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The New York Theatre Workshop was founded in 1979 as a forum for new playwrights and directors to ‘workshop’ innovative new productions. Since then, the Workshop has expanded and flourished to contain two programs–one, which produces mainstage shows with an aim towards providing excellent productions consistently oriented towards an audience’s benefit, and the second, the workshop procedure, whose goal is to expand and develop a new piece of work.

The mainstage shows are more often than not world premieres, but classics of American and World Theatre, such as A Streetcar Named Desire and Hedda Gabler also have their place within the repertoire. NYTW has gained fame for workshop productions which have moved to Broadway, such as RENT and Dirty Blonde. The Theatre is also responsible for definitive early productions of internationally-recognized contemporary works, such as Caryl Churchill’s A Number, Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul, The Beard of Avon, by Amy Freed, and Flesh and Blood, adapted from Michael Cunningham’s novel by Peter Gaitens, among countless others.

James Nicola, who has been the Artistic Director since 1988, is largely responsible for the expansion of the mainstage program, with equal commendations for keeping the workshop priorities strong. An average of 80 readings of new works take place at the NYTW each year. Located in the East Village, the NYTW’s 188-seat theatre and its adjoining rehearsal studio provide the perfect intimate environment for its commitment to collaboration and exploration.

NYTW’s 2006-2007 season opens with ¡El Conquistador!, a work conceived, created and performed by Thaddeus Phillips, and brought to NYTW for its New York premiere. The piece merges film, theatre, history and Telenova as it follows Polonia, a peasant who leaves his war-wracked village with hopes of becoming a soap opera star, and ends up as a doorman for the New World Building, whose wild residents are played by some of Latin America’s most famous TV stars, appearing in the production via videophone. The play was created in collaboration with Colombia’s leading TV actor and director, Victor Mallarino, and Tatiana Mallarino, and the production is directed by Tatiana Mallarino.

Kaos, conceived and directed by Martha Clarke, retells four Luigi Pirandello stories that appeared in the Taviana Brothers’ 1984 film Kaos, using dance, live music, images, and text by Frank Pugliese and Giovanni Papotto. The vignettes take place in turn-of-the-century Sicily, depicting common folk thrown into mystical circumstances against the backdrop of poverty and a violent political climate. This world premiere appears at NYTW in November.

In January, the world premiere of All That I Will Ever Be takes the stage, the first new play in over a dozen years to come from Alan Ball, famous for writing the Emmy-Award winning HBO series Six Feet Under and the Academy-Award winning American Beauty. Jo Bonney directs this story of two young men in Los Angeles, a restless native and a Middle Eastern immigrant, examining cultural imperialism and the need for ‘home.’

The season closes with 24 Hours Are Not a Day in April. NYTW is the home for the American premiere of this work, written and directed by René Pollesch, one of Germany’s theatre stars. This playwright and director has gained renown for breaking all the classic rules of dramaturgy to create exciting and original work. 24 Hours Are Not a Day examines the impact that globalization has on our public and private lives, a fitting story to be coming from one of Europe’s most innovative artists in his American debut.

Originally founded by Joseph Papp as the Shakespeare Workshop, the Public Theater now celebrates 50 years of vibrant, diverse theater meant to echo the spirit of New York itself. The past 50 years leading up to its 2006-2007 season have established it as one of the nation’s foremost cultural centers and an embodiment of the spectrum of contemporary American theater. Now under the guidance of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Mara Manus, the Public upholds its commitment to unifying divergent traditions and giving attention to new voices, and it has been richly rewarded by public support. Over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related events and productions each year, and the Theater has received 40 Tony Awards, 135 Obies, 38 Drama Desk Awards, 18 Lucille Lortel Awards, 4 Pulitzer Prizes, and has carried 49 shows to Broadway.

