The Public Theater Mobile Unit is a reinvention of Joseph Papp’s Mobile Shakespeare, which he began in 1957. The Mobile Unit evolved into the New York Shakespeare Festival, and ultimately became The Public Theater.
Joseph Papp had a simple idea: Shakespeare belongs to everyone.
This idea remains at the heart of the Public Theater’s work to this day. The Mobile Unit presents free Shakespeare to prisons, homeless shelters, centers for the elderly, and other community venues throughout the five boroughs. Over the past three years, the Mobile Unit has served thousands of audiences with critically acclaimed productions. In addition to a three-week tour to eighteen venues, each Mobile Unit production then “sits down” at The Public Theater downtown, providing New York audiences with low cost tickets to world-class Shakespeare.
Past Mobile Unit tour venues have included Rikers Island, The Fortune Society, Park Avenue Armory Women’s Shelter, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, Community Centers throughout the City, Charlotte’s Place, Borden Avenue Veteran’s Shelter, and Crossroads Juvenile Detention Center.
This season, The Public Theater's Mobile Unit presents a new, world-class production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to audiences and community venues across New York City. Olivier Award winner Chukwudi Iwuji (Henry VI Trilogy, King Lear at The Public) plays the anguished prince of Denmark who is confronted at every turn with a poisonous power structure that's robbed him of his father, and forever darkened his understanding of the world.
Inspired by The Mobile Unit’s unique approach to engaging diverse communities with the arts, Patricia McGregor (Hurt Village, Ugly Lies the Bone) directs this bold take on Shakespeare's immortal tale about family, deceit and the explosive consequences of unchecked corruption.
TOURING PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
VISIT: http://publictheater.org/en/Programs--Events/Mobile-Unit/
