| The Public Announces Mobile Unit and Public Works' Summer 2025 Productions | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 09:52 am EST 12/16/24 | |
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| THE PUBLIC THEATER ANNOUNCES MOBILE UNIT AND PUBLIC WORKS' NEW SUMMER 2025 PRODUCTIONS Mobile Unit Tour of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING By William Shakespeare Directed by Rebecca Martinez Free Tour of All Five Boroughs June 2025 Public Works Production of PERICLES By William Shakespeare Music and Lyrics by Troy Anthony Directed by Carl Cofield At the Cathedral of St. John the Divine August 28-September 1 The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) has announced that the Mobile Unit and Public Works productions for the Summer 2025 season, joining the Free Shakespeare in the Park production of TWELFTH NIGHT to offer a number of ways for New Yorkers to enjoy free Shakespeare throughout the summer. A modern reimagining of founder Joseph Papp's original Mobile Theater, the acclaimed Mobile Unit will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a free touring production of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Directed by Rebecca Martinez, director of 2023 and 2024's tours of The Comedy of Errors, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING will perform at public plazas, parks, community centers, and correctional facilities in June 2025. The beloved Public Works program will present a new production of PERICLES. With music and lyrics by Troy Anthony and direction by Carl Cofield, PERICLES will be performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, August 28-September 1. "The Mobile Unit and Public Works are the purest expression of The Public's belief that culture belongs to everyone," shares Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "I'm thrilled that Rebecca Martinez is joining us again to direct MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING after the massive success of her COMEDY OF ERRORS, which played to over 30,000 New Yorkers in our parks last summer." Eustis continues: "For Public Works to perform PERICLES at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine brings together two of New York's most iconic institutions. Having long-time Public Works stalwart Troy Anthony make his Public Works debut as composer and adapter is a particular joy, and my friend and colleague Carl Cofield is making his long-overdue Public Theater debut with this project. These wonderful two shows will remind all of New York what Shakespeare can offer to our city in this time of need." Acting Director of Community Programs Pablo Hernandez Basulto shared, "For years, Public Works and Mobile Unit have sought to redefine the purpose and potential of theatermaking in the communities where we live. In collaboration with community organizations all over the city, both programs actively question where or with whom the theater industry typically exists in order to break away from solely creating a ‘product' to be ticketed and sold and, instead, endeavor to create artistic works that embody a relationship to our larger New York City community. In the summer of 2025, we'll all once again experience our programs' ability to connect a city: Imagine bonding with your local neighbors during MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and seeing your fellow New Yorkers, and a beloved institution, come to life in a new way during the collective, collaborative, and joyous presentation of PERICLES . I hope you join us!" MOBILE UNIT'S MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING By William Shakespeare Directed by Rebecca Martinez June 2025 The Public Theater's Mobile Unit celebrates its 15th year with the beloved romantic comedy MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Directed by Rebecca Martinez (Mobile Unit's The Comedy of Errors), this new take on the classic tale of love, deception, and misunderstandings blends Spanish, music, and Shakespeare's timeless wit. Mobile Unit will visit parks, correctional facilities, and more locations in each NYC borough free of charge as part of The Public Theater's commitment to making great theater accessible to all. A complete tour schedule will be announced at a later date. PUBLIC WORKS' PERICLES By William Shakespeare Music and Lyrics by Troy Anthony Directed by Carl Cofield August 28-September 1 The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (1047 Amsterdam Ave) This season's Public Works production is a powerful choral adaptation of PERICLES, the Bard's epic about losing and re-discovering faith. Reconceived by playwright and songwriter Troy Anthony, this magnificent new production performed by Public Works community members from all over New York City is a celebration of life, love, and transformation. Inspired by Gospel music and the rousing power of the Black church, this new musical adaptation featuring West African drumming will be performed in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Associate Artistic Director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem Carl Cofield directs. Now in its 15th season, The Public Theater's MOBILE UNIT is a modern reimagining of Joseph Papp's Mobile Theater. Mobile Unit reaches across economic and geographic barriers to the arts by meeting our communities where they are—staging free professional