Joe Papp in Five Acts

Overview

Joe Papp, the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival and, subsequently, The Public Theater—arguably the most important theatre in North America—is profiled in this documentary that neither sanctifies nor vilifies him. He brought us free Shakespeare in the Park, Hair and A Chorus Line, and nurtured many of America’s greatest playwrights, directors and actors. His complex personality and mercurial behavior are much in evidence and spoken of with frankness through interviews with some of America’s most celebrated artists, including Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Kevin Kline, and James Earl Jones.

Cast

Olympia Dukakis

Self

David Hare

Self

David Henry Hwang

Self

James Earl Jones

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Larry Kramer

Self

N/A

Joseph Papp

Self

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David Rabe

Self

Meryl Streep

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Christopher Walken

Self

George C. Wolfe

Self