The Public Theater Announces Post-Show Discussions for JUAN AND JOHN

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will present post-show discussions following select performances of JUAN AND JOHN, the first play of the 2009-2010 Public LAB season. The Public LAB Speaker Series, held every Tuesday following Public LAB shows, consists of engaging conversations with the artists and notable panelists. JUAN AND JOHN begins performances on Tuesday, December 1 and runs through December 20 with an official press opening on Sunday, December 13.

In JUAN AND JOHN, it's 1965 and there's a riot going on. Watts and Vietnam are burning. So is La Republica Dominicana. In San Francisco, it's the Giants vs. the Dodgers. Juan Marichal vs. John Roseboro. Cain vs. Abel. Roger Guenveur Smith and Marc Anthony Thompson, the Obie-winning creators of A Huey P. Newton Story, return to The Public with new work inspired by ancient themes: rage, retribution, and redemption. Tickets are $10 for all performances and include free admission to post-show discussions.

On Tuesday, December 8, immediately following the 7 p.m. performance, Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Margo Jefferson will talk with Obie award-winning collaborators Roger Guenveur Smith and Marc Anthony Thompson about their nearly two decades of creating theater together.

On Tuesday, December 15, immediately following the 7 p.m. performance, a panel on "Race and America's National Pastime" will feature William C. Rhoden (New York Times sportswriter and author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete), Rob Ruck (Historian at the University of Pittsburgh and author of The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic) and Roger Guenveur Smith, moderated by Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director of The Public Theater.

Public LAB, conceived in association with LAByrinth Theater Company, is an annual series of new plays that lets New Yorkers see more of the work they love from The Public in scaled-down productions. Public LAB allows The Public to support more artists, and gives audiences immediate access to new plays in development. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported Public LAB with one of the largest grants ever received by the Public Theater.

Roger Guenveur Smith has created and performed A Huey P. Newton Story (OBIE Award), Christopher Columbus 1992, Inside the Creole Mafia (w. Mark Broyard) and Iceland at The Public Theater. His off-Broadway credits include Frederick Douglass Now, Who Killed Bob Marley? and In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat. His off-Broadway acting credits include Three Sisters, That Serious He-Man Ball, Suenos and It's A Man's World. His regional works include The Resurrection of Lady Lester, The Task, Agamemnon, The Birthday Party, Balm In Gilead and The Balcony. His film and TV credits include Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Get On the Bus, He Got Game, Eve's Bayou, King of New York, Deep Cover, All About the Benjamins, Hamlet, Fighting, American Gangster, "A Huey P. Newton Story" (Peabody Award), "Oz," "K Street," "A Different World," "All My Children" and "Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives." He is the recipient of AUDELCO, Helen Hayes, Barrymore and Ovation Awards, as well as four L.A. Weekly and three NAACP Image Awards.

MARGO JEFFERSON is a New York-based cultural critic. Her book, On Michael Jackson, was published by Vintage in 2006. She was a book, theater and arts critic for The New York Times for thirteen years and received a Pulitzer Prize in 1995. Her reviews and essays have also appeared in Bookforum, The Washington Post, Salon, The Nation, Grand Street, Vogue, O, and Newsweek. She wrote and performed a theater piece, Sixty Minutes in Negroland, at The Cherry Lane Theater in 2001 and The Culture Project in 2002.. She now teaches Literary Studies at Eugene Lang College and Writing at Columbia University

WILLIAM C. RHODEN has written "The Sports of The Times" column since 1990. He won a Peabody Award for Broadcasting as a writer of the HBO documentary Journey of the African-American Athlete and won an Emmy this year as a writer on the documentary Breaking The Huddle. He has written two critically acclaimed books: Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete and Third and A Mile: The Trials and Triumphs of The Black Quarterback. His work has been included in a number of anthologies including The Best American Sports Writing.

ROB RUCK is a Senior Lecturer in the History Department at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh, The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic, the co-author with Steve Nelson and James R. Barrett of Steve Nelson, American Radical, and co-author with Maggie Patterson and Michael Weber of Rooney: A Sporting Life (2010). His documentary work includes the Mid-Atlantic Emmy-winning Kings on the Hill: Baseball's Forgotten Men and The Republic of Baseball: Dominican Giants of the American Game. He is currently finishing Whiteout: Blacks, Latinos, and Baseball (Beacon Press 2010). Ruck was the guest historian for the creation of the Western Pennsylvania Sport History Museum. He was also a voting member of the special committee that elected eighteen individuals from black and Caribbean baseball to the Hall of Fame in 2006 and served as an advisor for "Viva Baseball," the permanent exhibit on Latin baseball at the Hall of Fame. He and his wife Maggie Patterson live in Pittsburgh.

Marc Anthony THOMPSON first collaborated with Roger Guenveur Smith on Christopher Columbus 1992 at The Public. Other collaborations include Iceland, The Watts Towers Project, Who Killed Bob Marley? and A Huey P. Newton Story (OBIE Award). His film scores include Spark, Urbania and Brother To Brother, and his songs have been heard in numerous film and television projects. He composed for the television shows "Everyday People," "Behind the Steps" and "Riker's High." Mr. Thompson has toured extensively with Bruce Springsteen's Sessions Band and has released three albums with Chocolate Genius; a fourth is scheduled for a February 2010 release

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 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, 149 Obies, 40 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 52 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; and, most recently, the current Tony Award-winning revival of Hair. www.publictheater.org.

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