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Free for All: Joe Papp, The Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told

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"Free for ALL, Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told," by Kenneth Turan & Joseph Papp, is my favorite of the hundred or so theater books I've read over the past twenty years. This book is the best primer I've seen on how theater truly is created, and how it truly works, both backstage and in the producer's office.

The theatrical process doesn't always work smoothly or happily, but somehow Papp held his productions together, and the stories of how he did that are wonderful indeed. In fact, my biggest problem in writing this review was that every time I'd pick up the book again to find a quote or check a fact, I'd start rereading the stories I'd read a couple of days before.

I'm not sure I've ever read a book that was entirely composed of quotes, but the format really works, giving immediacy to each event. Often the reader has a Rashomon experience, as two or more people recount the same meeting or moment in entirely different ways. And the deeply personal feelings expressed by those interviewed make for wonderful insights into them, and into Joe Papp.

When producing, Papp wanted his audiences to see and experience parts of American life they might otherwise avoid: the heartlessness of the Vietnam War (Pavlo Hummel; Sticks and Bones); child molesters in prison (Short Eyes); mastectomies (Mert & Phil); street kids (Runaways); the outbreak of AIDS (The Normal Heart); and the basic hypocrisy and blindness of society (Aunt Dan and Lemon).

He was passionate, infuriating, shrewd, relentless, soft-hearted (at times), ruthless (at times), mercurial, unstoppable, idealistic, pragmatic, often impossible, and brilliant. He left an undeniable mark on the face of American theater that, I hope, will not soon fade away.

If you love the theater, you must read "Free For All". I guarantee you won't regret it.

[...].

"Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Joe Papp was clearly a revolutionary living in revolutionary times, and his life's story serves as a dramatic lesson about the nature and nurturing of art and culture. And it provides yet another data point--a biographical one--in the Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity debate as to whether commerce or community best serves the interests of creativity and the cultural arts.

"Free for all" teaches how a love of Shakespeare could overcome all obstacles, including public performance and assembly laws, financial challenges, professional skepticism, and, most of all, the engagement of audiences with no prior appreciation of the material whatsoever. And, as the title richly implies, all of this is possible precisely because Shakespeare himself was not there to assert copyright or to impose a DMCA takedown. (It is a great irony that the most significant obstacle to the publication of this book was Papp himself, while he was still alive.) It is therefore, at its core, a story about how a man with a vision and the bare minimum of freedoms to act transformed acting and theater in New York City and then in popular culture around the world.

"Free for all" also teaches (by example) the organic nature of art, and how Papp succeeded where others thought him crazy by starting small, building his audience among an authentic public slowly and organically, and, only then moving productions into larger private venues. And we are lucky that while this book was largely completed 20 years ago, virtually no new material was admitted so that we can see in retrospect, but without revisionism, Papp's process and results. When we ourselves wonder "where are the new voices?" or, more desperately, "where are the new audiences?" we can study how Papp was able to discard the false premises of commercialism and conjure art from an engaged and empowered community.

Unlike some experimentalists today, who exercise their freedoms mostly behind closed doors, Papp was sufficiently "out there" to be called before that most Un-American institution ever created, the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His formal denial of communism may seem like a historical footnote, but it underpins another key fact of the Free Culture movement: as Richard Stallman points out in Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman, cherishing freedom does not a communist make. "Free for all" thus forces us to think about both "free as in beer" and "free as in speech". It is obviously the latter that Papp enjoyed the most, not merely his own speech, but giving freedom of speech to an entire community.

If we want to understand how to maintain our hard-won freedoms in art and culture, and to reclaim those that are increasingly under attack by those who wish to enclose and destroy the public commons (by claiming such destruction is necessary for its survival), we'd do well to study Papp's biography and to honor the lessons he taught in his lifetime.

The Greatest (Theater) Story Ever Told

Joe [Papp] has been the entrepreneur par excellence, the voodoo man, the magic man, the medicine man who went and found all the people, who played the drum and brought all the folks in from the wilderness and gave them a fire to gather around.....LINDA HUNT (actress, Aunt Dan and Lemon).

