seasons," said Shakespeare Initiative Director Barry Edelstein. "His participation in the Shakespeare Salon while he is in rehearsal with The Merchant of Venice will afford audiences a rare glimpse of the mind and creative process of a master director at work."

The Shakespeare Salon is a periodic series of conversations with the acclaimed artists whose charge is to interpret the works of Shakespeare on the stages of The Public Theater. Wide ranging, freewheeling, and fun, The Shakespeare Salon will provide audiences with intimate behind-the-scenes access to the extraordinarily talented actors, directors, composers, designers, and other artists whose work makes The Public Theater one of the leading producers of Shakespeare in America. The first Shakespeare Salon held in March was a conversation between Edelstein and Director Michael Greif.

The upcoming Shakespeare in the Park summer season will feature The Winter's Tale and The Merchant of Venice, two Shakespeare plays performed in repertory to give audiences eight straight weeks of free Shakespeare. Shakespeare in the Park begins previews on Wednesday, June 9 and runs through Sunday, August 1.

Barry Edelstein is the Director of The Public's Shakespeare Initiative. His directing credits for The Public include Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, and WASP and Other Plays. He spent three seasons as dramaturg of Joseph Papp's Shakespeare Marathon and served as Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company from 1998 to 2003. He is the author of Thinking Shakespeare (2007) and Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions (2009).

Daniel Sullivan will direct The Merchant of Venice for Shakespeare in the Park this summer. He directed the 2009 Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night. Also at The Public, he has directed A Midsummer Night's Dream (2007), Stuff Happens (2006), and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1994). His Broadway credits include Accent on Youth, Top Girls, Come Back Little Sheba, The Homecoming, Prelude to a Kiss, Rabbit Hole, After the Night and the Music, Julius Caesar, Brooklyn Boy, Sight Unseen, The Retreat From Moscow, Morning's at Seven, Proof, Major Barbara, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Ah, Wilderness!, An American Daughter, The Sisters Rosensweig, Conversations With My Father, The Heidi Chronicles and I'm Not Rappaport. His numerous off-Broadway credits include Intimate Apparel, In Real Life, Dinner With Friends, Proof, Ten Unknowns, Ancestral Voices and Spinning Into Butter. From 1981 to 1997, Sullivan served as Artistic Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre, where he directed more than 60 productions. Sullivan's film and television credits include The Substance of Fire and "Far East."

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 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, 149 Obies, 40 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 52 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; and, most recently, the current Tony Award-winning revival of Hair. www.publictheater.org.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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