How Theater Transforms the World with Mandy Patinkin, Kathryn Grody and Gail Merrifield Papp

New York City’s legendary Public Theatre staged hundreds of society-changing plays such as for colored girls and The Normal Heart, and musicals such as Hair and A Chorus Line, launching the careers of dozens of actors including Mandy Patinkin, James Earl Jones and Meryl Streep. It was the creation of the late Joe Papp, founder of New York City’s free Shakespeare Festival and his wife Gail Merrifield Papp, who developed new plays and musicals at the Public. Join Merrifield Papp, author of the memoir Public/Private: My Life with Joe Papp at The Public Theater, and longtime friends Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody (Joe Papp signed their ketubah!) for a conversation about “how The Public Theater became a transformative beacon for social change and of the couple who created it,” and the Yiddishkeit that bonded Papp, Patinkin and Grody. A special presentation of MomentLive!, a division of Moment Magazine.

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