Off-Broadway's The Public Theater has revealed its 2022-2023 season, which will include two world premieres from Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks, a revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, and more.
"In these tumultuous times, we urgently need the voices of our artists," says Public Artistic Director Oskar Eustis in a statement. "They alone can provide vivid, three-dimensional looks at what we are and what we might become. The artists who make up The Public's season are prophetic voices, who will give us sustenance, vision, and provocation."
The season will kick off with the New York premiere of Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge, running September 24-October 16. Conceived by Greig Sargeant with Elevator Repair Service, the cast will feature Daphne Gaines, Gavin Price, Greig Sargeant, Christopher-Rashee Stevenson, and Ben Williams. John Collins will direct the play, which presents the 1965 debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr. while imagining of a conversation between Baldwin and A Raisin in the Sun playwright Lorraine Hansberry.
Following will be a revival of Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, running September 27-November 6 under the direction of Tony nominee Robert O'Hara. Hansberry investigates the American dream, racism, housing discrimination, and economic strife through the story of a Black family newly arrived in Chicago. in this classic play.
Madeline Sayet's Where We Belong will make its New York premiere October 28-November 27 with Sayet starring. Mei Ann Teo will direct the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company production, produced in association with Folger Shakespeare Library. Mohegan artist Sayet examines her relationship to Shakespeare an her ancestors, and investigates greater questions about migration, colonialism, and connection in this solo piece.
Plays for the Plague Year by Pulitzer-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks will make its world premiere November 4-November 27. Parks wrote a play a day throughout the COVID shutdown, creating an intimate chronicle of what one family and people as a community faced during that time. Niegel Smith will direct.
A musical adaptation of the 1972 film The Harder They Come, featuring a book by Parks and songs by Jimmy Cliff will make its world premiere at the Off-Broadway company in Winter 2023. The work, set to feature music supervision by Kenny Seymour, choreography by Edgar Godineaux, direction b y Tony Taccone, and co-direction by Sergio Trujillo, follows young singer Ivan, newly arrived to Jamaica, as his career takes off. Ivan discovers how the industry really works and takes a defiant stand, which threatens everything he's achieved.
Next up is Ryan J. Haddad's Dark Disabled Stories, produced by The Bushwick Starr and presented by The Public. The world premiere play, set to be directed by Jordan Fein, is an autobiographical play filled with vignettes about strangers Haddad has encountered in a city which is not built for his walker or cerebral palsy. The work explores implicit ableism and the assumptions we make, with all performances featuring American Sign Language, open captions, and audio description.
James Ijames, whose recent Pulitzer-winning play Fat Ham is currently running at the Public, will return in spring 2023 with the world premiere of Good Bones, directed by Saheem Ali. The work explores gentrification and the price of the American dream through the story of Aisha and Travis, a couple with an opportunity to revitalize Aisha's childhood neighborhood, and the choices that haunt Aisha that she must reckon with.
Lastly, Shadow/Land, to be directed by Candis C. Jones also in spring 2023, will receive a live production following its previous premiere as an audio play. Mother and daughter Magalee and Ruth must deal with questions of legacy in this first installment of a 10-play cycle about the Hurricane Katrina diaspora and the ongoing currents of disaster, displacement, and renewal in New Orleans.
Outside of The Public's east village home, their Mobile Unit will present a new adaptation of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors conceived by director Rebecca Martinez and composer Julián Mesri that includes music from all over Latin America, including songs in both English and Spanish. The touring musical will be presented in spring 2023.
Joe's Pub has dedicated its 2022-2023 Vanguard Residency to the memory of beloved vocal coach Barbara Maier Gustern, with performers set to include Gustern's students and collaborators. Murray Hill will play the residency in September, with Machine Dazzle following in October. Also planned for the space are performances from Bridget Everett, Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery, Daniel J. Watts and Nick Blaemire, and more.
The Public's Under the Radar Festival will also make a return, with performances scheduled for January 4–22, 2023.
For more information, visit PublicTheater.org.
