Public/Private

My Life with Joe Papp at The Public Theater

Gail Merrifield Papp

• Publisher: Applause
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781493074877
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre History & Criticism

Blending a behind-the-scenes history about New York City's Public Theater with an engrossing account of her life working alongside her husband, the Public's founder Joe Papp, Public/Private is Gail Merrifield Papp's enthralling and highly entertaining memoir about the legendary theatrical institution. Opening with its early days in the Sixties, her narrative spans the decades-long theatrical partnership the couple enjoyed until Joe's death in 1991. During that time, the Public staged hundreds of productions, ranging from free Shakespeare in Central Park to new plays, such as Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, and musicals like Hair and A Chorus Line—an extraordinary body of work that launched the careers of dozens of actors, includingJames Earl Jones, Colleen Dewhurst, Gloria Foster, Morgan Freeman, Raúl Juliá, Kevin Kline, George C. Scott, Martin Sheen, Meryl Streep, and Diane Venora,all of whom make an appearance in the book.
In a witty conversational style, Gail Papp paints a comprehensive picture of the ways that the Public was driven by Joe's ambition to create a democratic theater whose artists and audiences would reflect the city's population. Also highlighted are unfamiliar aspects of his many battles with the establishment, from tilts with Robert Moses to theater critics. The scourge of AIDS is also documented in the form of people close to Joe and Gail, and in the toll it exacted on Joe's son, Tony. In recounting setbacks and frustrations alongside moments of passionate artistry and theatrical innovation, Gail's personal remembrances lend the narrative a keen, emotional edge which will captivate readers. At a time when America remains divided over issues of equality, identity, and freedom of expression, Public/Private is an important chronicle of how the Public Theater became a transformative beacon for social change—and of the man who created it.

Table of contents

• Epigraph: “While Memory Holds a Seat”
• Author’s Note
• 1 Greenwich Village, 1991
• 2 Greenwich Village, 1965
• 3 The Great Northern Hotel
• 4 A Manifesto
• 5 “Tell Pandarus to Say It to the Audience”
• 6 On the Way to the Mobile Theater
• 7 A Radical Change in Mission
• 8 The Astor Library
• 9 A Blizzard
• 10 The Public Theater
• 11 A Different Sound in Music
• 12 The “Naked” Hamlet
• 13 An Equal Opportunity Employer
• 14 Birth of the Play Department
• 15 Dr. Spock’s Petition
• 16 Malacology
• 17 Buried in the Berkeley Hills
• 18 An Evening at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater
• 19 The Rocky Road to Broadway
• 20 How I Spent Shakespeare’s 408th Birthday
• 21 Traveling with Joe
• 22 A Bastion of Bourgeois Patronage
• 23 When James Earl Jones Played King Lear
• 24 Living Together
• 25 A Three-Way Oath of Integrity
• 26 Family Affairs
• 27 Our Haimish Wedding
• 28 The Public’s First Cabaret
• 29 Handling Controversial Issues
• 30 Country Matters
• 31 Irreconcilable Differences
• 32 When Joe Sang at The Ballroom
• 33 An Affinity for Comedy and Tragedy
• 34 Exploring Parameters
• 35 Feuding with Critics
• 36 In the Public Eye
• 37 “The Great Theater Massacre of 1982”
• 38 A Gondolier in Brooklyn
• 39 A Musical I Wish We’d Done
• 40 “TzefarDEYah!”
• 41 “WAIT! Go Get the Pictures to Show Them!”
• 42 A Magisterial View
• 43 Guess Who’s Coming for Cocktails?
• 44 When the Downtrodden Become Uptrodden
• 45 Who Cares If You Do Another Season?
• 46 for colored girls
• 47 “Hic et ubique”—Hamlet in Eastern Europe
• 48 “Woo’t drink up eisel?”
• 49 Undying Hatred of Nazis at Tea Time
• 50 The Normal Heart
• 51 Life, Loss, and Redress in 1986
• 52 The Belasco Project
• 53 Hoping against Hope
• 54 The Coach’s View
• 55 Across Space and Time
• 56 A Playwright’s Final Curtain Call
• 57 The Idea of Continuity
• 58 The Crucible of Memory
• 59 A Globe Theater Birdhouse
• 60 Epilogue, or, The Continuation
• Appendix: Featured Actors, Choreographers, Composers, Directors, and Playwrights, 1956 to 1991
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author