Mike Daisey Premieres AMERICAN UTOPIAS at Joe's Pub Tonight, 10/22

Tonight, October 22 at 9:30 PM, Mike Daisey will return to Joe's Pub at The Public Theater to debut new monologues in the first of a series of monthly premieres through March 2013. Each month, Daisey will bring a new, groundbreaking monologue to Joe's Pub for a one-night-only engagement. In October, Daisey will premiere AMERICAN UTOPIAS. Tickets are $20 reserved / $25 premium and go on sale today, http://joespub.com/.

With AMERICAN UTOPIAS, Daisey explores how we create public spaces in which we come together to act out our dreams of a better world. He takes us everywhere to pursue the story: from Disney World and its nostalgic theme park perfection, to the drug-fueled anarchic excesses of Burning Man, to Zuccotti Park, where in the unlikeliest place the Occupy movement is born. Gunplay, giant glittery dildos, raving animatronic presidents, and brutal police actions come together to paint the landscape of our American dream.

After the premiere performance in October, Daisey will return to Joe's Pub November 19, December 10, 2012; January 15, February 11 and March 11, 2013-titles of upcoming monologues will be announced. Each new show will be directed by Daisey's long-time collaborator Jean-Michele Gregory.

Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director of The Public Theater, says, "Mike Daisey is an important voice in the American theater and a vital member of The Public Theater's family. I am very happy to be welcoming him back to the Public with this exciting and surprising set of performances."

These performances provide an incredible opportunity to see Mike Daisey, a master storyteller at the peak of his form, weaving together new tales that expose unexpected connections and seek answers to essential and dangerous questions. Each show will be unique, and explore the stories that define our age through Daisey's signature blend of hilarious comedy, brilliant observation, and pitch-perfect timing. Daisey joins artists who have developed new work at Joe's Pub including Bridget Everett, The Civilians and Stew of Passing Strange.

Daisey has performed many of his acclaimed monologues at The Public Theater and Joe's Pub, beginning with Invincible Summer as part of the Under the Radar Festival in 2007. Other works he's performed at The Public and Joe's Pub include Great Men of Genius, How Theater Failed America, If You See Something Say Something, Mysteries of the Unexplained, The Last Cargo Cult, Teching in India, and The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.

Mike Daisey'S groundbreaking monologues weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections.

Since his first monologue in 1997, Daisey has created over fifteen monologues, including the critically-acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult, the controversial How Theater Failed America, the twenty-four-hour feat All the Hours in the Day, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, the four-part epic Great Men of Genius, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. Other titles include If You See Something Say Something, Barring the Unforeseen, Invincible Summer, Monopoly!, Tongues Will Wag, I Miss the Cold War, and Teching in India. The transcript of his controversial work, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, was downloaded over 100,000 times in the first week it was available. Under a revolutionary open license it has seen more than forty productions around the world, and been translated into six languages. The first Chinese production just opened in Beijing, which will tour to Hong Kong and Shenzhen next summer.

He has performed in venues on five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at The Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to an abandoned theater in post-Communist Tajikistan. He's been a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, the Late Show with David Letterman, a longtime host and storyteller for The Moth, as well as a commentator and contributor to The New York Times, This American Life, the Guardian, Harper's Magazine, Newsweek/Daily Beast, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. He is currently at work on his second book, Rough Magic, an anthology of his monologues. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, five Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation's Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship.

Jean-Michele Gregory works as a director, editor, and dramaturg, focusing on extemporaneous theatrical works that live in the moment they are told. Working primarily with solo artists, for over a decade she has been Mike Daisey's chief collaborator, directing his monologues at venues across the globe including The Public Theater, the Sydney Opera House, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, T:BAFestival, Under the Radar Festival, and many more. She has also directed New York storyteller Martin Dockery (Wanderlust, The Surprise), as well as author and performer SuzAnne Morrison (Yoga Bitch, Optimism). Her productions have received the Bay Area Critics Circle Award (Great Men of Genius), nominations from the Drama League and Outer Critics Circle (If You See Something Say Something), and five Seattle Times Footlight Awards (21 Dog Years, The Ugly American, Monopoly!, The Last Cargo Cult, and The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs).