About Public Forum

Public Forum, now in its eighth season, is also the home of The Public’s audience engagement activities, which include Artist Talkbacks, Audience Conversations, Speaker Series panels, and the online resource Digiturgy.

In Artist Talkbacks, members of the cast and creative team will take questions from the audience about the show and their process following selected performances during the season. Speaker Series presents 20-to-30-minute panel discussions after the performance with experts discussing a topic from the show and Audience Conversations feature a member of The Public’s artistic staff leading the audience in a conversation with each other about the show and its themes and ideas. 

The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation provides lead support for The Public’s access and engagement programming. The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust provides leadership support for The Public Theater’s year-round activities.

See The Fall Season Below

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

What is our duty of care to our fellow citizens? When the law seems unjust, how are we to respond? Shakespeare pondered these questions over 400 years ago in Measure for Measure, but they remain of vital importance in the present. As Elevator Repair Service presents their take on Shakespeare’s ‘problem play,’ Public Forum welcomes back Michael Sexton (Director of The Public’s Shakespeare Initiative) and a cast of actors & intellectuals to consider how we approach the idea of justice today. 

Learn More

THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER

Public Forum’s holiday tradition returns with a brand new cast! Thornton Wilder’s beautiful play takes place over one hundred years of Christmas dinners with the Bayard family, where they see triumph and heartbreak, birth and death, and a changing world – while some things, like family and tradition, remain constant. The cast will feature Thornton’s nephew and literary executor, Tappan Wilder, and more.

Learn More