Public Theater Announces Shakespeare Salon Series, 5/18 & 25

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Interim Executive Director Joey Parnes) will continue its popular Shakespeare Salon Series this May. Following the success of last year's events, The Shakespeare Salon returns for two evenings this spring, with discussions featuring 2011 Shakespeare in the Park Directors Daniel Sullivan and David Esbjornson and moderated by Shakespeare Initiative Director Barry Edelstein. The Shakespeare Salons will be held on Wednesday, May 18 and Wednesday, May 25 at 6:30 p.m. at BONDST Restaurant (6 Bond Street). Tickets are $25 and include a complimentary glass of wine. Tickets are on sale now to Public Theater Members and will go on sale to the general public on Thursday, April 28.

The Shakespeare Salon on Wednesday, May 18, will feature Shakespeare Initiative Director Barry Edelstein in discussion with ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL director Daniel Sullivan, while The Shakespeare Salon on Wednesday, May 25, will feature a dialogue with MEASURE FOR MEASURE director David Esbjornson.

The Shakespeare Salon is a regular series of conversations with the acclaimed artists whose charge is to interpret the works of Shakespeare on the stages of The Public Theater. These exciting events provide The Public's audience with intimate behind-the-scenes access to the extraordinary talents whose work helps make The Public Theater one of the leading producers of Shakespeare in America.

The 2011 Shakespeare in the Park summer season, running June 6 to July 30 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, will once again present two Shakespeare plays in repertory, giving audiences eight straight weeks of free Shakespeare. The repertory company for MEASURE FOR MEASURE and ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, consecutively, includes Kristen Connolly (Juliet/Diana), John Cullum (Escalus/King of France), Carson Elrod (Pompey/Interpreter), Joe Forbrich (Friar/Duke of Florence), Danai Gurira (Isabella in Measure for Measure), Michael Hayden (Angelo/Second Brother Dumaine), André Holland (Claudio/Bertram), Jordan Lund (Abhorson/Rinaldo), David Manis (Elbow/Lavatch), Dakin Matthews (Provost/Lafew), Caitlin O'Connell (Nun/Widow), Annie Parisse (Mariana/Helena), Tonya Pinkins (Mistress Overdone/Countess), Lorenzo Pisoni (Duke/First Brother Dumaine), Reg Rogers (Lucio/Parolles), and Lucas Caleb Rooney (Barnadine /Gentleman).

Barry Edelstein (Moderator and Shakespeare Initiative Director) has been called by NPR "one of the country's leading Shakespeareans." Edelstein is Director of The Public Theater's Shakespeare Initiative where he oversees all Shakespeare productions in Central Park and downtown, as well as all education and community outreach based programs (including The Mobile Unit and Shakespeare LAB). Shakespeare productions he has directed at The Public Theater include Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, and The Merchant of Venice.

David Esbjornson (Measure for Measure Director) has been the Artistic Director at Seattle Repertory and Classic Stage Company in New York. Highlights include: In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks (The Public), the world premiere of Purgatorio by Ariel Dorfman (Seattle Repertory), The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Broadway), The Play About the Baby (The Century), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan and Resurrection Blues by Arthur Miller (Broadway, Guthrie), the world premiere of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and the first public presentation of Perestroika, Homebody/Kabul (London), Neal Bell's Thérèse Raquin (CSC; OBIE), Tuesdays With Morrie (Minetta Lane) and Kevin Kling's How? How? Why? Why? Why?. Favorite revivals include: Driving Miss Daisy (Broadway), The Normal Heart (The Public), Hamlet (Theatre For A New Audience; OBIE), A Few Good Men (Royal Haymarket-London), All My Sons (Huntington), Much Ado About Nothing (NYSF), Mud and Drowning (Signature), Endgame (Drama Desk nomination), The Maids, Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Lucille Lortel Award), The Entertainer (CSC), Farmyard (NYTW), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Summer and Smoke (Guthrie), Twelfth Night and Lady From Dubuque (Seattle Repertory).
Daniel Sullivan (All's Well That Ends Well Director). For The Public Theater, Sullivan directed The Merchant of Venice (Broadway/Shakespeare in the Park), Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Stuff Happens, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Among his Broadway credits are Good People, Time Stands Still, Accent on Youth, The Homecoming, Prelude to a Kiss, Rabbit Hole, After the Night and the Music, Julius Caesar, Brooklyn Boy, Sight Unseen, I'm Not Rappaport, Morning's at Seven, Proof, the 2000 production of A Moon for the Misbegotten, Ah, Wilderness!, The Sisters Rosensweig, Conversations With My Father, and The Heidi Chronicles. Among his Off-Broadway credits are Intimate Apparel, Far East, Spinning into Butter, Dinner With Friends, and The Substance of Fire. From 1981 to 1997, he served as Artistic Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre. Sullivan has received six Tony Award nominations for Best Direction of a Play and won for his direction of Proof.
The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Joey Parnes, Interim Executive Director) 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, 151 Obies, 41 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; Well; Topdog/Underdog; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Passing Strange; the revival of HAIR; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice. Visit www.publictheater.org.