Joe Papp
| Joseph Papp | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Joseph Papirofsky June 22, 1921 Brooklyn, New York, US |
| Died | October 31, 1991 (aged 70) New York City, New York, US |
| Occupation | Producer, director |
| Spouse(s) | Peggy Marie Bennion Gail Bovard Merrifield |
| Children | Tony, Miranda |
Joseph "Joe" Papp (June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991) was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in downtown New York. There, Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new creations, both plays and musicals. Among numerous examples of these creations were the works of David Rabe, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Charles Gordone's No Place to Be Somebody (the first off-Broadway play to win the Pulitzer Prize), and Papp's production of Michael Bennett's Pulitzer Prize–winning musical, A Chorus Line.
Papp was born Joseph Papirofsky in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of Yetta (née Miritch), a seamstress, and Samuel Papirofsky, a trunkmaker. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. (The 2010 documentary film Joe Papp in Five Acts says his mother was a Lithuanian Jew, and his father a Polish Jew.) He was a high school student of Harlem Renaissance playwright Eulalie Spence.
Papp founded the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1954, with the aim of making Shakespeare's works accessible to the public. In 1957, he was granted the use of Central Park for free productions of Shakespeare's plays. This legacy of Papp has continued at the open-air Delacorte Theatre every summer in Central Park.
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