Joe Papp in Five Acts

• Director: Tracie Holder, Karen Thorsen
• Theatrical Release Date:

Synopsis: In Joe Papp's eyes, art is for everyone, not just a privileged few. Perhaps best known for giving a voice to future Broadway successes like Galt MacDermot (Hair) and Michael Bennett (A Chorus Line), Joe began as a radical. An active communist who concealed his Jewish heritage for most of his life, Joe's private world was just as theatrical as his public one. In 1956, it was Joe who declared that theater should be a free enterprise, "like the library," and put on his first Shakespeare production of Taming of the Shrew in Central Park to a packed audience of every ethnic and socioeconomic background in the city. An indomitable, streetwise champion of the arts, Joe reimagined King Lear as African-American and Edmund with a thick Puerto Rican accent, bringing more theater to more people than any other producer in history. [Synopsis courtesy of Tribeca]