The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization. It was founded in 1954 by Joseph Papp as The Shakespeare Workshop, intending to showcase the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. Its current leadership, following Papp's death in 1991, are producer George C. Wolfe and executive director Mara Manus .

The Public Theater prides itself on presenting "challenging work". This has a variety of meanings, including artistic heterodoxy. It also reflects the Public Theater's role as a voice of the American social and political Left. Many of its productions are considered avant-garde and not likely to find a home in theaters catering to a mainstream audience.

The Public Theater is headquartered in its eponymous venue, The Public Theater, the former Astor Library in the Greenwich Village section of lower Manhattan at 425 Lafayette Street. The venue opened in 1967, mounting the world-premiere production of the musical Hair as its first show.

In addition to the main theater, the site includes Joe's Pub, a cabaret-style setting used for new work, small musical performances, spoken-word artists, and soloists. The Public also operates the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, where it presents its free Shakespeare in Central Park performances of Shakespeare plays during the summer months. These production attract well-known actors as players and sell out. For example the 2004 production, Much Ado About Nothing, featured Dominic Chianese, Kristen Johnston , Jimmy Smits, and Sam Waterston.

The company also invests in theater education, training classical actors through the annual summer acting intensive the Shakespeare Lab.

Works

Public Theater productions have won a total of 135 Obie Awards, 38 Tony Awards, 37 Drama Desk Awards, 18 Lucille Lortel Awards , and 4 Pulitzer Prizes. Forty-nine of the shows that originated there have moved on to Broadway houses.

The most famous work to emerge from the Public, other than the original production of Hair, is the Michael Bennett's musical A Chorus Line, based on the lives and careers of Broadway dancers, commonly known as "gypsies". The announced opening created such a stir of anticipation among the theatrical community that the entire limited run sold out long before opening night. Demand for tickets was such that the show moved uptown to the Shubert Theater , where it remained "one singular sensation" for fifteen sell-out years.

The Public Theater's address is 425 Lafayette Street; New York, NY 10003.

External links

• Official Website