February 18, 2008 – The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus) announced today that former Artistic Producer Rosemarie Tichler will host a discussion with acclaimed director Gerald Freedman and Tony Award-winning playwright John Guare entitled “Looking At The Early Years of the Public Theater.”  The discussion will look back at a time of explosive creativity and artistic development in the early years of The Public Theater and Joe Papp’s dedication to supporting the work of new playwrights.  The discussion will immediately follow the Friday, February 22^nd 8 p.m. performance of Adrienne Kennedy’s new play MOM, HOW DID YOU MEET THE BEATLES?, the inaugural production of the PUBLIC LAB series.

Adrienne Kennedy’s play Cities in Bezique, directed by Gerald Freedman, was part of the second-ever season of The Public Theater at its downtown home on Lafayette Street. John Guare was a key figure in the early history of The Public, with plays such as Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Musical and Landscape of the Body premiered by The Public throughout the 1970s. Rosemarie Tichler was Head of Casting for The Public from 1975 to 1991 and Artistic Producer from 1991 to 2001. Freedman, Guare and Tichler will share their memories of The Public’s earliest days after a performance of Kennedy’s newest play - itself a remembrance of the 1960s.

Tickets for MOM, HOW DID YOU MEET THE BEATLES? are $10 and available by calling (212) 967-7555 or ordering online at www.publictheater.org.

Conceived and presented in association with LAByrinth Theater Company, PUBLIC LAB is designed to respond to new work immediately, and present fresh, raw and relevant plays that embrace the Public’s history as a theater receptive to the big issues, the public issues of our time.  In so doing, this innovative program creates a new model for the ways in which The Public engages with our artists and audience.  This important initiative will give writers the essential opportunity to realize their work in collaboration with director, designers and actors through production and most importantly, to see their work in front of an audience.  The plays will be minimally designed and have short rehearsal periods. 

GERALD FREEDMAN is an Obie Award-winner and the first American director invited  to direct at the Globe Theatre, London, England.  He is regarded nationally for productions of classic drama, musicals, operas, new plays and television.  Mr. Freedman served as leading director of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival (1960-71), the last four years as artistic director.  He was co-artistic director of John Houseman's The Acting Company (1974-77) artistic director of the American Shakespeare Theatre (1978-79), and artistic director of Great Lakes Theater Festival (1985-1997).  Mr. Freedman has staged 26 of Shakespeare's plays, along with dozens of other world classics.  He has directed celebrated actors such as Olympia Dukakis, James Earl Jones, Stacy Keach, Julie Harris, Charles Durning, Sam Waterston, Patti Lupone, Mandy Patinkin, Jean Stapleton, William Hurt, Carroll O'Connor and Kevin Kline.  Mr. Freedman made theatre history with his off-Broadway premiere of the landmark rock musical Hair, which opened the Public Theatre in 1967. On Broadway, Mr. Freedman directed The Robber Bridegroom; The Grand Tour with Joel Grey; the revival of West Side Story, co-directed with Jerome Robbins; the premiere of Arthur Miller's The Creation of the World and Other Business; and Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession with Lynn Redgrave and Edward Herrmann.  His productions for Great Lakes Theater Festival include Shakespeare's King Lear and Death of a Salesman, with Hal Holbrook, Cyrano de Bergerac with Robert Foxworth, The Glass Menagerie, with Elizabeth Franz, Blood Wedding, The Cherry Orchard, Dividing the Estate and many others including the successful and widely praised production of The Dybbuk which he adapted and directed.  More recently he has directed John Cullum in The Dresser, Mandy Patinkin in Enemy of the People at the prestigious Williamstown theatre Festival, and the opera Regina at the Kennedy Center with Patti LuPone.  Mr. Freedman currently is Dean, School of Drama at North Carolina School of Drama at North Carolina School of the Arts.  A native of Lorain, Ohio, he received both his B.A. and his M.A. (summa cum laude) from Northwestern University.

JOHN GUARE has won the Obie, Tony, London’s Olivier Award, NY Drama Critics Circle Award for such plays as The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation (for which he wrote the screenplay), Two Gentlemen of Verona and his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Louis Malle’s Atlantic City. Among his plays are Landscape of the Body, A Few Stout Individuals and the Lydie Breeze Trilogy. He received the 2003 PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, the 2004 Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the 2005 Obie for sustained excellence. He’s a council member of the Dramatists Guild, founder and co-editor of The Lincoln Center Theater Review and teaches playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.

ROSEMARIE TICHLER was the Artistic Producer of The New York Shakespeare Festival/The Public Theater from 1991 to September 2001, where she worked on over 40 productions including The Skriker by Caryl Churchill, Simpatico by Sam Shepard, Venus by Suzan-Lori Parks,  George Wolfe’s  production of The Tempest at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan by Arthur Miller and Mike Nichols’ production of Chekhov’s The Seagull with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Christopher Walken et al. in the summer of 2001. Prior to 1991, Ms. Tichler was Head of Casting (1975-1991) at the Public for Joseph Papp where she cast over 150 plays, including such landmark productions as Andrei Serban’s The Cherry Orchard, Richard Foreman’s Threepenny Opera, For Colored Girls... by Ntozake Shange, Wilford Leach’s Pirates of Penzance, David Hare’s Plenty, Mike Nichols’ Streamers by David Rabe, The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer, Aunt Dan and Lemon by Wallace Shawn and The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe. Ms. Tichler founded The Shakespeare Lab, now in its 13^th year: an intensive program for actors in Shakespeare performance.  Prior to working at The Public, she was Associate Director for Artistic Services at Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for the country’s not for profit theaters from 1972-74 and its Casting Director before that from 1969-71. Ms. Tichler has been teaching at New York University’s Graduate Acting Program and The Juilliard School for 20 years. She has also done workshops at major actor training programs around the country including The Actors Center, Yale Drama School, the MFA program in Acting at Columbia University, and the BFA Program at the University of Minnesota. She is on the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee of Actors Equity and the League of American Theaters. She was on the Board of Directors of ART/NY from 1994-2001, a Tony Nominator from 2001-4 and is presently on the Board of Directors of the Classic Stage Company.

THE PUBLIC THEATER (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation’s preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  The Public’s mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its 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 40 Tony Awards, 141 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards, 23 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

 

TICKET INFORMATION
Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? began performances on Monday, February 4 and will run through Saturday, February 23.  The performance schedule is Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM; Saturdays at 2 PM and 8 PM; and Sundays at 3 PM and 7 PM with an added performance on Monday, February 4 at 8 PM.

 No performances on February 17 at 7 PM; and February 21 and 23 at 2 PM. 

 The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street.  All tickets are $10 and can be purchased at (212) 967-7555 or by visiting www.publictheater.org.

  

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Public LAB is made possible through the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Additional support for the Public LAB is provided by the Ford Foundation, The Booth Ferris Foundation, and HBO, Inc.

 The Public Theater acknowledges the following for their support:

The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust provides leadership support for The Public’s year-round activities.

 Time Warner is the Supporting Sponsor of The Public’s 2007-2008 season.  Bank of America is the Lead Sponsor of Shakespeare in the Park.  Major support is provided by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The New York State Music Fund, The Shubert Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Susan Stein Shiva Foundation,  The George T. Delacorte Fund at the New York Community Trust—Fund for Performances at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, and by Warren Spector and Margaret Whitton.  Pepsi is the official beverage sponsor of The Public Theater. 

Additional generous support is provided by Debra and Leon Black, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Starr Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Titan Worldwide, and The New York Times.  Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent federal agency.  Cultural Partners include WNYC and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.  Pickle Press is the official printer, and Continental Airlines is the official airline of The Public Theater.

LAByrinth Theater Company acknowledges the following for their support:
Time Warner is the lead sponsor of new play development at LAByrinth Theater Company.
Leadership support for LAByrinth Theater Company’s programs and productions is provided by The Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund at The New York Community Trust, The Carnegie Corporation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Lucille Lortel Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Newman’s Own Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
Additional support is generously provided by Ira Pittelman, Daryl Roth and the Board of Directors of LAByrinth Theater Company.
Public funds are provided by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York State Council on the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts.

Special thanks to Ira Pittelman, founding member and chairman of the LAByrinth Partners Fund.

 

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