Single Tickets Now On Sale for The Public Theater's 2017-18 Fall Season

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced that single tickets are available now for The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street. Celebrating 50 years of new work at 425 Lafayette Street and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR, the season will include a new production from Elevator Repair Service, new plays by Luis Alfaro and Julia Cho, and an encore engagement of Nia Vardalos' acclaimed show Tiny Beautiful Things. Single tickets are available now 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 Public Theater's season will begin in September with the return of Public Works, featuring over 200 actors and community members in a free original musical adaptation of Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT, adapted by Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery, with music and lyrics by Shaina Taub. Directed by Laurie Woolery with choreography by Sonya Tayeh, AS YOU LIKE IT will run for five nights for free, September 1-5 at the Delacorte Theater.

Tickets to AS YOU LIKE IT are free, continuing The Public Theater's long-standing tradition of free programming and community engagement. Tickets are distributed, two per person (age 5+), at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park beginning at 12:00 p.m. on the day of each performance. All performances are at 8:00 p.m. The Public continues its partnership with TodayTix, who is the exclusive mobile ticket lottery partner. Tickets will be distributed by random mobile lottery on the TodayTix app each date that there is a public performance at the Delacorte Theater. Public Theater Members can reserve a seat with an additional contribution starting at $75; for premium access to AS YOU LIKE IT and other Public Theater programming join us as a Public Supporter with a contribution starting at $500. For information and to donate, call 212-967-7555.

September will also feature Elevator Repair Service, the OBIE Award-winning company behind Gatz and Arguendo, returning to The Public to celebrate their 25th season with a dynamic new production of Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE, beginning on Monday, September 18 and running through Sunday, November 5 with an official press opening on Tuesday, October 10.

With athletic theatricality and Marx-Brothers-inspired slapstick, the ERS ensemble brings exciting new life to this story of impossible moral choices in 17th-century Vienna. Radical experiments with speed set the play's combination of the comically absurd and the tragically serious in stark relief, and deliver a remarkable new show that marries the company's unique performance style with the Bard's exquisitely lyrical language. ERS Founder and Artistic Director John Collins directs.

The complete cast of Elevator Repair Service's MEASURE FOR MEASURE includes Rinne Groff (Isabella); Lindsay Hockaday (Pompey, Juliet); Maggie Hoffman (Provost): Mike Iveson (Lucio); Vin Knight (Escalus); April Matthis (Francisca, Mariana); Gavin Price (Froth, Friar, Boy, Barnardine, Messenger); Greig Sargeant (Claudio); Scott Shepherd (the Duke); Pete Simpson (Angelo) and Susie Sokol (Mistress Overdone, Elbow, Varrius, Abhorson).

Following its critically-acclaimed and sold-out run last season, the uplifting and richly funny TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS returns to The Public's larger Newman Theater with Academy Award-nominee Nia Vardalos reprising the role of "Sugar" in September. Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed, adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos, co-conceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail and Nia Vardalos, and directed by Thomas Kail, the show begins performances on Tuesday, September 19 and runs through Sunday, November 12, with an official press opening on Monday, October 2.

Based on the best-selling book by author Cheryl Strayed, the play TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS was praised by The New York Times as "an ideal catharsis" and "handkerchief-soaking meditation on pain, loss, hope and forgiveness." Thousands of people wrote letters asking for advice from an anonymous online columnist named "Sugar," who drew from her own life experiences to answer in a candid, often brutally honest exchange. It was later revealed that "Sugar" was Cheryl Strayed. Vardalos adapts the book, weaving together the real letters to explore the monstrous beauty, unfathomable dark and glimmering light which are at the heart of being human. Tony Award winner Thomas Kail directs this "incredibly moving" play about reaching out when you're stuck, healing when you're broken and finding the courage to take on the questions which have no answer. TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS is made possible with the generous support of The Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and The Ted & Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund.

Beginning in October, The New York premiere of OEDIPUS EL REY, written by Luis Alfaro and directed by Chay Yew, in collaboration with The Sol Project, will begin performances on Tuesday, October 3 and run through Sunday, November 19, with an official press opening on Tuesday, October 24.

The complete cast of OEDIPUS EL REY features Juan Castano (Oedipus, Coro); Sandra Delgado (Jocasta); Julio Monge (Tiresias, Coro); Joel Perez (Creon, Coro); Brian Quijada (Coro); Reza Salazar (Coro); and Juan Francisco Villa (Laius, Coro).

Set in South Central LA, OEDIPUS EL REY is an electrifying new take on the Greek tragedy, written by acclaimed playwright Luis Alfaro. Oedipus is reimagined as a troubled Latino whose dreams of controlling his own destiny soar above the barbed wire of the prison where he's spent his life. But in a place where everyone is trapped-by desperation or fate, history or violence-no one man can change his story alone. Love, family and belief collide in this chilling, incredibly powerful new play that asks: what's fate, and what's just the system?

OFFICE HOUR, The New York premiere by Julia Cho and directed by Neel Keller, will begin performances on Tuesday, October 17 and run through Sunday, December 3, with an official press opening on Wednesday, November 8.

Playwright Julia Cho returns to The Public with a taut new drama about a teacher and student desperate to change the narrative of who they are and how their story ends. Gina was warned that one of her students would be a problem. Eighteen years old and strikingly odd, Dennis writes violently obscene work clearly intended to unsettle those around him. Determined to know whether he's a real threat, Gina compels Dennis to attend her office hours. But as the clock ticks down, Gina realizes that "good" versus "bad" is nothing more than a convenient illusion, and that the isolated young student in her office has learned one thing above all else: that for the powerless, the ability to terrify others is powerful indeed. Neel Keller directs this inventive, penetrating new drama about a single day that could end in tragedy or hope ? and the endless possibilities in between.

The Library at The Public will also be open nightly for food and drink, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and Joe's Pub will continue to offer some of the best music in the city. Single tickets for Illyria and The Public Theater's Mobile Unit production of The Winter's Tale will be available at a later date.

ABOUT The Public Theater:

The world-renowned 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. This fall begins The Public's Astor Anniversary Season celebrating 50 years of new work at 425 Lafayette Street and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR which opened the landmark theater in October 1967. 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 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; the Under the Radar Festival, a yearly festival celebrating diverse and cutting-edge performance from the U.S. and abroad; 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. The Public is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning acclaimed American musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 169 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics Awards, and six Pulitzer Prizes. www.publictheater.org.

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