If a man can love a man as a brother, I love Joe. But he has complications on top of complications in him; he has the same dark sides we all have....[and] he's experimenting all the time. Just when you think he's going in one direction, he's ready to change horses. And that can hurt people....CHARLES DURNING (actor, That Championship Season).

"Free for ALL, Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told," by Kenneth Turan & Joseph Papp, is my favorite of the hundred or so theater books - I'm a Broadway producer, and blog at [...] - I've read over the past twenty years. This book is the best primer I've seen on how theater truly is created, and how it truly works, both backstage and in the producer's office.

The theatrical process doesn't always work smoothly or happily, as many of us know, but somehow Papp held his productions together, and the stories of how he did that are wonderful indeed.

In fact, my biggest problem in writing this blog was that every time I'd pick up the book again to find a quote or check a fact, I'd start rereading the stories I'd read a couple of days before.

"Free For All" has a curious history: 23 years ago, Turan and Papp contracted to make an oral biography from interviews with Papp and nearly 200 of the people who had been important in his theatrical life.

But when Papp read the first draft, he refused to allow the book to be published. By then his son had been diagnosed with AIDS, and he, himself, with prostate cancer. Turan felt Papp was also upset over some of the comments about him that had come out of the interviews. Turan was stuck with a long manuscript in a box, until years later he was finally able to strike a deal with Papp's widow.

I'm not sure I've ever read a book that was entirely composed of quotes, but the format really works, giving immediacy to each event. Often the reader has a Rashomon experience, as two or more people recount the same meeting or moment in entirely different ways. And the deeply personal feelings expressed by those interviewed make for wonderful insights into them, and into Joe Papp.

My ancestral roots are in Eastern Europe, and I'm very conscious of that, conscious that I'm in the tradition of the Holocaust....I came from a certain kind of poverty level, which was really below that of most of New York's Jews. I always felt that distinction. I've always felt slightly removed from, for instance, the world of Broadway and the Shuberts. I can talk to them, I'll walk with them, but, as Shylock would say, I won't eat with them....JOSEPH PAPP

Briefly stated: Joseph Papp was born in 1921 in Brooklyn, had no money, started producing plays in the Navy, then in basements, toured minimal Shakespearian productions throughout the five boroughs of Manhattan, established Shakespeare in the Park, established the Public Theater, took over and failed at running Lincoln Center Theater, and died in 1991, at the age of 70.

At one point, he was producing for a total of ten New York stages.

Papp sent many productions to Broadway, including Hair, That Championship Season, A Chorus Line, and The Pirates of Penzance. He gave first big breaks to many actors - Colleen Dewhurst, George C. Scott, James Earl Jones, and Meryl Streep included; and to many playwrights - David Rabe, Jason Miller, and Wallace Shawn included; and though Papp didn't give William Shakespeare his first big break, he sure did give him one hell of a boost.

Joseph Papp produced some huge hits that were fun to watch, and many more plays that were difficult to watch.

He wanted his audiences to see and experience parts of American life they might otherwise avoid: the heartlessness of the Vietnam War (Pavlo Hummel; Sticks and Bones); child molesters in prison (Short Eyes); mastectomies (Mert & Phil); street kids (Runaways); the outbreak of AIDS (The Normal Heart); and the basic hypocrisy and blindness of society (Aunt Dan and Lemon).

I told the cast, "Once in every ten years or so, a play comes along that fulfills my original idea of what role theater must play in society,"....JOSEPH PAPP [on The Normal Heart].

I was enjoying myself watching "Aunt Dan and Lemon" and at some point somebody got up and stalked out, hitting his heels, and afterwards I asked Joe "God, what was that about?" And he said, "I always like it better if it gets them mad....LINDA RONSTADT (singer/actress, The Pirates of Penzance).

He was passionate, infuriating, shrewd, relentless, soft-hearted (at times), ruthless (at times), mercurial, unstoppable, idealistic, pragmatic, often impossible, brilliant.

