Social Context

As an artist and a producer, Joe Papp couldn’t have been more in tune and more concerned with the world that his plays both came from and were addressing, whether it was in his native New York (where he lived his entire life).  In fact, he made addressing the realities of the ever-changing world through the supporting and developing of new plays a huge part of his theatrical legacy at the Public Theater.  In fact, in Papp wrote the following in his program notes for the opening night program at his newly acquired Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center in 1977: “The living playwright is… a resource we must treasure, nourish.  He speaks to us for us.”  

Papp’s very first non-Shakespeare production, and the first at his newly formed Public Theater came in 1967.  This was right in the middle of the costly and deadly Vietnam War, which was ever-present in the hearts and minds of the American public as they watched the death toll rise on TV every night.  The production? An early version of “Hair,” the rock musical focused on a “tribe” of hippies who live outside the conservative culture and protest the war.

 Addressing race, the sexual revolution, the war, and the counterculture movement in general, the musical was brash and bold and a game-changer.  While it received tepid critical response and only marginally better audience acclaim at the Public Theater, a largely re-worked version had a very successful run on Broadway.  With “Hair,” Papp took on a project no one wanted to produce about a literally current movement in the US and in New York, and helped foster it to a great Broadway run.  This is one of the many examples of Joe Papp’s innovative and eventually successful role as producer, often with new and current material that he took special care to take under his wing.

"Aquarius"

Papp, in a bold move that even further highlighted his passion for new, “theater as a social force” projects, terminated an $11 million deal with CBS to tape and produce thirteen plays, mostly Shakespeare, with some new work.  At the last minute, CBS had backed out of airing David Rabe’s “Sticks and Bones,” a play about a disabled, suicidal returning Vietnam veteran, because it was offensive to many Americans who were dealing with such issues.  Papp was infuriated, and cost himself $11 million on principle.  He even told the president of CBS, “I have no respect for you.”

Perhaps the most daring move of all was to support and put on Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart,” in 1985. About AIDS, Kramer had crafted a polemic against the establishment of New York City, including the New York Times and Mayor Koch, and their willing blindness towards the crisis of this unknown disease that was killing off mostly homosexual men.   Papp himself admitted that after ten pages of the play, he thought to himself ,“I can’t even read this,” but that by the end of his reading, he was extremely moved.  “Now,” he said, “I’m willing to lose up to $5,000 a week…until there’s some solution to AIDS.”
 Papp’s support of Kramer’s play came implied a tacit agreement with Kramer’s abuse of Koch and the Times, and Papp was fine with that, calling the two offices to tell them himself why he was producing the play.  Papp produced this play before learning of his own son, Tony’s infection with AIDS (he died at 29, three months before his father). 

Joe Papp was vehemently concerned with the American playwright and his take on the constantly evolving (indeed, throughout Papp’s time in the theater, constantly thrashing) American culture.  In Papp’s opinion, the playwright, particularly American playwright, reigned supreme.  As he wrote, “I am looking for plays that have some passionate statement to make that is commensurate with the times that we are living in.” And he found and supported those plays over and over again. 

Photo 1:  http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/01/theater/Hair600.jpg
Photo 2: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/61/TheNormalHeart.jpg/200px-TheNormalHeart.jpg