New York Shakespeare Festival

Joe's pubfounded in 1998, joe's pub is committed to reflecting the diverse community that it represents in its audiences and on its stage by programming a wide range of exceptional performances from artists across the fields of music, film, and dance, while keeping ticket prices at a minimum. In an average season, joe's pub presents approximately 700 shows for over 100,000 audience members. Since its opening, joe's pub has presented over 18,000 performances from an eclectic roster that includes top performers from broadway, cabaret, dance, world, singer-songwriter, jazz, country and indie genres, today's rising stars, and grammy award-winners.the 2023-24 joe's pub season featured nightly programming with a mix of new and familiar faces such as justin vivian bond, bridget everett, toshi reagon, shaina taub, jake blount, lee jin ah, and eva noblezada. In october 2023, joe's pub hosted the third annual edition of habibi festival, a week-long celebration of groundbreaking artists from throughout the middle east/north african regions. Over the course of the year, vanguard resident artist angelique kidjo curated a quarterly performance series, capped off by a performance at the annual joe's pub gala.

Community programsmobile unit mobile unit reaches economic and geographic barriers to the arts by staging free professional theater productions and programs in local neighborhood venues where people with severely limited access to the arts are congregated. Mobile unit focuses on touring productions to correctional facilities, halfway houses, community centers, and other places where the most critically underserved and overlooked parts of the population are congregated. Over the years, mobile unit has served thousands of audiences with critically acclaimed productions. In 2023-2024, mobile unit built deep relationships throughout our community partnership network and undertook ambitious programming and productions which extended the impact of free shakespeare programming to diverse communities across new york city. In 2024, as a key pillar of our shakespeare offerings while the delacorte theater underwent renovation, we put a spotlight on mobile unit with our expanded 5-week tour of the comedy of errors (la comedia de errores), presented for free in nyc parks and plazas across all five boroughs.the public also continued our work with carceral partners to implement our mobile unit: in corrections program. Led by teaching artist malik work, the program engaged participants in four digital workshops accompanied by physical workbooks and materials, encouraging people throughout the new york carceral system to write and engage with shakespeare. In winter 2023, we ran a seven-week writing module at the metropolitan detention center, in which participants worked toward sharing their stories through live performance.public workspublic works partners with community organizations from all over the city to create bespoke creative programming that aims to restore and build community as a central motivation in our theater-making. Throughout the 2023-2024 season, public works continued its year-round efforts to engage our community through weekly classes, monthly social gatherings, semi-regular workshops, and opportunities to attend public theater performances. The public works team works closely with eight community partner organizations to offer this annual programming, a majority of which have engaged with the public for all or most of the program's decade-long history: children's aid (manhattan), the fortune society (queens), dreamyard (bronx), brownsville recreation center (brooklyn), domestic workers united (staten island and citywide), casita maria center for arts and education (bronx), center for family life in sunset park (brooklyn), and military resilience foundation (citywide). While the delacorte theater was not available for our annual celebratory pageant production, in summer 2024, the public remained dedicated to creating opportunities for our community to share their artmaking with one another and the people of new york city. As a culmination of our 2023-2024 programming, public works produced let's hear it for new york!, a large-scale participatory performance in which hundreds of new yorkers gathered with their neighbors in central park for a dance choreographed by tony award nominee camille a. Brown and set to the iconic new york anthem "empire state of mind" by alicia keys from the hell's kitchen original broadway cast album.

Free shakespeare in the parkfree shakespeare in the park at the delacorte theater exemplifies the public theater's mission to offer world-class productions at no cost. Since its launch, over 6 million people have attended performances featuring both rising and renowned artists. Tickets are distributed free across all five boroughs through various access-focused methods.the program was on hiatus during the 2024 season due to a major renovation of the delacorte theater. Productions will resume in 2025 upon completion of the improvements.go public!: a festival of free shakespeare in the parkduring the 2024 hiatus of shakespeare in the park, the public launched go public!, a citywide celebration of shakespeare through live and digital offerings. Highlights included:- an expanded mobile unit tour of rebecca martinez's bilingual adaptation of the comedy of errors across nyc.- a new partnership with nyc parks' movies under the stars, screening classic productions in public parks.- a summer release of pbs great performances recordings of free shakespeare in the park for at-home streaming.public shakespeare initiative - hunts point children's shakespeare ensemble (hpcse)hpcse is a year-long after-school program that introduces shakespeare to 4th-6th grade students in the south bronx. Run in partnership with the hunts point alliance for children, the program unites students from four schools and develops communication and creative skills through the study and performance of a shakespeare play. In 2023-2024, students explored hamlet, meeting three times weekly for eight months with a team of teaching artists. The program concluded with staged performances on may 17 at bronx academy for multi-media and on may 19 at the public's martinson hall, reaching an audience of roughly 500 family members, friends, and teachers.new work development & ancillary programsearly career working groupsthe public supports early-career artists with collaborative programs that nurture talent and provide resources at critical moments in their development.emerging writers group (ewg)ewg fosters artistic and professional growth for playwrights who lack traditional access to development opportunities-especially those without representation or advanced training. Writers are selected biennially for a two-year fellowship that includes a stipend, bi-weekly group sessions, and master classes with established playwrights. The residency culminates in a public spotlight series showcase. In 2023-2024, the public deepened its support for the program by:- revamping workshop and masterclass structures to meet individual needs.- increasing stipends from $7,500 to $10,000 to offset inflation.- expanding networking opportunities with industry leaders.the 2023-2025 ewg cohort includes karina billini, tomas endter, jesse jae hoon, humaira iqbal, celeste jennings, nina ki, gloria oladipo, valen-marie santos, amita sharma, and al sierra.devised theater working group (dtwg)launched in 2014, dtwg supports interdisciplinary theater-makers by offering artistic, technical, and administrative resources. Using a cohort model, 8-10 artists or collectives meet throughout the year to develop new works. The 2023 cohort included amara janae brady, dahlak brathwaite, jaime cepero, clarissa marie ligon, eli nixon, one whale's tale, camilo quiros-vsquez, and ellpetha tsivicos. Presentations ran from december 4, 2023, to june 1, 2024.joe's pub working group (jpwg)jpwg supports 4-6 early-career musicians and performance artists annually, offering curatorial support, rehearsal space, and administrative resources. Artists are selected for their strong narrative voices and encouraged to explore theatrical storytelling and songwriting. The 2023-2024 jpwg cohort included ezraa warda, firas zreik, ellen winter, and queen esther.new york voicesnew york voices was created in response to the decline in album sales and aims to support musicians in developing new live performance work. The program commissions at least three artists per year, helping them develop a full show, access funding, and expand touring potential. Artists also receive finishing funds to complete their projects. The 2023-2024 cohort included sarah elizabeth charles, dan fischback, and omar offendum.artists-in-residencethe public theater offers salaried residencies to give artists time, space, and resources to develop their work.- writer-in-residence: suzan-lori parks- artist-in-residence: shaina taub- ntozake shange playwright-in-residence: erika dickerson-despenza in partnership with barnard college)- residency with the apothetae: a two-year collaboration with actor and disability rights advocate gregg mozgala and his company to explore shakespeare through a disability lens.supported by creatives rebuild new york (crny), the public also employed ife olujobi, ryan j. Haddad, and julian goldhagen as full-time resident artists from 2022-2024. These artists worked closely with leadership to integrate activism into the theater's operations while pursuing their own creative projects.