"Free For All" contains too many great stories from which to choose, so I'll close with only two, perhaps my favorites:

In 1956, a totally broke Papp was producing THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, for no money, at the East River Park Amphitheater. His Company was so broke that if he didn't get the Chief Drama Critic for the Times, Brooks Atkinson, to come to this unlikely theater and review the show, he`d have to close down his operation.

So he went to the Times' offices, plopped himself down in the lobby, and waited hours for Atkinson to turn up. Determination. Perseverance. Finally, Atkinson arrived, and Papp insisted on their having a meeting. Cojones.

Somehow he convinced Atkinson - Persuasiveness - to come to the show that night, but Atkinson insisted Papp had to drive him there. So Papp picked up the immaculately-dressed critic at the Harvard Club in the only vehicle he had, an old, dirty two-ton truck, and took his chosen reviewer to his Off-Off-Off-Broadway play in its flea-bitten Lower East Side theater.

Atkinson gave the show a rave, and Joe Papp could go on producing.

And, three years later, the immensely powerful Robert Moses, who counted Parks Commissioner among his four City positions, decided the audiences for Papp's Shakespeare in the Park should have to pay admissions, some of which would go to the City. This was against everything Papp stood for, so he took the immensely powerful Robert Moses to court, and - against all odds - won the battle.

There was a moment when I picked up the New York Times and saw that Joe had literally beat the government. He had no name, no political push, nothing. I know a lot of people who have power, but he's probably the only person I know who has real power, because he had it before he had the trimmings....COLLEEN DEWHURST (actress, The Taming of the Shrew).

If you've read this far, you must love the theater, and if you love the theater, you must read "Free For All".

I guarantee you won't regret it.

I am only half-way through this book, but it is absolutely fascinating. If you have any interest in theatre, especially non-profit theater, you should pick up this book. The interviews are very insightful and don't pull any punches as they were given when Mr. Papp was still alive. Thankfully his family allowed this book to finally be published so that we can all discover what it took to create The Public Theater, which is truly a treasure for New York and the entire world of theater in this country.

Having worked with and for Joe Papp for 10 years betweem 1980 and 1990 I enjoyed reading about his life, love of Shakspeare and his dedication to good Theater. For me he was a mentor, hiring me to vocal coach his musicals. He was tough and always fair. Honest to the core and standing always for truth in the Theater. There are many of us who miss him personally and the work he provided for so many talented artists. Marge Rivingston

I paid this book the ultimate compliment: as I could see I was approaching the end, I slowed down, not wanting to finish...and also not being able to put it down!

Ken Turan has recreated a life -- not easy to do, as any great biographer (or novelist) could tell us. Joe Papp's life was large and largely-lived, a life of great passion and great love, and great energy, and joy -- and filled with a lot of hard work. The book captures it all. The Public and the Shakespeare Festival nurtured many a young and talented playwright, gave young actors some of their first moments of glory, and gave all New York a taste for everything from Julius Caesar to a Chorus Line. The alumni list reads like a who's who of theater - and movies, too, for that matter: playwrights David Rabe and Sam Shepard, actors like George C Scott, Coleen Dewhurst, Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, and directors like Michael Bennett speak through this book. The stories they tell, and that Joe Papp himself tells, are laced with sometimes-painful truths, and all of them glow with the love of the theater and all it means.

Don't like theater? Read it anyway...you'll find yourself eager to hear the next story and marveling at the power of the will and the drive to create which Joe Papp embodied. Joe Papp, my hat's off to you! and to Ken Turan!

FREE FOR ALL: JOE PAPP, THE PUBLIC, AND THE GREATEST THEATER STORY EVER TOLD provides a definitive history of the New York Shakespeare festival and Public Theatre. Kenneth Turan interviews nearly 160 people in the course of his project with producer Joseph Papp to work on a definitive oral history: when Papp abruptly stopped publication, Turan refused to abandon the project. His perseverance results in an outstanding survey key to any library strong in stage history.

This was the best Christmas present! I could not put this book down. I am a bit of a "theatre junkie," and hearing the details of all these historical productions is fascinating. Thank you for this book!