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Explores the goals and techniques of Papp's famous Public Theater in New York. Croyden, Papp and various writers discuss issues such as plot development, the role of women playwrights, and the persistence of parent-child relationships as play material.

\"Every summer, the Delacorte Theatre hosts one of the city's most popular theatrical traditions, the New York Shakespeare Festival, fondly known as Shakespeare in the Park. A brainchild of Public Theatre/NYSF founder Joe Papp, the four-decade-old tradition of staging the classics outdoors began when Papp pulled his Mobile Theatre into Central Park in 1957 and performed for free. Five years later, Papp, seeking a permanent home for his troupe, locked horns with parks commissioner Robert Moses, who demanded admission be charged to cover maintenance fees for the theatre in the park, insinuating Papp's 'radical background' had something to do with his quest for a free theatre. Unwilling to renege on his vision, Papp stood his ground, took Moses to court, and from this very public battle of wills won the right to build the Delacorte Theatre, which this [1999-2000] season opened a new chapter in its history with a $4.35 million renovation.\" (ENTERTAINMENT DESIGN) The history and renovation of the Delacorte Theatre are briefly discussed.

\"A Chorus Line\" was a prime example of a practice in which Mr. Papp engaged often and well, one in which he was a pioneer: moving a play to Broadway from Off Broadway. In 1972, he achieved perhaps his greatest success with transferred works, winning both major Tony Awards: best play, for \"Sticks and Bones,\" [David Rabe]'s harrowing tale of a Vietnam War veteran, and best musical, for a tuneful version of Shakespeare's \"Two Gentlemen of Verona,\" which starred [Raul Julia] and was first performed in Central Park. The next year, \"That Championship Season\" won the [Tony] for best play. At Lincoln Center attendance declined. In 1977, in his fourth and most successful season -- with productions of \"The Threepenny Opera,\" \"The Cherry Orchard\" and \"Agamemnon\" at the Vivian Beaumont Theater and Mr. Rabe's \"Streamers\" at the Mitzi I. Newhouse Theater -- Mr. Papp suddenly announced that he was leaving Lincoln Center. He declared that he felt \"trapped in an institutional structure both artistically and fiscally.\" [Joseph Papp] in his office at the Public Theater last year. (Cori Wells Braun) (pg. A1); 1959: Joseph Papp watching a rehearsal of \"[Julius Caesar]\" alongside Belvedere Lake in Central Park. (The New York Times); 1956: Jack Cannon and [Colleen Dewhurst] in \"The Taming of the Shrew.\" (Avery Willard); 1976: Janet League, left, and [Ntozake Shange] in \"For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.\"; 1990: Mr. Papp joined cast members on the stage of the Shubert Theater before the final performance of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical \"A Chorus Line,\" the longest-running show in Broadway history. (Sara Krulwich/The New York Times); 1985: D. W. Moffett portrays an AIDS sufferer in [Larry Kramer]'s impassioned drama \"The Normal Heart\" at the Public Theater. (Martha Swope); 1967: The New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater in lower Manhattan is formally dedicated. (Jack Manning/The New York Times) (pg. D19)

While the Shakespeare scholarship industry thrives, the art of producing and performing his plays seems to be in a state of decline in America's cultural capital. London is awash in Shakespeare year-round - at the Royal Shakespeare Company, at Shakespeare's Globe and at the National Theater - but his plays are performed only rarely on New York's largest stages. The two truly notable Shakespeare stagings seen here recently - \"King Lear\" starring Ian McKellen and \"Macbeth\" with Patrick Stewart - both came courtesy of the Royal Shakespeare Company. All praise to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which played host to both productions (\"Macbeth\" later had a brief Broadway run) and regularly imports acclaimed international productions of classical theater. There was no Shakespeare on any of the five stages at the Public in the last season, and none is on the schedule for the coming season. The first production announced for next summer's Shakespeare in the Park is actually Euripides's \"Bacchae.\" (And this year the hot ticket in Central Park was not \"Hamlet\" but \"Hair.\") In 2002 the Public shed the \"New York Shakespeare Festival\" designation, at least for general branding purposes. It was a cosmetic change, but one that seems to reflect a declining emphasis on the company's Bardic roots.

Announced late last month with great fanfare by Mayor Bloomberg at Joe's Pub in the Public Theater - fittingly, the company [Joseph Papp] founded in the 1960s - the festival is expected to draw thousands of theatergoers hungry for Latino-oriented productions. Running through May 13, TeatroStageFest will feature such local companies as INTAR, IATI Theater, Loco7 and the Bronx's Pregones Theater alongside visiting groups from Spain, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina. A total of eight productions will be presented in six Manhattan venues. Among the foreign companies participating are Asociacin Proyecto Hamlet Colombia Company, which will present a Latin version of \"Hamlet,\" the Spanish dance troupe of Marta Carrasco, and Argentine company Teatro Timbre 4, which performs the dark comedy \"La Omisin de la Familia Coleman (The Coleman Family's Omission).\"

As a Navy flight engineer on a B-24 and the pilot trying to land on a deserted Japanese airstrip, [Joseph Papp] held his parachute out a waist hatch and pulled the rip cord while another crew member did the same on the other side. \"I went to her hut and right there inside it was a Singer sewing machine made in my hometown of South Bend,\" Joseph says. \"And the woman pulled out a Sears & Roebuck Catalog and had me point to the pattern I wanted.\" Joseph Papp of South Bend holds the silk dress that he had made for his daughter [Barbara] out of his World War II parachute. Tribune Photo/ SHAYNA BRESLIN; This is the silk dress made out of a World War II parachute. Tribune Photo/ SHAYNA BRESLIN; Photo: c_Joepapp082406a.jpeg; c_Joepapp082406b.jpeg

The Joseph Papp/New York Shakespeare Festival Archive is valued highly by researchers for its historical significance and comprehensive scope. While this collection is a valuable resource to the researcher, the lessons learned during its initial preservation have proved to be of special value to the Billy Rose Theatre Collection as an archival enterprise. During the planning and execution of the Papp project, participants documented the logistics of its administration, and their experience enabled them to develop a benchmark for future large-scale projects. The completion of the project has given those involved the opportunity to share what they learned about processing, cataloging, and preserving the archive.