Public Theater announce their 2011/12 season

The Public Theater has announced the line-up for The Public's 56th Season which will feature new works by Mike Daisey, Nathan Englander, David Henry Hwang, Richard Nelson, and Stew and Heidi Rodewald, as well as the premiere of February House, a new musical by Gabriel Kahane and Seth Bockley that is the first commission of The Public's Musical Theater Initiative.

Sam Waterston, who played 'Polonius' in the 2008 Shakespeare in the Park production of Hamlet, returns to play King Lear, directed by James Macdonald. Following this season's 'Timon of Athens,' Public LAB SHAKESPEARE will continue with Love's Labour's Lost, directed by Karin Coonrod, and Titus Andronicus, featuring Jay O. Sanders as 'Titus' and directed by Michael Sexton.

"Next year at The Public, we are going to have an explosion of Shakespeare activity that is going to demonstrate the breadth and quality of the work that we can do with the greatest writer in the English language," said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "We also believe that The Public must be part of the ongoing civic dialogue, that we should talk about the big issues of our time, and that theater has something to bring to that conversation that can't be gotten in any other way."

Mike Daisey returns in Oct 2011 with his latest show, The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs. Directed by Daisey's long-time collaborator Jean-Michele Gregory, Daisey illuminates how the CEO of Apple and his obsessions shape our lives.

Gob Squad'S Kitchen (You've Never Had It So Good, which played at the 2011 Under the Radar Festival, will kick off 2012 with a limited three week run at The Public Theater in January.

In February, best-selling author Nathan Englander adapts his wnew play, The Twenty-seventh Man, from his acclaimed short story of the same name. Barry Edelstein helms this world premiere.

Public LAB will present a new musical by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, The Total Bent, directed by Joanna Settle, also in February. The creators of the Tony Award-winning Passing Strange will develop their latest musical about a black gospel prodigy and a white music producer who meet in a recording studio just south of the Twilight Zone.

Tony Award-winner David Henry Hwang returns next season with his latest play, Chinglish, directed by 'Yellow Face' director Leigh Silverman. Chinglish is a portrait of our Pacific Century that reveals what gets lost -- and found -- in translation.

February House, the first commission of The Public's Musical Theater Initiative, will premiere in May/June 2012, with music and lyrics by Gabriel Kahane and book by Seth Bockley. Directed by Davis McCallum, this new musical set in Brooklyn in the 1940s is inspired by true events and features a cast of characters that includes novelist Carson McCullers, composer Benjamin Britten, poet W.H. Auden and the infamous Gypsy Rose Lee.

New York Premiere
The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Steve Jobs
Created and Performed by Mike Daisey
Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory
11 Oct - 13 Nov 2011

Synopsis: Mike Daisey turns his wit to America's most mysterious technology icon in this tale of pride, beauty, lust, and industrial design. He illuminates how the CEO of Apple and his obsessions shape our lives, while sharing stories of his own travel to China to investigate the factories where millions toil to make iPhones and iPods. Daisey's dangerous journey shines a light on our love affair with our devices and the human cost of creating them.

New York Premiere
In the Wake
By Lisa Kron
Directed by Leigh Silverman
19 Oct - 21 Nov 2010

Synopsis: "I've lost my bearings. I don't know how to evaluate what's happening. None of my tools seem to be working... How do we know when the worst is over?" Is Ellen referring to her relationship with Danny, or her hope for change? Obie Award winners Lisa Kron and Leigh Silverman (creators of Well) return to The Public with a meditation on love and country.

In the Wake was originally commissioned by Center Theatre Group where it is currently receiving its world premiere in Los Angeles.

King Lear
Playwright: William Shakespeare
Directed by James Macdonald
Cast: Sam Waterston as King Lear 18 Oct - 20 Nov 2011

Synopsis: When 'King Lear' divides his kingdom among his three daughters, he sets in motion a cascade of violence that sweeps the civilized world to the brink of chaos, and Lear to the edge of madness.

Gob Squad'S Kitchen (You've Never Had It So Good
19 Jan - 5 Feb 2012

Synopsis: It's 1965 and everything is just about to happen. The German/British collective Gob Squad invites you to take the hand of the King of Pop himself, Andy Warhol, and take a trip back to the underground cinemas of New York City, back to where it all began. Gob Squad'S Kitchen reconstructs Warhol's films in the quest to illuminate the past for a new generation, reflecting on the nature of authenticity, the here and now, and the hidden depths beneath the shiny surfaces of modern life.

