Foundry Theatre's GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN Begins Previews 10/18 at The Public

The Public Theater will begin performances for The Foundry Theatre's GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN by Bertolt Brecht on Friday, October 18. With a translation by John Willett and directed by Lear deBessonet, GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN will run through Sunday, November 24, with an official press opening on Tuesday, October 29.

Single tickets, starting at $56.50, can be purchased by calling (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at Astor Place at 425 Lafayette Street. The Library at The Public is open nightly for food and drink, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and Joe's Pub continues to offer some of the best music in the city.

Can we practice goodness and create a world to sustain it? In this comic and complex play, one of Brecht's most entertaining characters, Shen Tei, the good-hearted, penniless, cross-dressing prostitute, is forced to disguise herself as a savvy businessman named Shui Ta to master the ruthlessness necessary to be a "good person" in a cruel world of limited resources. The award-winning Foundry Theatre and director Lear deBessonet bring this theatrical classic to life for the 21st century with Taylor Mac in the lead and original live music by César Alvarez with The Lisps.

The complete cast features original members Kate Benson (Mrs. Shin); Ephraim Birney (The Nephew); Vinie Burrows (God #1);Clifton Duncan (Grandfather, Yang Sun); Jack Allen Greenfield (Boy, Carpenter's Son); Brooke Ishibashi (The Woman); Paul Juhn(The Man, Mr. Shu Fu); Mia Katigbak (God #2); Lisa Kron, (Mrs. Mi Tzu. Mrs. Yang); Taylor Mac (Shen Tei); Mary Shultz (God #3);David Turner (Wang, Waiter); and Darryl Winslow (Unemployed Man, Carpenter, Policeman).

GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN features set design by Matt Saunders, costume design by Clint Ramos, lighting design by Tyler Micoleau, sound design by Brandon Wolcott, and choreography by Danny Mefford.

Lear deBessonet (Director) has created large-scale theatrical events pairing artistic excellence with community organizing in New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Kazakhstan. She is the director of The Public's Public Works initiative and recently directed a musical adaptation of The Tempest with over 200 community members from across New York City. Her additional recent work includes, Sherie Rene Scott's Piece of Meat at 54 Below, On the Levee for Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 (Time Out Best of 2010) and The Odyssey at The Old Globe, a community-based collaboration featuring professional artists alongside 180 San Diegans. In May 2009, her Don Quixote, a collaboration with homeless shelter Broad Street Ministry, premiered in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Weekly Best of 2009). Other credits include Saint Joan of the Stockyards (PS122), Toshi Reagon's LINES (Joe's Pub), Takarazuka (Clubbed Thumb), Monstrosity (13P), The Scarlet Letter (Intiman Theatre), transFigures (Women's Project), In the Dark Ages (National Opera Theatre of Kazakhstan), and When I Was a Ghost (Guthrie Theater). For Ten Thousand Things, she has directed productions of My Fair Lady and As You Like It that toured to prisons, community centers, and homeless shelters in Minneapolis. She created and ran the TICKETS FOR THE PEOPLE program in New York, an initiative designed to distribute tickets to non-traditional theatre-goers including immigrants, students, and seniors. In 2006 she was named one of Time Out New York's "25 People to Watch," and in 2008 she was honored with LMCC's Presidential Award for Artistic Excellence. A recipient of an NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors, she has also acted as a visiting professor at NYU-Tisch School of the Arts.

CÉSAR ALVAREZ (Composer, Musical Director) is a Drama Desk nominated composer, lyricist, and writer. He is the founder of The Lisps, as well as co-founder and resident composer of the LA-based Dance Company Contra-Tiempo. His recent credits include Futurity; 3 2's or AFAR by Mac Wellman, and Full Still Hungry for Contra-Tiemp. He is currently teaching at Sarah Lawrence College and Harvard University.

Danny Mefford (Choreography)'s Public Theater credits include the current production of Fun Home, as well as Love's Labour's Lost, February House, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. His additional choreography credits include Melancholy Play, and Dance Dance Revolution. His directing credits include Becoming Lib Ullmann, Wasted and The Maids.

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