Exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Documents 50 Years of Theatrical Innovation at The Public Theater

Joseph Papp's Personal Papers and The New York Shakespeare Festival Records Are Displayed for the First Time

New York, NY, June 20, 2005 -- The trail of creativity and accomplishment blazed over fifty years by The Public Theater is the focus of a new exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. A Community of Artists: 50 Years of The Public Theater, presents a mosaic of archival documents, photographs, films, interviews, theater programs, designs, and original production elements that recall The Public's landmark productions and its agenda of access and inclusion. Whether looking at costumes worn in A Chorus Line or original set models for productions of free Shakespeare in Central Park, A Community of Artists will remind visitors of the broad dramatic territory the company has explored over a generation. The exhibition is on view June 21 through October 15 at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Admission is free.

Public Theater founder Joseph Papp amid construction of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park during 1961. Photo: © George E. Joseph.

A Community of Artists is drawn in large part from the personal papers of the company's founder Joseph Papp, and the extensive archival records of the organization from 1954 to 1992, both of which are part of NYPL's Billy Rose Theatre Collection and are displayed for the first time since they were given to the Library for the Performing Arts. "The New York Public Library and The Public Theater share a mission of providing democratic access to rich cultural resources," said Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library. "It is meaningful and relevant that the extensive archive preserving the theater's artistry has found a home here where it can serve as an inspiration to creative minds for generations to come." Also included in the exhibition are materials from additional Library collections, as well as nearly thirty costumes and a wide array of other materials on loan from The Public Theater.

The exhibition looks at the history of the theater company by focusing on the artists who have applied their talents there over fifty years. "One of the most important aspects of The Public's legacy is that it has provided a home for thousands of America's theater artists. I am delighted to celebrate this home with The New York Public Library," said Oskar Eustis, The Public Theater's Artistic Director. According to Jacqueline Davis, Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, "All the artists who have worked at The Public since its first production in 1954 are included in a scrolling list of 6,700 names projected across a twenty-five-foot wall in the gallery forming a visual centerpiece to the exhibition that is a reminder of the human effort and expression behind the works remembered in A Community of Artists."

Founded on Shakespeare
Joseph Papp founded The Public Theater with the belief that all New Yorkers, regardless of background, should have access to quality productions of Shakespeare's plays, free of charge. The exhibition displays the theater's founding legal document, the November 1954 New York State charter of the Shakespeare Workshop. It also features posters, programs and photographs from the company's very early productions, including a contact sheet of publicity photos, enlarged to poster size, showing J. D. Cannon, Colleen Dewhurst and other actors from the 1956 production of The Taming of the Shrew posing outdoors at the East River Amphitheater where the production was presented.

After years of presenting Shakespeare in all five boroughs from a mobile stage, the company arranged for the construction of the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park where since 1962 it has presented free productions of Shakespeare and other classics each summer. In addition to production photos and posters, the exhibition includes a stunning series of set models by designer Ming Cho Lee for productions staged in the park from 1964 to 1971. His Electra (1964), for example, is a masterpiece of rough stone panels that is considered a landmark design. Also featured are Joe Papp's typed notes and ruminations on Hamlet, and costumes from many Shakespearean productions over three decades, including clothes worn by Kristen Johnson as Beatrice in the 2004 production of Much Ado About Nothing and Jane Alexander's costume for her role as Gertrude in a 1975 rendition of Hamlet.  

Poster for Streamers, by David Rabe, 1976. Poster design and illustration by Paul Davis. Billy Rose Theater Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Photo courtesy Paul Davis.

A Home for Playwrights
In addition to producing Shakespeare and other classics, The Public Theater has always been a home for new works and has provided a haven for a long list of accomplished playwrights. Among the many dramatists who developed their craft at The Public are David Rabe, Miguel Piñero, Adrienne Kennedy, David Mamet, Tina Howe, David Hwang, Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks and George C. Wolfe. The exhibition features the prompt script documenting the staging of Ntozake Shange's 1976 work for colored girls who have considered sucide/when the rainbow is enuf, the notated script used by A. J. Antoon in creating Tina Howe's The Art of Dining, and posters from works such as David Rabe's Vietnam-era Streamers, from 1976, and Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog, presented at The Public and then on Broadway in 2002.

Developing Musicals
The Public Theatre has also nurtured a wide range of influential works of musical theater. In 1967 Hair was the premiere production in the company's new suite of theaters in what had previously been the Astor Library on Lafayette Street. The exhibition features posters for the original production at The Public, and its subsequent renditions at the Cheetah nightclub and on Broadway; production photos showing the original staging before its adaptation for Broadway; and news coverage of international productions. Other musicals highlighted include The Wild Party, represented by a costume worn by Earth Kitt in the 2000 production, and the percussive vests utilized by the rhythmic masters in the 1996 production Bring in Da' Noise, Bring in Da' Funk.

Perhaps the most influential musical developed at The Public was A Chorus Line, which opened at the company's downtown theater in April 1975 and later transferred to Broadway. A Community of Artists includes lyricist Edward Kleban's notes and revisions for the song "I Hope I Get It" which expressed the drive of dancers striving to make it through an audition for the chorus line of a new musical. Also shown are the lavish sequined costumes from the "Finale," original posters, and several photographs. There also is a variety of video documentation of A Chorus Line, including footage of its original production at The Public and coverage of the legendary celebratory staging at the Shubert Theater when the musical became the longest running production on Broadway in 1983.

Outreach and Diversity
The Public Theater has always been an institution of inclusion, reaching out with educational programs throughout the city and presenting programs based on diverse cultures. For example a scrapbook of the 1964 season of the company's mobile theater tour documents a Spanish language production of The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife and The Puppet Theater of Don Cristobal, two plays by Federico Garcia Lorca. Also included is a 1988 TV interview with Joe Papp about the Festival Latino and an excerpt from a 1979 TV program in which actors Morgan Freeman and Gloria Foster discuss their work with The Public Theater's Third World Company. The Public has also been at the forefront of the nontraditional casting movement, giving opportunities to actors of every background. James Earl Jones is shown as Oberon in a 1961 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and the costume worn by Morgan Freeman as Petruchio in a 1990 production of The Taming of the Shrew is also included.

A Community of Artists is curated by Barbara Cohen Stratyner, Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg Curator of Exhibitions at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Beyond the stories of individual productions, the exhibition is testament to an experiment that worked. For fifty years The Public Theater has lived up to its commitment to make theater broadly accessible and inclusive. It continues to do so today as its community of artists moves forward into its next fifty years.

About the The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts - whether professional or amateur - the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters and photographs.

Additional Library Exhibitions
On view concurrently with A Community of Artists at the Library for the Performing Arts is America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100, through August 20. The exhibition provides a look at photos, films, and artifacts documenting dance treasures ranging from Hula to Square Dance to Fred Astaire to Rudolf Nureyev. In the fall the Library will present The Juilliard School, 1905-2005: Celebrating 100 Years, opening September 14, and Vaudeville Nation, which runs starting November 8.

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A Community of Artists: 50 Years of The Public Theater will be on view from June 21 through October 15, 2005 in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York. Exhibition hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 12 noon to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 12 noon to 8 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and holidays. Admission is free. For further information, telephone 212.870.1630 or visit www.nypl.org.

The exhibition was made possible by a generous grant from The New York Community Trust -- LuEsther T. Mertz Advised Fund.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman. Additional support for exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation.

Press contact: Herb Scher, Rima Corben | 212.221.7676