The Public Theater has announced initial casting today for KING LEAR, directed by James MacDonald this fall. Michael McKean, John Douglas Thompson and Enid Graham will play Gloucester, Kent and Goneril, respectively, joining the previously announced Sam Waterston as King Lear. KING LEAR will run October 18 - November 20 in the Newman Theater. Member tickets are $40; Single tickets, priced at $75-$85, will go on sale in August.
Member tickets go on sale today for KING LEAR as well as The Public's other two Shakespeare plays this fall to be featured in Public Lab: LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST (October 18 - November 6) and TITUS ANDRONICUS (November 29 - December 18). Membership to
The Public Theater is available for an annual tax-deductible donation of $55. Members enjoy significant discounts and priority ordering to shows and events at
The Public Theater throughout the year, and are able to purchase tickets to KING LEAR for the reduced member price of only $40 and the reduced member price of $12 to the Public Lab productions of LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST and TITUS ANDRONICUS. (Single tickets to Public Lab shows are $15.)
KING LEAR, Shakespeare's masterpiece, is one of the towering works of world literature. In no other play is Shakespeare's tragic vision more terrifyingly clear-- and nowhere in his canon does he create a richer or more complex set of characters. 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.
LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST, directed by Karin Coonrod, is a Public Lab production running October 18 - November 6. Single tickets to Public Lab shows are $15; Member tickets are $12.
The King of France and his best buds swear off romance and withdraw into their studies...until some 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. In the end, the real world intrudes and brings everyone back to earth, but not even a cold winter blast manages to chill the warmth of this beguiling play.
TITUS ANDRONICUS, directed by
Michael Sexton, will feature
Jay O. Sanders as Titus. This Public Lab production will run November 29 - December 18. Single tickets to Public Lab shows are $15; Member tickets are $12.
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. The cycle of revenge is shocking, bloody, and all-encompassing, but expressed through poetry and theatricality as vivid, energized, and thrilling as anything in Shakespeare's later works.
Enid Graham (Goneril) has appeared on Broadway in Honour, The Constant Wife, Dinner at Eight, and Fortune's Fool. She has appeared Off-Broadway in Some Americans Abroad, The Long Christmas Ride Home, and Crimes of the Heart. Her television and film credits include Rose Van Alden on HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," "The Good Wife," and Blue Valentine.
Michael McKean (Gloucester) recently appeared on Broadway in
Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts, Hairspray, and The Homecoming. McKean originated the role of Lenny Kosnowski on television's "Laverne and Shirley." He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1994 to 1995. His select film credits include This is Spinal Tap, Clue, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration.
John Douglas Thompson (Kent). His Broadway credits include Julius Caesar and Cyrano de Bergerac. He won an Obie, a Callaway, and a Lortel Award for his portrayal of the title role in Othello at Theatre for a New Audience. His other Off-Broadway credits include The Emperor Jones, The Forest, Antony and Cleopatra, and King Lear.
Sam Waterston (King Lear) has appeared in
The Public Theater's productions of Hamlet (Hamlet, Polonius), Much Ado About Nothing (Leonato, Benedick), Measure for Measure (Duke), Cymbeline (Cloten), Henry VI Part 1 and Part 2 (Prince Hal), Ergo (AsIan) and As You Like It (Silvius). His film and TV credits include The Great Gatsby, Serial Mom, The Glass Menagerie, four
Woody Allen films and "I'll Fly Away." Waterston is an Academy Award-nominee for his work in The Killing Fields, and he received an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe Award for his work as
Jack McCoy on "Law & Order."
James MacDonald (Director). In New York, Macdonald has directed The Book of Grace (The Public), Top Girls (MTC/Broadway), Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (The Public), Dying City (Lincoln Center), A Number (New York Theater Workshop) and 4.48 Psychosis (
St. Ann's Warehouse). From 1992 to 2006, Macdonald was associate director of the Royal Court, where he directed world premieres of work by writers including
Caryl Churchill,
Sarah Kane,
Martin Crimp, and most recently
Mike Bartlett's Cock.
The Public Theater was founded by
Joseph Papp in 1954 and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals and productions of classics at its downtown home and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.
The Public Theater's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through extensive outreach programs. Each year, more than 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 Theater's productions have won 42 Tony Awards, 158 Obies, 42 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. Fifty-four Public
Theater Productions have moved 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; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Passing Strange; the revival of HAIR; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice. For more information, visit
www.publictheater.org.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos
