THE PUBLIC THEATER ANNOUNCES 2018-19 SEASON

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY CONOR MᴄPHERSON
MUSIC AND LYRICS BY BOB DYLAN

MOTHER OF THE MAID BY JANE ANDERSON, DIRECTED BY MATTHEW PENN
FEATURING GLENN CLOSE

EVE’S SONG BY EMERGING WRITERS GROUP ALUM PATRICIA IONE LLOYD
DIRECTED BY JO BONNEY

WILD GOOSE DREAMS BY PUBLIC STUDIO ALUM HANSOL JUNG
DIRECTED BY LEIGH SILVERMAN

SEA WALL / A LIFE WRITTEN BY SIMON STEPHENS AND NICK PAYNE
RESPECTIVELY
DIRECTED BY CARRIE CRACKNELL, FEATURING TOM STURRIDGE AND JAKE GYLLENHAAL, RESPECTIVELY

WHITE NOISE BY PUBLIC MASTER WRITER CHAIR SUZAN-LORI PARKS
DIRECTED BY OSKAR EUSTIS

AIN’T NO MO’ BY PUBLIC STUDIO ALUM JORDAN E. COOPER
DIRECTED BY STEVIE WALKER-WEBB

SOCRATE BY TIM BLAKE NELSON
DIRECTED BY DOUG HUGHES

MOJADA BY LUIS ALFARO
DIRECTED BY CHAY YEW

JOE’S PUB CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY

15th ANNUAL UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL

FREE MOBILE UNIT TOURS TO FIVE BOROUGHS
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM DIRECTED BY JENNY KOONS
THE TEMPEST DIRECTED BY LUCAS CALEB ROONEY

Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham announced the line-up today for The Public’s 2018-19 Season at their landmark home on 425 Lafayette Street. The iconic New York destination, which includes five theaters and Joe’s Pub, as well as The Library restaurant, has been home to over 50 years of revolutionary theater, and continues this season with new work by Emerging Writers Group alum and 2017-18 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence Patricia Ione Lloyd, Public Studio alumni Hansol Jung and Jordan E. Cooper, Master Writer Chair Suzan-Lori Parks, Conor McPherson, Simon Stephens, Nick Payne, Jane Anderson, Tim Blake Nelson, and Luis Alfaro, as well as the continuation of year-round and community engagement programming: Mobile Unit, Public Works, Under the Radar Festival, Public Studio, Public Forum, Public Shakespeare Initiative, Emerging Writers Group, and the beloved Free Shakespeare in the Park.

“This is a season of spectacular, ambitious projects, highlighted by a burst of young playwrights,” said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. “Patricia Ione Lloyd, Hansol Jung, and Jordan E. Cooper will be making their Public Theater mainstage debuts. Public Master Writer Chair Suzan-Lori Parks has written a brilliant and disturbing reflection on our current state of race relations, White Noise; masters Jane Anderson, Luis Alfaro, Conor McPherson, and Bob Dylan are working at the height of their powers; and actors Glenn Close, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Tom Sturridge will light up Astor Place.”

Joe’s Pub at The Public celebrates 20 years of extraordinary programming this fall. In addition to presenting cutting-edge performances year-round, Joe’s Pub continues its Vanguard Residency with Nona Hendryx, featuring a new show commissioned with Carrie Mae Weems titled Refrigerated Dreams; presents a new commission in the fall with Murray Hill; ongoing residencies with Pub favorites Shaina Taub, This Alien Nation, Isaac Oliver, Mx Justin Vivian Bond, The Illustrious Blacks, Public Forum, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and more; as well as Joe’s Pub national and international projects in Philadelphia, Long Island, Washington, D.C., and Edinburgh this year.

Hamilton, the acclaimed Public Theater production, can be seen on Broadway, London’s West End, and on tours nationally, while the Tony Award-winning musical Fun Home will play at the Young Vic in London this fall. Public Works continues to expand its global reach with continuing partnerships in Dallas, presenting The Winter’s Tale at the end of summer 2018; and in Seattle, presenting As You Like It in fall 2019. In London, The National Theatre will present a Public Works-inspired production ofPericles in August 2018, developed by their own community-based initiative, PUBLIC ACTS.