The former Astor Library on Lafayette Street serves as the Public’s headquarters, while its famous Shakespeare in the Park takes place each summer at the Delacourte Theater. Its newest performance space, Joe’s Pub, provides an intimate venue for new work and solo performances. The Public also hosts a summer professional training program named the Shakespeare Lab, and has been nationally recognized for its reading series, New Work Now!.

New Work Now! falls early in its season, and brings new works from both emerging and established artists to the public for free. This year, some of the readings are part of the Arab/Israeli Festival; the series runs from October 23 to November 6.

Meanwhile, Wrecks, a solo piece featuring four-time Academy Award-nominee Ed Harris, is written and directed by Neil LaBute, famous for plays and screenplays such as In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things, and Nurse Betty, among countless others. This newest offering challenges expectations about love, relationships, and family with the same razor insight characteristic of LaBute. The production’s spectacular reviews led to a sold-out run, and this U.S. Premiere has recently been extended to play through November 19.

Emergence-See, headlined as “an explosive new play where rhythm, rhyme and remembrence rise” imagines that a slave ship has just surfaced out of the Hudson River at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The author and solo performer of the piece, Daniel Beaty, takes on forty different personalities, weaving them into a lyrical exploration of the nature of freedom and fundamental humanity. Directed by Kenny Leon, the electrifying show runs from October 10 to November 12.

The World Premiere of Durango opens next, the newest play from Julio Cho, whose recent BFE won accolades and awards. Chay Yew directs this story of a single father, named Boo-Seng, who decides to embark on a road trip to Durango, Colorado, with his two teenager sons. The struggles hidden in their family relationship begin to rise as the trip goes on, as the sons reveal the impact of their father’s decision to leave Korea to chase the American Dream. The production runs from November 7 to December 10.

Under the Radar is another festival to which the Public Theater plays host, focusing on highly innovative and independent new work that operates well outside of mainstream drama. It also highlights the global trends in contemporary theater by bringing productions from other countries to stand alongside those from the U.S. This year, pieces from Canada, the UK, and Bolivia will be incorporated, running from January 16 to January 28, 2007.

The World Premiere of a new musical, Passing Strange, is scheduled for January. Singer and songwriter Stew is, aptly, both the composer and performer of this new manifestation of musical theater. The project, directed and created in collaboration with Annie Dorsen with additional assistance from Heidi Rodewald on composition, tells the story of a young black bohemian who searches for identity and and a place to belong amidst the confusion of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Stew was commissioned by the Public to develop this musical after gaining popularity for his performances at Joe’s Pub.

In the Spring, the Public will provide the venue for Craig Lucas’s newest play, The Singing Forest. Lucas, famous for plays such as The Light in the Piazza, Reckless and Prelude to a Kiss, examines the aftermath of the Holocaust through the lens of our contemporary commercial culture. Three generations, the contemporary, that of Freud’s inner circle in the Vienna of the 1930s, and that of post-WWII Paris, are interwoven, revealing their secrets, their differences, and their similarities. Bartlett Sher, the world-famous classical director and artistic director of the Intiman Playhouse since 2000, will helm this play, marking a second partnership with Lucas after the director was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Director for his 2005 production of The Light on the Piazza.

Over the course of the year, various pieces of Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays will be presented by the Public. The project is the result of Parks commitment to write one play per day starting in November 2002. The Public is the vanguard on the New York City branch of the 365 Days/Plays Festival, but the Festival itself spans the entire nation, where the plays will be presented simultaneously from November 13, 2006 to November 12, 2007. The largest collaboration in the history of American theater will involve 60 different theater companies in New York, organized by the Public.

King Lear concludes the Public’s season; Kevin Kline, one of America’s greatest Shakespearean actors, will star in Shakespeare’s epic tragedy about family, betrayal, love and madness. Pulitzer-Prize winner, three-time Tony Award winner, seven-time Tony Award nominee, and two-time Drama Desk Award winner James Lapine, director and librettist of musicals such as Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George, has signed on as director.