Th e Publ ic

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the public
SEASON 2012-2013

The Public

Founded by Joseph Papp as the Shakespeare Workshop and now one of the nations preeminent cultural institutions, The Public is an American theater in which all the countrys voices, rhythms, and cultures converge. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes, The Public is dedicated to embracing the complexities of contemporary society and nurturing both artists and audiences, as it continues Joseph Papps legacy of creating a place of inclusion and a forum for ideas.

Next year at The Public, we are going to have an explosion of Shakespeare activity that is going to demonstrate the breadth and quality of the work that we can do with the greatest writer in the English language. We also believe that The Public must be part of the ongoing civic dialogue, that we should talk about the big issues of our time, and that theater has something to bring to that conversation that cant be gotten in any other way.

Artistic Director

O sk a r O sk a r E u st is E u st is

Easy Ways to SECURE Your Tickets

1) visit www.publictheater.org to order online 2) Call 212-967-7555 from noon - 8pm, Mon-Sun 3) Visit the Public Theater Box Office at

425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003

Box Office Hours: Tues-Sat 1-7:30pm, Sun & Mon 1-6pm

V.I.P

Get A Public Theater Membership and Save!

Become a Member today for only $55 (fully tax-deductible) and save throughout the 2012-2013 Season. In addition to exclusive discounts, you will have access to tickets to all our programming before the general public, securing your seat to sold-out events like Gatz and our popular Public Forum discussion series. You will also enjoy other benefits including exchange privileges, discounts on area restaurants, and more! RETURNING MEMBERS: To renew your Membership, please call your Member Hotline at

212-539-8650

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Season Schedule

THE DOWNTOWN SEASON

PUBLIC LAB 5th ANNIVERSARY SEASON

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS

October 11 - November 13, 2012

Now in its fifth season, Public Lab provides thrilling opportunities for both our audiences and artists. Our AUDIENCE gains access to more of the theater they love from The Public, both Shakespeare and new work, at the affordable price of only $15. Our ARTISTS, both emerging and established, gain a new platform to further develop their work on stage and in performance.

KING LEAR
October 18 - November 20, 2012

GOB SQUADS KITCHEN (Youve Never Had It So Good)

January 19 - February 5, 2013

SWEET AND SAD THE TWENTY-SEVENTH MAN

February 21 - March 25, 2013 September 6 - September 25, 2012 Opening Night: September 11

FEBRUARY HOUSE
May/June 2013

LOVES LABORS LOST

October 18 - November 6, 2012

CHINGLISH
On Broadway

TITUS ANDRONICUS
November 29 - December 18, 2012

October 11 November 13, 2012

The Agon y and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs

I will never be the same after seeing that show. - Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder
Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory Created and performed by Mike Daisey
Following the success of The Last Cargo Cult, Mike Daisey turns his hilarious and harrowing tale of pride, beauty, lust, and industrial design. He illuminates how the CEO of Apple and his obsessions shape our lives, while sharing stories of his own travels to China to investigate the factories where millions toil to make iPhones and iPods. Daiseys dangerous journey shines a light on our love affair with our devices and the human cost of creating them. The New York Times has hailed Mike Daisey as the master storyteller and one of the finest solo performers of his generation. razor-sharp wit to Americas most mysterious technology icon in this

King Lear
In no other play is Shakespeares tragic vision more terrifyingly clear -- and nowhere in his canon does he dramatize more powerfully or humanely that only kindness and love are potent enough to counter mankinds darkest impulses. When King Lear divides his kingdom among his three daughters, he sets in motion a cascade of violence that sweeps the civilized world to the brink of chaos, and Lear to the edge of madness. Featuring Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Sam Waterston in the title role.

October 18 November 20, 2012

Sam Waterston is what might be called a pure actor -- versatile, dedicated, intelligent and very good indeed, at home in any medium and any period. - Los Angeles Times
Directed by James Macdonald Created by William Shakespeare

January 19 February 5, 2013

G ob S quad s Kitchen
(Youve Never Had It So Good)
Gob Squads Kitchen returns after its hit run at The Publics 2011 Under the Radar Festival.
Devised and Performed by Gob Squad
Its 1965 and everything is just about to happen. The German/British collective Gob Squad invites you to take the hand of the King of Pop himself, Andy Warhol, and take a trip back to the underground cinemas of New York City, back to where it all began. Gob Squads Kitchen reconstructs Warhols films in the quest to illuminate the past for a new generation, reflecting on the nature of authenticity, the here and now, and the hidden depths beneath the shiny surfaces of modern life.

