Rob Campbell, Carson Elrod, William Jackson Harper, et al. Set for Public Theater’s Touring Measure for Measure

The Public Theater has announced casting for a touring production of Measure for Measure, which will play correctional facilities, homeless shelters, facilities for battered and abused women, drug rehab facilities, senior centers, and centers for youth-at-risk, among others. In addition, the production, directed by Michelle Hensley, will play an engagement at the Judson Memorial Church, running December 6-11.

Measure for Measure is set in Vienna and focuses on what happens when the city’s duke allows a subordinate to rule the citizenry. The company will feature Rob Campbell, Carson Elrod, Meg Gibson, Shalita Grant, William Jackson Harper, Jackie Sanders Hayes, Ruy Iskandar, Lanna Joffrey, and Nicole Lewis.

Among the confirmed tour dates for Measure for Measure are Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, Staten Island (November 23), Susan’s Place, Bronx (November 26), Bayview Correctional Facility, Manhattan (November 30), Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults (JSPOA), Queens, (December 1), Fortune Society, Queens, (December 2), and Central High School / Boys & Girls Club of Newark, Newark, NJ (December 3). Additional touring venues to be announced shortly.

The production is part of a new initiative for the Public: The Mobile Unit, which is designed to bring productions of Shakespeare, free of charge, to audiences with little or no access to major New York City arts institutions. The Public is offering Measure for Measure in association with the Minneapolis theater company Ten Thousand Things Theater, which has a 20 year history of presenting theater for underserved audiences and institutions and has become a nationwide model for such work. In addition the play, the Mobile Unit will offer educational workshops at the venues it visits.