Tony Kushner and More to Examine Culture in the Age of Donald Trump in 'PUBLIC FORUM' Series

The Public Theater and The New Yorker announced today that a new series, PUBLIC FORUM: A WELL-ORDERED NATION, has been added to the 2017 Spring Public Forum line-up. Over four evenings in the coming months, artists, thinkers, journalists, performers, and politicians will come together at The Public to consider what it means to be responsible citizens and how culture can respond to politics in the age of Donald Trump.

On Monday, February 20 at 7:30 p.m., the special series will kick off with THE STUFF OF FICTION in The Public's Newman Theater. It's hard not to look at the news every day and wonder who's scripting the American plot. At a time when we are told facts can have alternatives, Public Forum and The New Yorker will bring together a group of experts in make-believe, including playwright Tony Kushner; poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine; and acclaimed author Salman Rushdie; to make sense of an American moment when truth can feel stranger than fiction.

"The new administration requires us to think more deeply, and to think together about who we are and who we might become," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "The Public is proud to collaborate with The New Yorker to grapple with the state of our union."

"Our two organizations are committed to the freedom of expression-on the page, on the stage, and all those places in between," New Yorker Editor David Remnick added. "At a time of unprecedented political chaos, that mission has never been more clear."

PUBLIC FORUM: A WELL-ORDERED NATION continues on Monday, March 20 with TRUTH TO POWER, on Monday, April 24 with 100 DAYS, and on Monday, May 15 with THE WAY FORWARD, all at 7:30 p.m. in the Newman Theater. Additional programming details will be announced at a later date.

Tickets for the series can be purchased by calling (212) 967-7555, or by visiting www.publictheater.org or the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street). Public Theater Member and Partner tickets are $25; single tickets are $30. All four one-night-only events will be live-streamed at www.newyorker.com.

Special funding for PUBLIC FORUM: A WELL-ORDERED NATION has been made possible by the Open Society Foundations.

The Public's 2017 Spring Public Forum line-up will also feature an exciting series of one-night-only events and expanded audience engagement programming exploring the ideas and themes presented on The Public Theater's stages. Highlights of the upcoming Forum season include a 40th Anniversary reading of Ntozake Shange's groundbreaking choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf on Monday, February 27; two evenings of exploring the legacies of radical protest in the queer and women's rights movements on Monday, April 3 and Monday, May 1; and a four-night songwriting festival with Public Forum Director Michael Friedman, May 17-20 in Joe's Pub at The Public.

PUBLIC FORUM continues its seventh season with a renewed commitment to exploring and expanding the ideas present in The Public Theater's onstage work. Forum produces events ranging from stand-alone evenings of performance and conversation to post-show talkbacks with audiences, artists, and guest speakers as well as digital content. Its live programs have featured insights and performances from the likes of Tony Kushner, Cynthia Nixon, Jeremy McCarter, James Earl Jones, David Miliband, Matt Damon, David Byrne, Audra McDonald, E.L. Doctorow, Rachel Maddow, Wynton Marsalis, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Salman Rushdie, Anna Deavere Smith, and many more. The dialogue continues online with Digiturgy, which brings together material from media, politics, and society to deepen an audience's understanding of the worlds of The Public's plays. Through curated conversations, surprising combinations, and exciting content, Public Forum seeks to enrich and expand the minds of The Public's audiences.

The New Yorker is a multi-platform media enterprise, spanning print, digital, audio, and video content, and live events. With more than a million subscribers to the weekly magazine and nearly seventeen million readers every month on newyorker.com, The New Yorker delivers unparalleled reporting and commentary on politics, foreign affairs, business, technology, popular culture, and the arts, along with humor, fiction, poetry, and cartoons. Reaching beyond print, the Web, digital editions, and apps, you can find The New Yorker's writers, editors, and artists on the radio on "The New Yorker Radio Hour," on TV via Amazon's "The New Yorker Presents," and at marquee events like the New Yorker Festival. The creativity, influence, and impact that have characterized The New Yorker since its founding, in 1925, are today amplified far beyond its pages.

The Public Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, is the only theater in New York that produces Shakespeare, the classics, musicals, contemporary and experimental pieces in equal measure. In over 10 years at The Public, Eustis has created new community-based initiatives designed to engage audiences like Public Lab, Public Studio, Public Forum, Public Works, and a remount of the Mobile Unit. The Public continues the work of its visionary founder, Joe Papp, by acting as an advocate for the theater as an essential cultural force, and leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. Creating theater for one of the largest and most diverse audience bases in New York City for nearly 60 years, today the Company engages audiences in a variety of venues-including its landmark downtown home at Astor Place, which houses five theaters and Joe's Pub; the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, home to free Shakespeare in the Park; and the Mobile Unit, which tours Shakespearean productions for underserved audiences throughout New York City's five boroughs. The Public's wide range of programming includes free Shakespeare in the Park, the bedrock of the Company's dedication to making theater accessible to all; Public Works, an expanding initiative that is designed to cultivate new connections and new models of engagement with artists, audiences and the community each year; and audience and artist development initiatives that range from Emerging Writers Group and to the Public Forum series. The Public's work is also seen on tour throughout the U.S. and internationally and in collaborations and co-productions with regional and international theaters. The Public is located on property owned by the City of New York and receives annual support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and in October 2012 the landmark building downtown at Astor Place was revitalized to physically manifest the Company's core mission of sparking new dialogues and increasing accessibility for artists and audiences, by dramatically opening up the building to the street and community, and transforming the lobby into a public piazza for artists, students, and audiences. The Public is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning acclaimed American musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and in spring 2017, Lynn Nottage's acclaimed new play Sweat. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 168 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics Awards, and five Pulitzer Prizes. Visit www.publictheater.org.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride