Actors Natasha Richardson and Michael Sheen Join Editor Harold Evans and Writer John Heilpern in Two Free Programs on Playwright John Osborne, Britain's "Angry Young Man," at
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will present
two free programs exploring the life and work of John Osborne, the playwright
credited with spawning a revolution in British theater with his play Look
Back in Anger in 1956. John Heilpern, the author of John Osborne: The
Many Lives of the Angry Young Man (Knopf 2006) and the drama critic of
the New York Observer, will appear in both programs. On Monday,
April 23 at 6:00 p.m., Mr. Heilpern will provide commentary on a program
with readings from Osborne's plays and journals by Tony Award-winning
actress Natasha Richardson, whose father, the late director Tony Richardson,
often worked with John Osborne, and by the acclaimed actor Michael Sheen,
who is currently starring on Broadway in Frost/Nixon and who appeared
in a recent revival of Osborne's Look Back in Anger. For the program
on Thursday, May 17 at 6:00 p.m., Mr. Heilpern will discuss
the passions and furies of the complex playwright with Sir Harold Evans,
the prize-winning newspaper editor, publisher, and author. The programs will
be held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium of The New York Public Library for the
Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at Lincoln Center. For
further information, telephone 212.642.0142 or go to The New York Public Library's
website at www.nypl.org.
Monday, April 23, 6:00 p.m.
Looking Back on John Osborne: The
Plays and Journals.
Readings by Natasha Richardson and Michael Sheen, with commentary by John Heilpern.
Included are excerpts from such plays as The Entertainer, The Hotel in Amsterdam,
Inadmissible Evidence, Look Back in Anger, Luther, A Patriot for Me, and
Sense of Detachment, as well as from Osborne's journals.
Admission is free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be distributed, one
per person, from 4:00 p.m. on the day of the program at the Library's entrance
at 111 Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street.
Thursday, May 17, 6:00 p.m.
The Turbulent Life and Times of John Osborne:
A conversation between Sir Harold Evans and John Heilpern.
Admission is free and seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
About John Osborne
John Osborne (1929-1994) wrote for the stage, film, and television
and explored many themes and genres in his award-winning career of forty years.
Overnight, he went from being a struggling playwright/actor to an international
sensation with the production in 1956 of Look Back in Anger, his play
that dealt with the frustrations and aspirations of young adults of the lower
middle class. It gave rise to the "Angry Young Men" movement in British drama
as it challenged the status quo and abhorred the class distinctions and mannerisms
of the British Establishment. In productions in London and New York, and on
tour in Moscow, the play was a great commercial success and touched a raw nerve
in the contemporary theatergoer. The great actor Laurence Olivier commissioned
Osborne to write a play for him, The Entertainer, which was produced
in 1957. His play Luther, which dealt with the life of the German church
reformer Martin Luther, won a Tony on Broadway. In 1963, an Oscar was awarded
for his screenplay for Tom Jones, one of the most stylish, sensual,
and comic films ever made.
About 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.
About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 85 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The Library serves some 15 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 15 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org .
###
Contact: Rima Corben 212.592.7700 | rcorben@nypl.org
rc:4/2/07; nypl023
