10. The Public Theater
The Public is technically an Off-Broadway venue, but it has ties to the Off-Off-Broadway community. Like the Off-Off-Broadway movement the Public’s founder, Joseph Papp, used many innovative spaces in the theater’s early years.
Papp’s first production of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew took place in the East River Amphitheater in the John V. Lindsay East River Park in 1956. He continued to produce theatre in unique spaces. Papp eventually moved his productions uptown to the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, where Shakespeare in the Park still runs annually every summer.
Papp finally moved his work to where it lives today, The Public Theater which houses five theaters and Joe’s Pub, a cabaret space. The Library Bar is an homage to the fact that the space used to be the Astor Place Library, the first library in New York.
Currently running at the public is The Total Bent by the creators of the Tony Award winning show, Passing Strange.
Hopefully this inspires some experimentation with your theatrical palette!
Next check out some other Shakespearean locations around the city and our exploration of repurposed theaters.