Plays by Ricardo Perez Gonzalez, Hansol Jung Picked for PUBLIC STUDIO's 4th Season

The Public Theater announced the fourth season of PUBLIC STUDIO, which will present two new plays this spring.

Continuing The Public's commitment to nurturing new playwrights, the two plays will run in succession in The Public's Shiva Theater and be presented as pared-down productions with the low ticket price of $15. This vital program continues The Public's mission of making new work by emerging artists accessible to all audiences.

In this fourth year, PUBLIC STUDIO will present ON THE GROUNDS OF BELONGING by Public Theater Emerging Writers Group alumnus Ricardo Pérez González, directed by David Mendizábal, running Thursday, March 23, through Saturday, April 1. With great humor and humanity, ON THE GROUNDS OF BELONGING is a shattering new take on an old-fashioned love story.

The second new play directed by Leigh Silverman, WILD GOOSE DREAMS by Hansol Jung, will run Thursday, April 6, through Saturday, April 15. WILD GOOSE DREAMS is a strikingly original play about two people, and two cultures, forced to choose between family and freedom.

Complete casting for ON THE GROUNDS OF BELONGING includes Craig Bockhorn (Mooney Fitzpatrick); Ta'Rea Campbell (Tanya); Tré Davis (Henry); Mike Hodge (Hugh); Christopher Livingston (Russell Montgomery); and Bobby Steggert (Thomas Aston).

Initial casting for WILD GOOSE DREAMS includes Cindy Cheung (Digital Minsung's Wife, Chorus); Stephanie Hsu (Digital Minsung's Daughter, Chorus); Sandra Oh (Nanhee); and James Yaegashi (Minsung).

Public Supporter, Member, and Partner tickets will be available on Wednesday, February 22. Single tickets, priced at $15, will be available on Monday, February 27, and can be accessed by calling (212) 967-7555, visiting www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street. The Library at The Public is open nightly for food and drinks, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and Joe's Pub at The Public continues to offer some of the best music in the city.

PUBLIC STUDIO features scenic design by Wilson Chin; costume design by Ntokozo Fuzunina Kunene; lighting design by Brian Tovar; and sound design by Joanna Lynne Staub. WILD GOOSE DREAMS also features music composition by Paul Castles.

PUBLIC STUDIO is a performance series dedicated exclusively to developing the work of emerging writers. In a laboratory environment, writers rehearse with actors and a director, incorporate bare-bones design elements, and open the process to an audience over a series of performances. More than a reading or workshop, but not a full production, this middle step affords early-career writers the important opportunity to deepen their experience of working collaboratively over an extended rehearsal period and to see their work staged in front of an audience. Previous Public Studio plays include Pretty Hungerby Patricia Ione Lloyd, Teenage Dick by Mike Lew, Ping Pong by Rogelio Martinez, Fidelis by Christina Gorman, Manahatta by Mary Kathryn Nagle, and The Urban Retreat by A. Zell Williams.

PUBLIC STUDIO was founded with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Time Warner Foundation. Continued support for Public Studio is provided by The Time Warner Foundation. The Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Development Fund at The Public Theater supports the creation and development of new plays.

ABOUT ON THE GROUNDS OF BELONGING:

Public Studio presents a new play by The Public's Emerging Writers Group alumnus Ricardo Pérez González (In Fields Where They Lay). Houston, Texas in the late 1950s is a big enough city but a hell of a small town for its tight-knit gay community. Forced to look out for their own in a place where being who you are can get you killed, the gay men of Jim Crow Houston seek refuge in the blacks-only Gold Room or the whites-only Red Room. But when Tom, a white man, ducks inside the wrong bar, he meets Russell, a black man waiting for the wrong guy, and the two soon find themselves in the most dangerous place they could possibly be - in love. With great humor and even greater humanity, ON THE GROUNDS OF BELONGING is a shattering new take on an old-fashioned love story. Directed by David Mendizábal (The Movement Theatre Company and co-founder of The Sol Project).