World Premiere
The Twenty-seventh Man
By Nathan Englander
Directed by Barry Edelstein
21 Feb - 25 Mar 2012

Synopsis: A Soviet prison, 1952. Stalin's secret police have rounded up 26 writers, the giants of Yiddish literature in Russia. As judgment looms, a twenty-seventh suddenly appears: Pinchas Pelovits, unpublished and unknown. Baffled by his arrest, he and his cellmates wrestle with the mysteries of party loyalty and politics, culture and identity, and with what it means to write in troubled times. When they discover why the twenty-seventh man is among them, the writers come to realize that even in the face of tyranny, stories still have the power to transcend.

World Premiere
February House
Music and Lyrics by Gabriel Kahane
Book by Seth Bockley
Directed by Davis McCallum
Expected May/June 2012

Synopsis: Visionary and flamboyant editor George Davis transforms a dilapidated Brooklyn boarding house into a bohemian commune for the leading lights of 1940s New York. Residents include novelist Carson McCullers, composer Benjamin Britten, poet W.H. Auden, and the infamous Gypsy Rose Lee. The luminaries of 7 Middagh Street form a tumultuous and remarkable makeshift family, and search for love, inspiration, and refuge from the looming war in Europe.

New York Premiere
Chinglish
By David Henry Hwang Directed by Leigh Silverman
Expected during 2011/12 Season
Presented in association with Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and The Goodman Theatre.

Synopsis: Nowadays, everyone wants to do business with China. Daniel, a Midwestern American businessman, travels to the provincial capital of Guiyang in the hope of landing a contract for his family firm, only to learn how much he doesn't understand. His translators are unreliable, his consultant may be a fraud, and he is captivated by Xu, a government official who may be trying to help him - at least that's what he thinks she's saying.

The Public LAB, an annual series conceived with LAByrinth Theater Company that lets New Yorkers see both Shakespeare and new work in stripped-down productions, celebrates its Fifth Anniversary Season

World Premiere
Sweet and Sad
Written and Directed by Richard Nelson
Cast: Jon DeVries, Shuler Hensley, Maryann Plunkett, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders and J. Smith-Cameron
6 - 25 Sep 2011

Synopsis: Last season in 'That Hopey Changey Thing,' playwright Richard Nelson (Conversations in Tusculum, James Joyce's The Dead) introduced Public LAB audiences to the liberal Apple family of Rhinebeck, New York, as they gathered for dinner on Election Night, 2010. Now, in 'Sweet and Sad', Nelson continues the story of the Apples over Sunday lunch on 11 Sep 2011, and explores what the Apple family has lost since the attacks, and what they remember.

Love's Labour's Lost
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Karin Coonrod
18 Oct - 6 Nov 2011

Synopsis: The King of France and his three best buds swear off romance and withdraw into their studies...until four girls show up. As the young couples stumble their way toward love, the others in their circle-- a pedantic school master, a Spanish dandy, a streetwise con-man, and a cop with a few screws loose-- work through their own mad dilemmas.

Titus Andronicus
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Michael Sexton
Cast: Jay O. Sanders as 'Titus'
29 Nov - 18 Dec 2011

Synopsis: Titus is Rome's greatest general and the head of a noble Roman family. When his armies vanquish the Goths, their defeated queen unleashes a fury that rocks Titus's city, devastates his children, and shatters his sense of self.

World Premiere
The Total Bent
Book and Lyrics by Stew
Music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald
Directed by Joanna Settle
Co-commissioned with Berkeley Repertory Theatre
14 Feb - 4 Mar 2012

Synopsis: A new musical about a black gospel prodigy from down South and a white music producer from South London who meet in a recording studio just south of the Twilight Zone, as they both desperately seek their own versions of transcendence, salvation, and a hit record.

Under the Radar will return for its eigth year (4 - 15 Feb 2012), showcasing theater from around the world on the many stages of The Public.

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Joey Parnes, Interim Executive Director) 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 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 42 Tony Awards, 151 Obies, 41 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes.

The Public has brought Fifty-four shows to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; For Colored Girls...; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Well; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Passing Strange; the revival of HAIR; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice.