Before it Hits Home - Off-Broadway Creative Team

Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new plays and musicals. Costume designer Paul Tazewell's recent achievements include winning an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for his work on Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu and featuring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. This accolade was accompanied by a BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design, a Critics Choice Award, the Costume Designers Guild's Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film award, NAACP Image Award and the Innovator Award from the African American Film Critics Association, underscoring his critical role in bringing the fantastical world of Oz to life. Additional accolades include an Academy Award nomination for West Side Story in 2021, an Emmy for ... read more THE PUBLIC is theater of, by, and for all people. Artist-driven, radically inclusive, and fundamentally democratic, The Public continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation's first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public's wide ... read more