RICARDO PÉREZ GONZÁLEZ (On the Grounds of Belonging Playwright) is a bicoastal writer and performer. His first play, In Fields Where They Lay(Dreamscape, NYC; Midland Arts Ctr., MI), was hailed by the New York Times as "gripping" and "moving drama." As a playwright and screenwriter, Pérez González has been a fellow at The Sundance Institute and The Public Theater (EWG, #BARS Workshop). His Alan Turing Biopic, The Tender Peel, won him a Sloan Grant. Select writing credits include Neon Baby, a drag ball musical (book writer/co-lyricist, Pregones); Ashé, a Puerto Rican style two brothers myth (UP Theater, MetLife Award, Labyrinth Up Next Series); "Asylum," set in a mental institute at the end of the 1800s (TV pilot); The Belonging Trilogy, an old-fashioned romance that begins in racially segregated gay bars in 1950s Houston and flows through the 80s to the present day in NYC (The Public). Pérez Gonzalez holds an M.F.A. from NYU Tisch '12.

DAVID MENDIZÁBAL (On the Grounds of Belonging Director) is a director, designer, and Producing Artistic Leader of The Movement Theatre Company. Directing credits include: Tell Hector I Miss Him by Paola Lázaro (Atlantic), Locusts Have No King by J. Julian Christopher (INTAR), Evensong by Christina Quintana (APAC),Look Upon Our Lowliness by Harrison David Rivers, and Bintou by Koffi Kwahulé, translated by Chantal Bilodeau (The Movement). David is a participant in the Leadership U: One-on-One program, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group. He is a member of The Sol Project, Latinx Theatre Commons, La Co-Operativa, and an alumnus of The Drama League.

ABOUT WILD GOOSE DREAMS:

WILD GOOSE DREAMS is a new play by Hansol Jung (Among the Dead). Minsung is a "goose father," a South Korean man whose wife and daughter have moved to the United States for a better life. Deeply lonely, he escapes onto the internet and meets Nanhee, a young defector forced to leave her family behind in North Korea. Amidst the endless noise of the modern world, where likes and shares have taken the place of love and touch, Minsung and Nanhee try their best to be real for each other. But after a lifetime of division and separation, is connection possible? Tony nominee Leigh Silverman(Violet, Chinglish, The Outer Space) directs this strikingly original play about two people, and two cultures, forced to choose between family and freedom.

Hansol Jung (Wild Goose Dreams Playwright) is a playwright from South Korea. Productions: Cardboard Piano (Actors Theater of Louisville), Among the Dead (Ma-Yi Theatre), and No More Sad Things (Sideshow and Beoise Contemporary). Commissions: Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Repertory, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, Penn State University MFA Acting Program, and the Play On! project at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Fellowships/Residencies: Royal Court, New York Theatre Workshop, Berkeley Repertory, MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Sundance Theatre Lab, O'Neill Theater Center, and Page 73 Productions. MFA: Yale School of Drama. Hansol is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. Upcoming: Wild Goose Dreams World Premiere at La Jolla Playhouse, CA.

Leigh Silverman (Wild Goose Dreams Director) has directed The Outer Space; No Place to Go; In The Wake (CTG/Berkeley; Obie Award, Lortel nomination); Yellow Face (CTG); Well at The Public Theater. Her Broadway credits include Violet (Roundabout; Tony nom); Chinglish (Goodman Theatre; Berkeley); Well. Off-Broadway and regionally, she has directed Sweet Charity (New Group); On The Exhale (Roundabout); Hurricane Diane (Two River Theater); All The Ways to Say I Love You (MCC); The Wild Party (Encores); The Way We Get By (Second Stage); American Hero (WTF; Second Stage); Kung Fu (Signature Theatre); The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons); The Madrid (MTC); Golden Child (Signature Theatre); The Call (Playwrights Horizons); Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons; Obie Award); and From Up Here (MTC; Drama Desk nomination). Silverman is the Vice President of SDC.

ABOUT The Public Theater:

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 by 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 the Emerging Writers Group 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. 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.

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