Oskar Eustis Named Public Theater's New Artistic Director

Oskar Eustis will be the next artistic director of the Public Theater. He will take over in the spring for current producer George C. Wolfe, who announced in February he would be stepping down from his position.

"The Public is essential because it embodies the best in the American democratic cultural tradition," Eustis said in a statement. "It's commitment to placing boundary-breaking new work next to the work of Shakespeare and letting them talk to each other is tremendously important. The Public's determination to create a radically inclusive theaterical center, for both artists and audiences, has changed the face of the American theater. I want to thank the Board for asking me to take on this task; it's the greatest challenge and opportunity of my life."

Eustis is in his 11th season as artistic director of the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. His directing credits there include Julius Caesar, Slavs!, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Voir Dire; Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches, Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika, Into the Woods, Ambition Facing West, The Music Man, Nine Armenians, As You Like It, The Cryptogram, Meshugah, The Cider House Rules, Part I&2, Homebody/Kabul, Copenhagen, The Long Christmas Ride Home and The Ruby Sunrise.

In 1980 Eustis commissioned Emily Mann's Execution of Justice and went on to direct its world premiere at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. He also commissioned Tony Kushner's Angels in America at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco and directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Eustis has worked as a director, dramaturg and artistic director for theaters around the world, including the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, where he was resident director and dramaturg from 1981 through 1986 and artistic director until 1989, when he moved to the Mark Taper Forum as associate artistic director. He was also an associate professor of theater at UCLA's School of Film, Television and Theatre. In New York he directed off-Broadway productions of Day Standing on Its Head and Thunder Knocking on the Door.

The Public Theater as the Shakespeare Workshop was founded by Joseph Papp. The theater produces new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare and other classics in its headquarters on Lafayette Street the former Astor library, which opened as the Public Theater in 1967 with the world premiere of the musical Hair and at the Delacorte Theatre, its permanent summertime home of free Shakespeare in Central Park. Papp handpicked JoAnne Akalaitis as his successor in the early 1990s; however, the Public's board of directors dismissed her in 1993. Wolfe has been the Public Theater producer ever since.

Wolfe, who began as producer of the Public in March of 1993, was a controversial figure at the Public. He is considered a visionary director and is often credited with much of the success of the Public, nurturing and directing acclaimed Broadway shows including Angels in America: Millennium Approaches for which he won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, Angels in America: Perestroika, Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk which he also conceived, Topdog/Underdog and Elaine Stritch at Liberty. During his tenure, a total of 11 productions transferred from off-Broadway to Broadway and the Public earned a substantial 30 Tony Award nominations, eight Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Topdog/Underdog. However, Wolfe's tenure has also been marked by hardship. The non-profit lost a lot of money with productions of On the Town which transferred from Central Park's Delacorte Theatre to Broadway's Gershwin Theatre in 1998 and The Wild Party. In 2002 Larry E. Condon and Dorothy Cullman, the two largest donors to the Joseph Papp Public Theater, resigned from the theater's board of directors over concerns about the Public's financial prospectus. Financial difficulties also caused the Public to cut its free Shakespeare in Central Park productions from two to one. Mara Manus was brought on to serve as executive director and oversee much of the theater's financials.