
Photo: © Estate of Barbra Walz
JOSEPH PAPP
Joseph Papp was the legendary producer/director who established non-traditional casting on the American stage, brought us Free Shakespeare in the Park, and founded The Public Theater as a platform for new voices.
The Public’s earliest successes, including Hair, A Chorus Line, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Sticks and Bones, and The Normal Heart, were followed by George C. Wolfe’s acclaimed productions of Top Dog/Underdog, and Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk.
Launching award-winning works like Fun Home, Hamilton, and Sweat, The Public Theater, now under Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, continues to fulfill Joe Papp’s manifesto: “The Public is Theater Of, By, and For All People.”
Gail
Merrifield
Papp
THE JOSEPH PAPP PUBLIC THEATER
“For anyone that was lucky enough to work at the Public Theater at its very beginnings, they immediately discovered that the essential person to get to know was not necessarily Joe Papp, but his personal and creative muse, right hand and left sounding board and advisor in all things political and theatrical, Gail Merrifield Papp. Gail was the head of play development throughout the years when playwrights like David Rabe, Thomas Babe, Elizabeth Swados, Larry Kramer and Ntozake Shange, among many others, were finding their theatrical homes thru Gail . . . and playwrights felt unusually safe with her and came to depend and trust her incisive responses to their work.”

Photo: © Estate of Barbra Walz






PUBLIC THEATER POSTERS BY PAUL DAVIS
As Director of New Plays and Musicals Development at the Public Theater, Gail was responsible for some of its best-remembered productions. Partners in both work and life, Gail and Joe married in 1976.
More than anyone else, Gail can pull back the curtain on the most dynamic story in New York theater’s recent history.

Gail and Joe Papp before a preview at the Delacorte Theater
Photo: George E. Joseph
Author’s note
from the forthcoming memoir

New York City
January 18, 2019