The Public Will Debut PUBLIC WORKS Initiative With Musical THE TEMPEST

The Public Theater has announced a groundbreaking new initiative for community-based theater, PUBLIC WORKS, that is designed to cultivate new connections and new models of engagement with artists, audiences and the community each year. In its inaugural year, PUBLIC WORKS will create an extraordinary example of participatory theater with a free, original musical adaptation of THE TEMPEST at the Delacorte Theater, inspired by a 1916 community theatrical event of Caliban by the Yellow Sands at the stadium at City College in New York.

Conceived and directed by Public Works Director Lear deBessonet, THE TEMPEST will showcase 200 New Yorkers from all five boroughs who will share the stage with professional actors and community partners for this three-night civic event, September 6 through September 8. THE TEMPEST will be free, continuing The Public Theater's long-standing tradition of free Shakespeare in the Park and community engagement.

"Theater isn't a commodity, it's an experience," said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "Public Works aims to reclaim that territory by making participation central to the theatrical event. This is one of the most exciting initiatives The Public has ever embarked upon."

PUBLIC WORKS is a major new initiative of The Public Theater that exemplifies our mission to reach all corners of the city and increase access to a broad and diverse audience. Working with community partner organizations in all five boroughs, PUBLIC WORKS seeks to cultivate new connections and new models of engagement with artists, audiences and the community each year. The new initiative is designed to bring community partners from all five boroughs into the full life of The Public through workshops, classes, dialogues, invitations to shows at The Public, visits from the Mobile Shakespeare Unit and the creation of projects that include dance, music, sonnets, plays and participatory theater.

The five community partner organizations of PUBLIC WORKS for the first two years are Children's Aid Society (Manhattan); DreamYard (Bronx); Fortune Society (Queens); Brownsville Recreation Center (Brooklyn); and Domestic Workers United (all boroughs, including Staten Island).

As part of the inaugural year of PUBLIC WORKS, these five community partners have already engaged in a variety of immersive Public Theater programs, including a 12-week acting workshop on the work of Stephen Adly Guirgis that included a talk back with the playwright; a workshop on "Jobs in the Theater"; a weekly senior citizen dance class led by a Public Theater artist; acting workshops for youth on performing Shakespeare, led by artists from The Public's Shakespeare Lab; a Joe's Pub performance with Public Theater alumna Sasha Allen; tickets to Public Theater Productions; writing workshops to create sonnets; and monthly reading groups of different classic plays, explored in both English and Spanish.

For THE TEMPEST, participants from these community groups will be cast in lead and ensemble roles; learn a dance that they will perform at the Delacorte; and sing a song written specifically for them by composer Todd Almond for the Shakespeare production.

"Public Works is an opportunity to celebrate the vibrancy of New York City," said Public Works Director Lear deBessonet. "In this first year we've joined with five organizations that embody some of the most innovative approaches to community building. Together we are shaping a vision of how theater can transform a community and enrich the civic life of our city."

The Public Theater, founded nearly 60 years ago by Joe Papp as one of the nation's first nonprofit theaters, has been an advocate for theater as an essential cultural force and forum for dialogue about issues of the day. As the only theater in New York producing Shakespeare and the classics, musicals, contemporary and experimental works in equal measure, The Public continues its long tradition of engaging a wide range of audiences and artists.