Best-selling author Nathan Englander (For the Relief of Unbearable Urges) adapts this warm and deeply moving new play from his acclaimed short story of the same name. A Soviet prison, 1952. Stalins secret police have rounded up 26 writers, the giants of Yiddish literature in Russia. As judgment looms, a twenty-seventh suddenly appears: Pinchas Pelovits, unpublished and unknown. Baffled by his arrest, he and his cellmates wrestle with the mysteries of party loyalty and politics, culture and identity, and with what it means to write in troubled times. When they discover why the twenty-seventh man is among them, the writers come to realize that even in the face of tyranny stories still have the power to transcend. Barry Edelstein (Timon of Athens and Julius Caesar at The Public) directs.

Englanders voice is distinctively his own -- daring, funny and exuberant, keenly attuned to both the absurdities of life and its undertow of sadness and disappointment. - The New York Times

Directed by Barry Edelstein Created by Nathan Englander

The Tw e n t y S e v e n t h M an

February 21 March 25, 2013

May/June 2013

February House
February House will be developed this summer at New York Stage and Film.
Directed by Davis McCallum Music and Lyrics by Gabriel Kahane Book by Seth Bockley
Visionary and flamboyant editor George Davis transforms a dilapidated Brooklyn boardinghouse into a bohemian commune for the leading lights of 1940s New York. Residents include novelist Carson McCullers, composer Benjamin Britten, poet W.H. Auden, and the infamous Gypsy Rose Lee. The luminaries of 7 Middagh Street form a tumultuous and remarkable makeshift family, and search for love, inspiration, and refuge from the looming war in Europe. Inspired by true events, this powerful and funny new musical marks the first commission of The Publics Musical Theater Initiative.

Nowadays, everyone wants to do business with China. Daniel, a Midwestern American businessman, travels to the provincial capital of Guiyang in the hope of landing a contract for his family firm, only to learn how much he doesnt understand. His translators are unreliable, his consultant may be a fraud, and he is captivated by Xu, a government official who may be trying to help him -- at least thats what he thinks shes saying. A funny, sexy portrait of our Pacific Century from the author of M. Butterfly, Chinglish reveals what gets lost -- and found -- in translation.

Chinglish is presented in association with Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and The Goodman Theatre.
Directed by Leigh Silverman Created by David Henry Hwang

On Broadway

Chinglish

The critically acclaimed ensemble cast rst introduced to Public Lab audiences in last seasons That Hopey Changey Thing returns.
Written and directed by Richard Nelson Featuring Jon DeVries, Shuler Hensley, Maryann Plunkett, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders and J. Smith-Cameron

The Apple Family finds themselves together again for the first time since Election Night, 2010. Marian, reeling from a personal tragedy, now lives with her sister Barbara; sister Jane is back with her boyfriend Tim, their brother Richard has come up from Manhattan, and Uncle Benjamin prepares for his first dramatic performance in years. Over Sunday brunch on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the Apples find themselves talking about loss, memory, remembrance and the meaning of compensation. With Sweet and Sad, Tony Award-winner Richard Nelson (Conversations in Tusculum, James Joyces The Dead) continues his series of plays exploring the immediate present and the ever-changing state of the nation through the story of the liberal Apples.

September 6 September 25, 2012

Sweet and Sad

The King of France and his three best buds swear off romance and withdraw into their studies...until four girls show up. As the young couples stumble their way toward love, the others in their circle -- a pedantic schoolmaster, a Spanish dandy, a streetwise con-man, and a cop with a few screws loose -- work through their own mad dilemmas. In the end, the real world intrudes and brings everyone back to earth, but not even a cold winter blast manages to chill the warmth of this beguiling play.

Suffused with fancy and borne aloft on wild ights of poetic wit, LOVES LABORS LOST is one of the delights of the Shakespeare canon.
Directed by Karin Coonrod

Loves Labors Lost

October 18 November 6, 2012

War, honor, family, revenge. These central Shakespearean themes get their rst bracing examination in the Bards early tragedy, TITUS ANDRONICUS.
Directed by Michael Sexton Created By William Shakespeare Featuring Jay O. Sanders as Titus Andronicus

Titus is Romes greatest general and the head of a noble Roman family. When his armies vanquish the Goths, their defeated queen unleashes a fury that rocks Tituss city, devastates his children, and shatters his sense of self. The cycle of revenge is shocking, bloody, and all-encompassing, but expressed through poetry and theatricality as vivid, energized, and thrilling as anything in Shakespeares later works.

November 29 December 18, 2012

Titus Andronicus

The Public Theater

425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003 212-967-7555 www.publictheater.org