Def, Durang, Hoch, Sondheim, Wolfe, Wright, et al. Set for Public Theater 2008-2009 Season

The Public Theater has announced selections for its 2008-2009 season, which will open in October with the New York premiere of the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical Bounce, to be directed by John Doyle. Spanning 40 years from the Alaskan Gold Rush to the Florida real estate boom in the ’30s, the musical is the story of two brothers whose quest for the American Dream turns into a test of morality and judgment that changes their lives in unexpected ways.

Also in the fall, hip-hop impresario Danny Hoch will premiere his solo show, Taking Over, which blazes through a fierce spectrum of New Yorkers, and Mike Daisey will premiere his latest monologue about homeland security, If You See Something Say Something, to be directed by Jean-Michele Gregory.

Mos Def and Jeffrey Wright will star in the world premiere of John Guare’s A Free Man of Color, to be directed by George C. Wolfe. The play re-creates the sexually progressive New Orleans of 1802 when the landscape of race was shifting and the Louisiana Purchase could complete America’s unfinished maps. Following a successful run at The Public’s Public LAB initiative this season, The Good Negro, by Tracey Scott Wilson, will have a full main stage production in February, directed by Liesl Tommy. The play uncovers the human story at the heart of the 1960’s American civil rights movement.

In the spring, Christopher Durang will present the world premiere of his dark comedy Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. The playwright aims to turn political humor upside down with this raucous and provocative satire about America’s growing homeland ‘insecurity’. Craig Lucas will reteam with director Bartlett Sher for the New York premiere of The Singing Forest, which interrogates how history collides with the human heart in the long shadow of the Holocaust.

In the summer of 2009, JoAnne Akalaitis will direct The Bacchae, adapted by Nicholas Ruddall, and featuring music by Philip Glass. This visionary interpretation of Euripides’ classic story is about what happens when a government attempts to outlaw desire. An additional Park show is to be announced.

The Public will also continue its “Public LAB” series of new works, The Native Theater Festival (November 10-16), Under the Radar (January 7-18), and the reading series New Work Now.

For more information, visit www.publictheater.org.