theater productions and programs in local neighborhood venues such as libraries, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, and community centers across all five New York City boroughs. Mobile Unit has served thousands of audiences with critically acclaimed productions, including a 2018 National tour of Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat. In 2020, Mobile Unit received a Special Drama Desk Award for its program. During the pandemic, Mobile Unit launched a digital workshop inside the NYC Department of Corrections called Hip-Hop vs. Shakespeare, where participants were encouraged to write their own stories. In summer 2021, Mobile Unit returned in-person with Mobile Unit's Summer of Joy, co-produced with National Black Theatre, popping up at public plazas in neighborhoods hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Mobile Unit believes theater is its most powerful when it reflects and connects to the lives of our community. PUBLIC WORKS, a major artistic program of the Public Theater, aims to restore and build community by connecting people through the creation of extraordinary works of art. Public Works is animated by the idea that theater is a place of possibility, where the boundaries that separate us from each other in the rest of life can fall away. Working with partner organizations in all five boroughs, Public Works invites community members to take classes, participate in programming, attend performances, and join in the creation of ambitious works of participatory theater. Public Works deliberately blurs the line between professional artists and community members, creating theater that is not only for the people, but by and of the people as well. Public Works exemplifies The Public's long-standing commitment to putting community at the core of the theater's mission. Public Works seeks to create a space where we can not only reflect on the world as it is, but where we can propose new possibilities for what our society might be. The Public Works model continues to be adopted by theaters across the country and around the world. The Public Works community partner organizations are Brownsville Recreation Center (Brooklyn), Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education (Bronx), Center for Family Life in Sunset Park (Brooklyn), Children's Aid (all boroughs), DreamYard (Bronx), Domestic Workers United (all boroughs), The Fortune Society (Queens), and Military Resilience Foundation (all boroughs). Free Shakespeare in the Park, Mobile Unit, and Public Works are the bedrock of The Public's mission to bring free Shakespeare to New York City through yearly Shakespeare productions in Central Park and around the city. In 2018, The Public Theater, in partnership with Central Park Conservancy and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, embarked on a much-needed revitalization of the 62-year-old Delacorte Theater in Central Park to ensure the longevity of Free Shakespeare in the Park for many years to come. For more information on The Delacorte's revitalization, visit thepublic.nyc/Delacorte-Revitalization . Following its significant revitalization, The Delacorte Theater will reopen in Summer 2025 with a production of Shakespeare's classic comedy TWELFTH NIGHT, also directed by The Public's Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director, Tony Award nominee Saheem Ali, and featuring an all-star cast of Public Theater alumni, including Peter Dinklage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lupita Nyong'o , Sandra Oh, and more to be announced soon. To support The Public Theater, become a Supporter or Partner by visiting publictheater.org/supporttoday. BIOS: REBECCA MARTINEZ she/her (Director, Mobile Unit's Much Ado About Nothing) is a multidisciplinary director and the Cohort Collaborations Director for One Nation/One Project. Recent and upcoming projects include Dirty Laundry (WP Theater / Spark Theatricals), In Her Bones (Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center), Bite Me (WP Theater / Colt Coeur), It Happened in Key West (Fulton Theatre), Sancocho (WP Theater), Living and Breathing (Two River), Randy's Dandy Coaster Castle (Egg & Spoon Collective), Songs About Trains (Working Theater and Radical Evolution), Somewhere Over the Border (Syracuse Stage and Geva Theatre), and Anna in the Tropics (Fine Arts Center). Martinez co-adapted and directed the 2023 and 2024 touring bilingual musical production of The Comedy of Errors (The Public Theater's Mobile Unit; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Adaptation; LATA Awards for Outstanding Adaptation and Theatrical Concept). She has developed new work with The Public Theater, Amas Musical Theater, the O'Neill, Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Sol Project, NAMT, INTAR, Working Theater, The Playwrights Realm, among others. Affiliations include Member of the Obie Award-winning Sol Project Collective, TCG Rising Leaders of Color, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR's Unit52, New Georges Affiliated Artist, Drama League Directing Fellow, and SDC. Awards include Colorado Henry Award for Directing; four Portland, Oregon Drammy Awards; and Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. rebeccamartinez.org TROY ANTHONY (Music & Lyrics, Public Works' Pericles) is a Kentucky-born composer, director, and theater-maker based in NYC