Oskar Eustis Hosts The Public's Who Lost America? 11/15

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director) announced the line-up today for the second Public Forum event, "Who Lost America? How Our Politics and Culture Have Changed in the 10 Years Since Bush v. Gore", on Monday, November 15 at 8 p.m. Curated by Jeremy McCarter, The Public Forum is an exciting new series of lectures, debates and conversations that showcase leading voices in the arts, politics and the media. Tickets are $25 and are on sale now.

The season's second Public Forum event, "Who Lost America?" coincides with The Public's current production of Lisa Kron's In The Wake. Leading voices from across the political spectrum and the arts will consider how our society has changed in the decade since Bush v. Gore, and what we can do to fix what ails us today. The provocative conversation will be hosted by Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis.

The three-part, 90-minute evening will begin with a talk by In The Wake Playwright Lisa Kron. Following the address, a roundtable of brilliant minds who straddle the worlds of politics and culture will debate what the last 10 years has done to our society; the conversation will feature Lisa Kron, Hendrik Hertzberg (The New Yorker), Sam Tanenhaus (New York Times Book Review), and will be moderated by Jeremy McCarter. The evening will conclude with members of The Civilians performing songs about America written by Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson's acclaimed composer Michael Friedman.

The Public Forum's fall season will continue on Monday, November 29 with a one-on-one conversation between Stephen Sondheim and Tony Kushner (Angels in America, Caroline, or Change) discussing Sondheim's book Finishing the Hat, his craft, and the theatrical life. The evening will be hosted by Rocco Landesman, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who has produced shows by both writers. Tuesday, December 14 will conclude the fall Public Forum season with Afghanistan After America, America After Afghanistan, a challenging discussion on the conflicts in Afghanistan held in conjunction with The Public Theater's presentation of The Great Game: Afghanistan at New York University's Skirball Center.

Bios

Oskar Eustis is the Artistic Director of The Public Theater and has worked as a director, dramaturg, and artistic director for theaters around the country. From 1981 through 1986, he was resident director and dramaturg at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, and Artistic Director until 1989, when he moved to the L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum as Associate Artistic Director until 1994. Eustis then served as Artistic Director at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island for eleven years. In 2005 he took the helm at New York's Public Theater. Throughout his career, Eustis has been dedicated to the development of new plays as both a director and a producer. At The Public he directed the New York premiere of Rinne Groff's The Ruby Sunrise and Hamlet. At Trinity Rep, he directed the world premiere of Paula Vogel's The Long Christmas Ride Home (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production); Homebody/Kabul (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production); the world premiere of Rinne Groff's The Ruby Sunrise; Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director); Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika; as well as world premieres of plays by Philip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Emily Mann, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ellen McLaughlin, and Eduardo Machado. He commissioned Tony Kushner's Angels in America at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco and directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. Eustis was the lead producer on the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair on Broadway and the current Broadway productions of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice.

Michael Friedman. His work at The Public includes the hit Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which has transferred to Broadway's Bernard Jacobs Theatre, as well as Paris Commune, Romeo and Juliet, Satellites, The Seagull, and Cymbeline. This fall, he also wrote music for Tony Kushner's Angels in America at the Signature Theatre. Upcoming projects include Pretty Filthy, a musical about the adult film industry with The Civilians, an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's novel, Fortress of Solitude, and commissions from Playwrights Horizons, the Huntington Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. His work with The Civilians includes This Beautiful City, [I Am] Nobody's Lunch, Canard, Canard, Goose? and the long-running Gone Missing. His other work as composer/lyricist includes Saved (Playwrights Horizons), Hoover Comes Alive! (La Jolla Playhouse),The Brand New Kid (Kennedy Center), and In the Bubble (at AMTP). His music has also been heard at NYTW, the Roundabout, Second Stage, Soho Rep, Theater for a New Audience, Signature, and The Acting Company, and regionally at the Guthrie, The Huntington, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Humana Festival, ART, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and internationally at London's Soho and Gate Theatres, and the Edinburgh Festival.

HENDRIK HERTZBERG is a senior editor and staff writer at The New Yorker, where he frequently writes the Comment, in The Talk of the Town. His work is collected in two books, Obamanos! and Politics.

Lisa Kron's best-known plays include Well (included in Best Plays of 2004 and produced on Broadway in 2006 in a production that earned two Tony nominations) and 2.5 Minute Ride (Obie, L.A. Drama-Logue, GLAAD Media Award). Honors include Guggenheim, Lortel, Lark and Sundance fellowships, and awards from Creative Capital and the Alpert Foundation. Lisa is a founding member of the Obie and Bessie-Award-winning theatre company The Five Lesbian Brothers. In the works: a new musical with composer Jeanine Tesori, as well as commissioned plays from the Sloan Foundation with Playwrights Horizons and from Drew University. Kron teaches playwriting at Yale School of Drama.

Jeremy McCarter is the director of The Public Forum. He writes about culture and politics for Newsweek and is the editor of Bite the Hand That Feeds You: Essays and Provocations by Henry Fairlie (Yale University Press, 2009). Until 2008, he was the drama critic for New York Magazine. He has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, Politico, and The New York Sun.

SAM TANENHAUS is editor of The New York Times Book Review. He writes for The Times and other publications on politics, literature, and culture. His essays, reviews, and articles have also appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, Slate, and more. His latest book, The Death of Conservatism, was just released in paperback.

The Civilians are the investigative theater company founded by Steve Cosson which aims to create new theater from creative inquiries into the most vital questions of the present and find new means to connect with a diverse audience, pursuing under-explored subjects including those political and controversial in nature. Shows created by The Civilians include: Gone Missing, This Beautiful City, and (I Am) Nobody's Lunch.

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, 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 headquarters and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day onstage and through extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 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 has won 42 Tony Awards, 151 Obies, 41 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 55 shows to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk; On the Town; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Well; Passing Strange; the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair; and this fall, the rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the 2010 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Merchant of Venice. www.publictheater.org.

TICKET INFORMATION

All tickets for The Public Forum are $25. Single tickets for "Who Lost America?" on Monday, November 15 at 8 p.m. are on sale now at (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at The Public Theater Box Office. The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street.

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