Celebrating the Public at 50 with a showing of Illyria and talkback with Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman

Join The Public and VP for a matinee performance of Illyria, followed by a panel discussion with Andrew Berman, Executive Director of Village Preservation, to celebrate the former Astor Library’s landmark designation, renovation, and reuse as The Public Theater, as told through Tony Award winner Richard Nelson’s play about a forgotten chapter of The Public Theater’s history. We will discuss the impact that Joe Papp and his ideas had on the nature of preservation, the neighborhood he loved, and the need for a Public Theater.

In the play, it is 1958, and New York City is in the midst of a major building boom. A young Joe Papp and his colleagues face betrayals, self-inflicted wounds, and anger from the city’s powerful elite as they continue their free Shakespeare productions in Central Park. From the creator of the most celebrated family plays of the last decade comes a drama about a family held together by the simple and incredibly complicated belief that the theater, and the city, belong to all of us.