rigorously practicing Black queer joy. He is the Founding Creative Director of Fire Ensemble Inc. where he focuses on the intersection between music theater, community practice, and social justice. He has presented work at 54 Below, JACK, Joe's Pub, Prospect Theater Company, and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Commissions include 5th Avenue Theater, The Civilians, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theater, St. Louis Rep, and The Shed where he's completing the final year of a 3-year residency. Anthony has over 15 years of experience in youth and community development work with organizations such as the Kentucky Center's Governor's School for the Arts, the Vermont Governor's Institute on the Arts and The Public Theater. He was the first Director of Legacy and Internship Programs at the DreamYard Project in The Bronx where he focused on the importance of emerging leadership. CARL COFIELD (Director, Public Works' Pericles) is the Chair of Graduate Acting at NYU and Associate Artistic Director of the award-winning Classical Theatre of Harlem. His directing credits include the world premiere of The XIXth by Kemp Powers for the Old Globe, Seize the King and The Bacchae (both New York Times Critic's Picks), MEMNON (Getty Villa), One Night in Miami (Rogue Machine, Denver Center), and King Lear starring André De Shields and A Midsummer Night's Dream (CTH). Other regional credits include A Raisin in the Sun and an Afro-futuristic Twelfth Night (Yale Rep and CTH), Disgraced (Denver Center), and The Mountaintop (Cleveland Play House). Cofield helmed The Princeton & Slavery Plays at McCarter Theatre, collaborating with renowned playwrights like Jackie Sibblies Drury and Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins. His acting work spans prestigious theaters nationwide, including Manhattan Theatre Club, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep and others. Honors include an NAACP Theatre Award, an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, AUDELCO, and others. Cofield received an MFA from Columbia School of the Arts. THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. Over one hundred years ago, the trustees of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine conceived its mission to be a house of prayer for all people, an instrument of church unity, and a center of intellectual light and leading in the spirit of Jesus Christ. Today, as the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the seat of its bishop, the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine serves the many diverse people of our diocese, city, nation and world through the worship of God; pastoral, educational and community outreach activities; cultural and civic events; international ecumenical initiatives; and the preservation of the great architectural and historic site that is its legacy. stjohndivine.org THE PUBLIC continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation's first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public's wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City's five boroughs, Public Lab, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe's Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musicals Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Suffs by Shaina Taub, and Hell's Kitchen by Alicia Keys and Kristoffer Diaz. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 64 Tony Awards, 194 Obie Awards, 62 Drama Desk Awards, 61 Lortel Awards, 36 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, 65 AUDELCO Awards, 6 Antonyo Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes. publictheater.org The Public Theater stands in honor of the first inhabitants and our ancestors. We acknowledge the land on which The Public and its theaters stand—the original homeland of the Lenape people. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this territory. We honor the generations of stewards and we pay our respects to the many diverse indigenous peoples still connected to this land. The Public also gives our respect to the people of Seneca Village, a community of Black property owners who were removed from their land and whose village was destroyed in the creation of Central Park. We recognize the sacrifice that these ancestors made and honor Seneca Village's legacy. The LuEsther T. Mertz Legacy Trust provides leadership support for The Public Theater's year-round activities. Leadership support for Mobile Unit is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Tow Foundation , and an anonymous donor. Generous support for Mobile Unit is provided by The MAE Private Foundation, Gina Maria Leonetti and The McLaughlin Children's Trust. Leadership support for Public Works is provided by the Abrams Foundation, The Hearst Foundations, and The Tow Foundation. Generous support for Public Works is provided by Jody & John Arnhold | Arnhold Foundation, The Eisner Foundation, the Endeavor Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the One World Fund, Select Equity Group, The SHS Foundation, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, and Susan & David Viniar. Special thanks to David & Jackie Abell and The Venable Foundation. CONNECT WITH US Facebook.com/PublicTheater Instagram | @PublicTheaterNY TikTok | @PublicTheaterNY LinkedIn.com/PublicTheater |
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