Patrons who join The Public Theater as a donor starting with a gift of $65 gain early access to tickets for shows and events throughout the year. To find out how you can support The Public by joining one of the donor programs, visitwww.publictheater.org/support or call 212-967-7555. Tickets for the 2018-19 season will go on sale later this year.

The Library at The Public continues to be open nightly for food and drinks, beginning at 5:30 p.m., with an American menucreated by Chefs Andrew Carmellini and John Ramirez, featuring local ingredients and New York influence.

THE PUBLIC THEATER’S 2018-19 SEASON:

North American Premiere
GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
Written and Directed by Conor McPherson
Music and Lyrics by Bob Dylan
September 11 - November 4, 2018

Following a critically acclaimed, sold-out run at London’s Old Vic and a West End transfer, the astonishing new show from Olivier Award winner and Tony Award nominee Conor McPherson and music icon Bob Dylan will make its North American premiere at The Public with an American cast. Dylan’s inimitable songbook is authentically transformed into this achingly beautiful story of a down-on-its-luck community on the brink of change in Dylan’s hometown, Duluth, Minnesota, in 1934. Named “one of the greatest playwrights working today” by Ben Brantley ofThe New York Times, McPherson has created a mythical new show, weaving the music of our greatest poet-singer-songwriter into a piercing drama about home, heart, and the searching determination of the American soul.

 

New York Premiere
MOTHER OF THE MAID
Written by Jane Anderson
Directed by Matthew Penn
Featuring Glenn Close
September 25 - November 18, 2018

Six-time Academy Award nominee and three-time Tony and Emmy Award winner Glenn Close returns to The Public in a breathtaking new play by Emmy winner Jane Anderson. MOTHER OF THE MAID tells the story of Joan of Arc’s mother (Glenn Close), a sensible, hard-working, God-fearing peasant woman whose faith is upended as she deals with the baffling journey of her odd and extraordinary daughter. This riveting play is an epic tale told through an unexpected and remarkable new perspective. Emmy nominee Matthew Penn directs this deeply moving drama about the glories and challenges of raising an exceptional child.

World Premiere
EVE’S SONG
Written by Patricia Ione Lloyd
Directed by Jo Bonney
October 23 - December 2, 2018
Developed in residence as the Tow Playwright-in-Residence at The Public Theater

From The Public’s Emerging Writers Group alum and 2017-18 Tow Playwright-in-Residence Patricia Ione Lloydand Obie Award-winning director Jo Bonney comes a stunning, genre-bending new drama about the haunting of a black family in America. In the aftermath of a messy divorce and a daughter coming out as queer, Deborah is trying to keep things normal at home. But as black people continue to be killed beyond their four walls, the outside finds its way in, blurring the lines between family dynamics, politics, and the spirit world. How long can family dinners keep the dangers outside at bay? Filled with dark humor and boiling suspense, EVE’S SONG examines our present racial climate through the eyes of a regular American family.

New York Premiere

WILD GOOSE DREAMS

Written by Hansol Jung

Directed by Leigh Silverman

October 30 - December 9, 2018

A co-production with La Jolla Playhouse

 

After its initial run in The Public’s Public Studio, Hansol Jung’s fascinating and unforgettable new play WILD GOOSE DREAMSreturns in a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse, where it had a critically acclaimed run last season. Minsung is a “goose father,” a South Korean man whose wife and daughter have moved to America for a better life. Deeply lonely, he escapes onto the internet and meets Nanhee, a young defector forced to leave her family behind in North Korea. Amidst the endless noise of the modern world, where likes and shares have taken the place of love and touch, Minsung and Nanhee try their best to be real for each other. But after a lifetime of division and separation, is connection possible? Tony Award nominee Leigh Silverman directs this strikingly original play with music about two people, from two cultures, forced to choose between family and freedom.

FREE Mobile Unit: Fall

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Jenny Koons

Sit-down run at The Public Theater: October 29 - November 18, 2018

Following a three-week tour in the five boroughs

This fall, a classic New York City block party becomes the enchanted setting where fairies work their mischief in Shakespeare’s beloved play A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. Acclaimed director Jenny Koons takes you to the royal wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, where a celebratory play is being rehearsed. But the real drama is unfolding in the concrete jungle of fairy King Oberon. There, four young New Yorkers discover the course of true love runs anything but smooth, as supernatural sprites and the lovable Puck conspire to reveal what fools we mortals be, and draw us all into the collective dream of romance and merriment.

15th Edition
UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL
January 3-13, 2019

Curated by UTR Director Mark Russell, the 15th edition of this highly-anticipated downtown winter festival will bring together exciting artists from around the world who are redefining the act of making theater.

FRANKENSTEIN (First Show Announced of the Festival)
By Manual Cinema

Two hundred years ago, 18-year-old Mary Shelley conceived a ghost story about birth, creation, and abandonment that would become the world’s first science-fiction masterpiece. Internationally renowned multimedia company Manual Cinema stitches together the classic story of Frankenstein with Mary Shelley's biography to create a full-length, unexpected story about the beauty and horror of creation. Using an ingenious “laboratory" of cameras, overhead projectors, actors, and puppets—and accompanied live by a chamber ensemble—Manual Cinema’s FRANKENSTEIN assembles music, theater, and silent film to create a Frankenstein like you’ve never seen before. Full UTR line-up to be announced in the fall.

New York Premiere
SEA WALL / A LIFE
Written by Simon Stephens and Nick Payne, respectively
Directed by Carrie Cracknell
Featuring Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal, respectively
January 26 - March 24, 2019

Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal and Tony Award nominee Tom Sturridge make their Public Theater debuts in an unforgettable and incredibly intimate evening of theater. Sturridge, in his third collaboration with Tony and Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens, performs SEA WALL, an astonishing monologue about love and the human need to know the unknowable. Gyllenhaal continues his artistic collaboration with Olivier Award-nominated playwright Nick Payne in A LIFE, a meditation on how we say goodbye to those we love most. Directed by Carrie Cracknell, this heart-filled exploration of the beauty of life and the meaning of love, SEA WALL / A LIFE is an evening of dramatic storytelling at its best.

World Premiere
WHITE NOISE
Written by Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Oskar Eustis
February 19 - March 31, 2019

Following her critically acclaimed trilogy Father Comes Home From The Wars, Parts 1, 2, & 3, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and The Public’s Master Writer Chair Suzan-Lori Parks returns with a world premiere play about race, friendship, and our rapidly unraveling social contract. Long-time friends and lovers Leo, Misha, Ralph, and Dawn are educated, progressive, cosmopolitan, and woke. But when a racially motivated incident with the cops leaves Leo shaken, he decides extreme measures must be taken for self-preservation. The Public’s Artistic Director Oskar Eustis directs this fierce new drama about what happens when the unspoken and the unspeakable come head-to-head.

World Premiere
AIN’T NO MO’
Written by Jordan E. Cooper
Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb
March 12 - April 21, 2019

AIN’T NO MO’, first seen in The Public’s Public Studio, is a vibrant satirical odyssey portraying the great exodus of black Americans out of a country plagued with injustice. In a kaleidoscope of scenes of the moments before, during, and after this outrageous departure, Jordan E. Cooper’s masterful new work explores the value of black lives in a country hurtling away from the promise of a black president. Stevie Walker-Webb directs this wildly imaginative and emotionally charged play.

 

World Premiere
SOCRATES
Written by Tim Blake Nelson
Directed by Doug Hughes
April 2 - May 19, 2019
In collaboration with the Onassis Cultural Center NY, with support of Onassis Foundation USA

SOCRATES is a witty and endlessly fascinating new drama about a complicated man who changed how the world thought. This powerful new play by actor, director, and writer Tim Blake Nelson is an intellectual thrill ride from the philosopher’s growing prominence in democratic Athens through the military and social upheavals that led to one of the most infamous executions in Western history. Tony Award winner Doug Hughes directs SOCRATES, a timely and timeless new work that serves as a passionate tribute to the man who continues to inspire us to question authority and defend freedom of belief.

FREE Mobile Unit: Spring

THE TEMPEST
Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Lucas Caleb Rooney

Sit-down run at The Public Theater: April 29 - May 19, 2019
Following a three-week tour in the five boroughs

 

Magic and mayhem continue their wicked work in THE TEMPEST, directed by Obie Award winner Lucas Caleb Rooney. When a storm shipwrecks King Alonso and his royal entourage on the island home of Prospero and his daughter Miranda, secrets and suspicions lead to drunken distrust and murderous plots. But love plays games with revenge, and the stuff of nightmares becomes the stuff of dreams in this magical comedy about the human heart, lost at sea.   

New York Premiere
MOJADA

Written by Luis Alfaro

Directed by Chay Yew

July 2 - August 11, 2019

 

MacArthur Genius Award-winning playwright Luis Alfaro returns with the New York premiere of his stirring drama about love, immigration, and sacrifice, inspired by the Ancient Greek story of Medea. Helmed by Chay Yew, this play masterfully combines ancient storytelling with the most pressing issues facing our country today, following a young Mexican mother who gives up everything to bring her son to America, only to find America demands even more. Alfaro’s Oedipus El Rey, produced last season in collaboration with The Sol Project, was hailed by The New York Times as a “dynamic reminder that we are living in a political moment when stories matter.” With great poetry, humor, and heart, MOJADA is a bold new telling of a story as old as tragedy itself.

 

ONGOING PROGRAMS AT THE PUBLIC THEATER:

DEVISED THEATER INITIATIVE at The Public is one of the first of its kind in the U.S., providing support and resources to the next generation of independent artists and ensembles. The Public Theater has been a strong supporter of the devised theater movement and has helped promote the work of prominent and emerging devised theatermakers. Through The Public’s annual Under the Radar Festival and year-round downtown season at Astor Place, many examples of this inventive art form have been brought to the attention of audiences in New York and around the world.

EMERGING WRITERS GROUP is a component of The Public Writers Initiative, a long-term program that provides key support and resources for writers at every stage of their careers. In just 10 years, it has nurtured numerous playwrights who have gone on to have their plays staged at The Public and elsewhere around the country. Time Warner is the Founding Sponsor of the Emerging Writers Group, and provides continued program support through the Time Warner Foundation.

 

FREE SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park is one of the cornerstones of The Public Theater’s mission. Since 1962, over five million people have enjoyed more than 150 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals. This summer, The Public presents OTHELLO (May 29-June 24), directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson; and TWELFTH NIGHT (July 17-August 19), a reimagining of the 2016 Public Works production, with music and lyrics by Shaina Taub and directed by The Public’s Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Kwame Kwei-Armah. Lead support for Free Shakespeare in the Park provided by Bank of America and The Jerome L. Greene Foundation.

 

JOE’S PUB AT THE PUBLIC, named for Public Theater founder Joseph Papp, opened in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public's mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Joe's Pub presents the best in live music and performance nightly, continuing its commitment to diversity, production values, community, and artistic freedom. The organization also offers opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program that helps musicians develop original theater works; Joe’s Pub Working Group, an artist development initiative; The Vanguard Award & Residency, a yearlong series that celebrates the career of a prolific and influential artist; and nationwide programming partnerships. Commissioned artists have included Mx Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Daniel Alexander Jones, Ethan Lipton, Toshi Reagon, Allen Toussaint, and more. The venue’s food and beverage partner is the venerated Noho Hospitality Group, helmed by acclaimed chef Andrew Carmellini. With its intimate atmosphere and superior acoustics, Joe's Pub presents talent from all over the world as part of The Public's programming downtown at its Astor Place home, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually. Support for New York Voices provided by the National Endowment of the Arts.

THE LIBRARY AT THE PUBLIC is open nightly for dinner and cocktail service. Chefs Andrew Carmellini and John Ramirez have created an American menu of bar snacks, shareable appetizers, sandwiches, dinner plates, and desserts sourcing local ingredients and New York influence that is available in both The Library and Joe’s Pub.

MOBILE UNIT is a reinvention of Joseph Papp’s Mobile Shakespeare program, beginning in 1957 with the simple idea that theater belongs to everyone, evolving into the New York Shakespeare Festival and ultimately becoming The Public Theater. Now in its eighth year, the Mobile Unit meets audiences where they are by presenting world-class Shakespeare and other works in recreation centers, prisons, senior centers, schools, and other community gathering places across the five boroughs. The Mobile Unit has already toured Henry V, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Pericles, Measure for Measure, Richard III, and Much Ado About Nothing. The Mobile Unit is made possible with the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Ford Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Tow Foundation, The Herbert McLaughlin Children's CLUT, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and JetBlue Airways. Additional support provided by Susan & David Edelstein and The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

PUBLIC FORUM, now in its ninth season, brings together surprising combinations of artists, audiences, and experts to explore the issues and ideas raised on our stages. Through one-of-a-kind events and our digital engagement platform Digiturgy, Public Forum engages both the world of our plays and the world at large with some of the most original thinkers of today.

