{"id":8250,"date":"2023-07-10T05:18:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T09:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevillagetrip.com\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=8250"},"modified":"2023-09-13T09:22:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T13:22:05","slug":"public-private","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.thevillagetrip.com\/event\/public-private\/","title":{"rendered":"Public\/Private: Gail Papp, in conversation with George C Wolfe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Why does someone start a theater? What is its purpose? Who\u2019s it for? Who creates it? How is it kept afloat? Why should anyone care? Also, why am I alive? What is the meaning of existence?<\/p>\n

These were the kinds of questions that Joe Papp<\/strong>, who founded New York City\u2019s free New York Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater, asked himself throughout his career as a theatrical producer. Such questions were basic to his fiercely democratic viewpoint that not only changed American theater in the way that it staged Shakespeare, but also brought into major focus the voices of new American playwrights who had been previously minimized or ignored often due to their ethnicity and gender.<\/p>\n

Gail Merrifield Papp<\/strong> was born in San Francisco into a family with a deep theater lineage. After joining Joseph Papp\u2019s New York Shakespeare Festival in 1965, she became Director of New Works Development for the Public Theater and was responsible for some of its most celebrated productions. These included The Normal Heart<\/em>, Larry Kramer\u2019s Tony Award-winning play about the AIDS crisis, for which she received the Human Rights Campaign Arts and Communication Award, and Rupert Holmes\u2019s Tony Award-winning Best Musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood<\/em>. Gail Merrifield and Joseph Papp were married in 1976 and she worked with him at the Theater for 26 years.<\/p>\n

More than half a century after the Public opened its doors with Hair, Gail Papp returns to the Theater to talk, for the first time, about her vivid and fascinating behind-the scenes memoir Public\/Private: My Life with Joe Papp at The Public Theater<\/em><\/strong>. This very special evening finds her in conversation with the distinguished playwright and director George C. Wolfe<\/strong> who, for a decade, presided over The Public, restoring it to health following the trauma of 9\/11 with a series of award-winning productions that included Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk<\/em>, which told the story, through tap, of Black history from slavery to the present. A five-time Tony Award winner, he has directed plays such as the original productions of\u00a0Angels in America: Millennium Approaches<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Angels in America: Perestroika\u00a0<\/em>and the 2018 production of\u00a0The Iceman Cometh<\/em>\u00a0with Denzel Washington. He has also directed for film and television and is finishing up work on\u00a0Rustin<\/em>\u00a0for Netflix and President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground Productions.<\/p>\n

Wiley Hausam will moderate the event.<\/p>\n