PRESS CONTACT: [email protected] // 212-539-8624 THE PUBLIC THEATER BEGINS PERFORMANCES FOR NEW YORK REVIVAL OF A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29
Written by Tony Kushner Directed by Oskar Eustis
Joseph Papp Free Preview on October 29 October 23, 2019 – The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) will begin performances for the New York revival of A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY, written by Pulitzer Prize- winning playwright Tony Kushner and directed by Oskar Eustis, with a Joseph Papp Free Preview performance on Tuesday, October 29 in The Public’s Anspacher Theater. This scorching new version of Kushner’s first play, originally scheduled to close on December 8, has been extended through Sunday, December 15, with an official press opening on Tuesday, November 19.
The complete cast for A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY features Linda Emond (Annabella Gotchling), Michael Esper (Vealtninc Husz), Grace Gummer (Paulinka Erdnuss), Jonathan Hadary (Xillah), Nikki M. James (Agnes Eggling), Crystal Lucas-Perry (Zillah), Nadine Malouf (Rosa Malek), Mark Margolis (Gottfried Swetts), Estelle Parsons (Die Älte), Michael Urie (Gregor Bazwald), and Max Woertendyke (Emil Traum).
Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, reunites with longtime collaborator and Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis in a scorching new version of his first play, the prescient 1985 masterwork suggesting the possibility of the Reagan counter-revolution eventually giving rise to American fascism. Agnes, an actress in Weimar Germany, and her cadre of passionate, progressive friends, are torn between protest, escape, and survival as the world they knew crumbles around them. Her story is interrupted by an American woman enraged by the cruelty of the Reagan administration, and a new character, grappling with the anxiety, distraction, hope, and hopelessness of an artist facing the once unthinkable rise of authoritarianism in modern America. Funny, brilliant, and devastating, this new production of A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY revisits an epic work that takes a piercing look at the vulnerability of American democracy, and demands to know: when the devil takes up residence in your country…will you act? A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY will feature scenic design by David Rockwell, co-costume design by Susan Hilferty and Sarita Fellows, lighting design by John Torres, sound design by Bray Poor, projection design by Lucy Mackinnon, and fight direction by Thomas Schall. TONY KUSHNER’s (Playwright) other plays include Angels in America; Caroline, or Change, a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori; and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. He is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award, and the Olivier Award among others. He wrote the screenplays for Steven Spielberg’s Munich and Lincoln. In 2012, Kushner was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris. OSKAR EUSTIS (Director) has served as the artistic director of The Public Theater since 2005, after serving as the artistic director at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI from 1994 to 2005. Throughout his career, Eustis has been dedicated to the development of new work that speaks to the great issues of our time and has worked with countless artists in pursuit of that aim, including Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, David Henry Hwang, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Richard Nelson, Rinne Groff, Tarell Alvin McCraney, and Lisa Kron. He is currently a professor at New York University and has held professorships at UCLA, Middlebury College, and Brown University. ABOUT THE PUBLIC THEATER: THE PUBLIC is theater of, by, and for all people. Artist-driven, radically inclusive, and fundamentally democratic, The Public continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation’s first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public’s wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, The Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City’s five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Studio, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe’s Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 178 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 56 Lortel Awards, 34 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes. publictheater.org TICKET INFORMATION
A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY begins performances in The Public’s Anspacher Theater with a Joseph Papp Free Preview performance on Tuesday, October 29. This New York revival has been extended one week and will run through Sunday, December 15, with an official press opening on Tuesday, November 19.
Continuing The Public’s mission to make great theater accessible to all, The Public’s Joseph Papp Free Preview initiative will continue this fall; free tickets to the performance on Tuesday, October 29 will be available beginning Wednesday, October 23 via TodayTix mobile lottery, and on Tuesday, October 29 via the lottery in the lobby of The Public Theater at Astor Place, with entries starting at 11:00 a.m. and winners drawn at 12:00 p.m. (Noon).
Public Theater Partner and Supporter tickets are available now. Single tickets, starting at $75, can be accessed by calling (212) 967-7555, visiting publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street.
The performance schedule is Tuesday through Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (There is an additional performance at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 27. There is no 1:00 p.m. performance on Saturday, November 2 or Sunday, December 8. There is no 7:00 p.m. performance on Thursday, November 28.)
The Open Captioned performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 23. The Audio Described performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 7. The American Sign Language Interpreted performance will be announced at a later date. For more information, please visit publictheater.org/accessibility.
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