PUBLIC SHAKESPEARE INITIATIVE offers a wide range of programming which includes larger Public Shakespeare Presents evenings, blending incisive commentary by scholars and other thinkers with compelling live performances by artists of all disciplines; intimate Public Shakespeare Talks, giving audiences unique insight into the artistic and intellectual processes of leading Shakespeare practitioners working in the theater; Artist Development Programs, to cultivate some of the most visionary artistic minds working on Shakespeare today; and Education Programs, specifically the Hunts Point Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble, which The Shakespeare Society co-founded with the Hunts Point Alliance for Children over a decade ago, and which has offered hundreds of elementary and middle school students the opportunity to develop their confidence, knowledge, and creativity through the transformative experience of bringing Shakespeare’s words to life onstage in the 10 Shakespeare productions the Ensemble has presented.

PUBLIC STUDIO is a performance series dedicated exclusively to developing the work of emerging writers. In a laboratory environment, writers rehearse with actors and a director, incorporate bare-bones design elements, and open the process to an audience over a series of performances. More than a reading or workshop, but not a full production, this middle step affords early career writers the important opportunity to deepen their experience of working collaboratively over an extended rehearsal period and to see their work staged in front of an audience. Previous Public Studio plays include Ain’t No Mo’ by Jordan E. Cooper, Masculinity Max by MJ Kaufman, On the Grounds of Belonging by Ricardo Pérez González, Wild Goose Dreams by Hansol Jung, Pretty Hunger by Patricia Ione Lloyd, Teenage Dick by Mike Lew, Ping Pong by Rogelio Martinez, Fidelis by Christina Gorman, Manahatta by Mary Kathryn Nagle, and The Urban Retreat by A. Zell Williams. Each year one Public Studio production is designated The Lisa Quiroz Emerging Writers Group/Public Studio Production, in honor of former Public Theater Trustee Lisa Garcia Quiroz, who, as Chief Diversity Officer and SVP of Cultural Investments at Time Warner, was instrumental in forming EWG and Public Studio. Public Studio was founded with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Time Warner Foundation. Continued support for Public Studio is provided by Time Warner Foundation.

PUBLIC WORKS, now in its sixth year, is a major initiative of The Public Theater that seeks to engage the people of New York by making them creators and not just spectators. Working with community partners in all five boroughs, Public Works invites members of New York City communities to participate in theater workshops, attend classes, attend productions, and become involved in the daily life of The Public. Founded by Resident Director Lear deBessonet and currently led by Public Works Director Laurie Woolery, Public Works deliberately blurs the line between professional artists and community members, creating theater that is not only for the people, but by and of the people as well. The community partner organizations of Public Works are Brownsville Recreation Center (Brooklyn), Center for Family Life in Sunset Park (Brooklyn), DreamYard Project (Bronx), The Fortune Society (Queens), Military Resilience Foundation (all boroughs), and alumni partners Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education (Bronx), Children’s Aid (Manhattan), and Domestic Workers United (all boroughs). Lead support for Public Works is provided by The Ford Foundation, The Hearst Foundations, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and The Tow Foundation. Additional support is provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., The One World Fund, David Rockefeller Fund, The SHS Foundation, New York Community Trust, and New York State Council on the Arts. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL, over the past 14 years, has presented over 229 companies from 42 countries. It has grown into a landmark of the New York City theater season and is a vital part of The Public's mission, providing a high-visibility platform to support artists from diverse backgrounds who are redefining the act of making theater. Widely recognized as a premier launching pad for new and cutting-edge performance from the U.S. and abroad, UTR has presented works by such respected artists as 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Elevator Repair Service, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Belarus Free Theatre, Guillermo Calderón, and Young Jean Lee. These artists provide a snapshot of contemporary theater: richly distinct in terms of perspectives, aesthetics, and social practice and pointing to the future of the art form. 

ABOUT THE PUBLIC THEATER:

 

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 Joseph 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. The Public’s wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, The Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City’s five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Studio, Emerging Writers Group, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe’s Pub.  Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway, in London and around the country by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their programs and productions can also be seen nationally and internationally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 170 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Desk Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes. publictheater.org