The Public Theater Launches 2024 Spring/Summer Programming

The Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub hosted patrons, supporters, and colleagues this Tuesday to showcase the theater’s spring and summer programming for 2024. Attendees were treated to a preview of the new season’s lineup, which included a mix of cutting-edge plays, musical performances, and a bilingual musical which will debut across the city this summer.

The upcoming plays include:

The Ally: “Tony Award-winning playwright Itamar Moses (The Band’s Visit) returns to The Public with the world premiere of THE ALLY, a fierce drama that gives voice to some of the most contentious and important questions of our time.

When college professor Asaf (Josh Radnor) is asked by a student to sign a social justice manifesto, what seems at first like a simple choice instead embroils him in an increasingly complex web of conflicting agendas that challenge his allegiances as a progressive, a husband, an artist, an academic, an American, an atheist, and a Jew. With tensions at an all-time high, Asaf is forced to confront the age-old question: “If I am only for myself, what am I?”

Directed by Drama Desk Award winner Lila Neugebauer (The Wolves), THE ALLY is a passionate, provocative, and unflinching new play about the vanishing line between the personal and the political.”

Sally & Tom: “Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, the author of last season’s The Harder They Come, returns to her artistic home with an edgy dramedy that celebrates the craft of theater while taking a hard look at history.

The off-off-off-Broadway theater troupe Good Company is putting on a play about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Writer Luce is cast as Sally; her romantic partner, and the play’s director, Mike, is cast as Tom—really, people, what could possibly go wrong?

In association with Minneapolis’s acclaimed Guthrie Theater, this funny, ferocious new work is about art, politics, and the contradictions that make all of us. Directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, SALLY & TOM is an unmissable New York premiere from one of our finest and most daring playwrights.”

Jordans: “A bitingly funny, wildly imaginative new play by The Public’s Emerging Writers Group alumnus Ife Olujobi, JORDANS is a piercing exploration of assimilation, racial capitalism, success, and survival. At an overwhelmingly white workplace where appearance is everything, a long-suffering receptionist finds herself in personal, professional, and psychic jeopardy when her ruthless boss hires a hip new employee in an effort to improve the company’s image and “culture.” Suddenly, the two young, Black social climbers are forced together and torn apart by their race, ambition, and otherworldly circumstances. JORDANS is a story of identity mistaken, power subverted, and rage unleashed. Don’t miss this bold new play directed by Obie Award winner Whitney White about the true cost of “diversity” in the workplace.”

The famous Delacorte Theater is under construction this summer, forcing New York’s iconic outdoor theater performance offline for the upcoming season. Luckily, the Public Theater’s talented team of artists, directors and producers have put together a mobile musical adaptation of The Comedy of Errors, popping up across the city, for free. The play is written in English and Spanish and can be understood by audiences in either language.

From The Public Theater:

“Mobile Unit embarks on a new tour with a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. Conceived by director Rebecca Martínez and composer Julián Mesri, a member of The Public’s 2022-23 Emerging Writers Group, this new adaptation rigorously embraces music from all over Latin America in this tale of separation and joyous reunion. With songs in English and Spanish, this new musical adaptation brings an energetic vibe to this age-old tale of two sets of twins separated by stormy seas as they overcome a baffling case of mistaken identity—and the mayhem and hilarious confusion that follows. 

In partnership with NYC Parks Arts, Culture & Fun and Department of Transportation, as well as other key Mobile Unit partners, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS will pop up both outside and indoors at public plazas, parks, and community centers across the five boroughs from Tuesday, May 2 through Sunday, May 21 as part of The Public’s commitment to bringing free theater to all and deepening its engagement with communities around NYC. Following the tour to the five boroughs, a free engagement of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS will run in The Public’s Shiva Theater from Thursday, May 25 through Sunday, June 11.”