11/19/2023 0 Comments Shakespeare in the park new haven![]() In the seventies, The New York Shakespeare Festival expanded into television production with David Rabe's STICKS AND BONES and several Shakespeare plays, then into motion pictures with adaptations of THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE (1983) and PLENTY (1985). Papp was ever seeking new audiences for the theater, which he believed to be a powerful social force. During the next four years, the New York Shakespeare Festival produced IN THE BOOM BOOM ROOM, SHORT EYES, and THE THREEPENNY OPERA, among others, and achieved both notoriety and acclaim for its innovative staging of classics and production of new, often controversial plays. In 1974, the Festival was invited to become a constituent of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Papp expanded the Festival into the areas of dance, music and poetry, producing new plays by young playwrights that reflected contemporary issues. The New York Shakespeare Festival earned an international reputation for theatrical innovation and received numerous awards. It was also home to many actors who found recognition through their association with the Festival, such as Colleen Dewhurst, James Earl Jones, Raul Julia, Kevin Kline, and Meryl Streep.ĭuring the seventies, the New York Shakespeare Festival's production schedule became increasingly prolific, moving many productions to Broadway, most notably TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, A CHORUS LINE, THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON, and FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE (WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF). The Public Theater became the administrative home of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the laboratory for many original plays and musicals by David Rabe, Elizabeth Swados, Thomas Babe, Miguel Piñero, and many others. The Public Theater was inaugurated in 1967 with the production of the musical HAIR. ![]() ![]() Papp then added to the New York Shakespeare Festival's mission a new mandate to produce new American plays. In 1965, the New York Shakespeare Festival purchased the landmark Astor Library building on Lafayette Street, and the city funded its conversion into the new Public Theater. He created the Mobile Theater, which toured the public schools, religious institutions, and civic organizations. During the sixties, Papp extended the reach of the New York Shakespeare Festival by bringing Shakespeare to the outer boroughs of New York City and the tri-state area. He solicited support from foundations, corporations, political officials, and individual philanthropists. Papp relentlessly promoted the concept of free Shakespeare. On that site they constructed the Delacorte Theater, which opened in 1962. In 1957, the New York Shakespeare Festival flatbed truck, which toured the city parks and playgrounds with performances of Shakespeare, broke down near Belvedere Lake in Central Park. Eventualy, Papp won a court battle with New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses to keep his Shakespeare productions free to the public. During the fifties, Papp fought to obtain financial support from the City of New York in order to establish a subsidized, free Shakespearean theater. The original aim was to cultivate and encourage interest in Shakespeare and classic drama, to present an annual Shakespeare festival, and to build an Elizabethan-style stage to present Shakespeare's works. ![]() It was initially chartered as the Shakespeare Workshop, an actors' workshop presenting Shakespeare and his Elizabethan contemporaries free of charge in the basement of the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church and in the Heckscher Theater. Joseph Papp founded the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1954 in New York City. The records also reveal Papp's ideas for productions and seasonal planning, special programs such as the Mobile Theater and the School Tour, his plans for the future of the Festival, as well as his reactions to various causes affecting the theater and social causes in general, such as the NEA controversy.įrom the description of Administrative office files. The records also document Papp's fight with Robert Moses over free Shakespeare in the Park, the acquisition and restoration of the Astor Library to become the Public Theater, the fiscal crisis of the 1970's and the NYSF at Lincoln Center. The Administrative Office files document the earliest activities of Joseph Papp, including the formation of the New York Shakespeare Festival. ![]()
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