Oskar Eustis to step down as Artistic Director
After serving as Artistic Director since 2005, Oskar Eustis plans to step down when his current contract expires on July 31, 2028. His departure will conclude The Public’s 60th anniversary season at Astor Place.
Oskar said, “I have long hoped that my 70th birthday would be the right moment for me to pass this magnificent theater on to the next generation, and I believe that indeed, the perfect time has arrived. The theater has come through the storm of the last six years with its mission intact, robust and thriving, having weathered Covid, societal upheaval, and the worst crisis the American non-profit theater has ever faced. Our Board, staff, and artists are strong and united around our mission; our audience is robust and hungry for our work; The Public is ready to tackle new challenges with all the integrity and creativity it has had for the last 70-plus years.”
“This theater, devoted as it has always been to the idea that the culture belongs to everyone, is indispensable. It has been the greatest honor of my artistic life to lead it for 23 years, following in the footsteps of Joe Papp, JoAnne Akalaitis, and George C. Wolfe. I know its future will be even brighter; more than ever, theater has something irreplaceable to offer the struggle with the great issues of our time. The Public will be at the table to contribute to that conversation.”
Public Theater Board Chair Luis A. Miranda, Jr. and Co-Chair Pat Fili-Krushel shared, “Oskar’s service to this organization, and the field at large, continues to be nothing short of extraordinary. The Public’s strength and ambition today stand as direct testaments to his leadership and vision through storms and blue skies alike. It will be our honor to celebrate his work over the next 24 months and lead the institutional search committee this fall; the goal is to name a successor next year.”
“Oskar Eustis, like Joe Papp before him, is a pioneer of the American theater. For Oskar, the work is paramount, but making and keeping that work accessible for all has always been the goal. He’s taken lesser-known and well-known creators alike and nurtured their shows to bring out the best in both in an often-inaccessible business. Oskar’s artistic selections over his tenure have brought undeniable delight to audiences of all ages. I will never be able to say thank you enough to Oskar for taking a chance on Hamilton, over a decade ago.”
— Lin-Manuel Miranda, Playwright
Throughout his career, Oskar has been dedicated to the development of new work that speaks to the great issues of our time and has worked with countless writers in pursuit of that aim, including Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, David Henry Hwang, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Richard Nelson, Rinne Groff, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Lisa Kron, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Jeanine Tesori, Philip Kan Gotanda, Ellen McLaughlin, Emily Mann, John Leguizamo, Shaina Taub, James Ijames, Else Went, Michael Friedman, Alex Timbers, Erik Jensen, Jessica Blank, Ryan J. Haddad, Caryl Churchill, S. Shakthidharan, Itamar Moses, Martyna Majok, Lynn Nottage, Danai Gurira, Sarah Burgess, Stew, Wallace Shawn, Lawrence Wright, Sam Shepard, Mona Mansour, Adrienne Kennedy, John Belluso, Craig Lucas, Christopher Durang, and Richard Foreman.
“Oskar is a force of nature! What a blessing his stewardship has been to so many writers and to everybody at The Public Theater!”
— Suzan-Lori Parks, Playwright
Oskar's tenure at The Public includes three Tony Award-winning Best Musicals (the 2009 revival of Hair, Fun Home in 2013, and Hamilton in 2015) as well as two winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (Hamilton in 2016 and Sweat in 2017). He also developed many other groundbreaking plays and musicals, including Passing Strange, Here Lies Love, Suffs, The Brother/Sister Plays, The Vagrant Trilogy, Eclipsed, Manahatta, The Fortress of Solitude, Soft Power, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, Ain’t No Mo’, Miss You Like Hell, Tiny Beautiful Things, and many, many more.
"What Oskar has sustained and expanded at The Public during his tenure is truly remarkable. I have personally benefited from his leadership, mentoring, and genuine friendship over the last several years. His impact on theater at every level is undeniable. He has shepherded scores of theater makers that continue to push on the edges of what our art form can do, both on the stage and in the streets. He has always believed in the Public part of it all. That we all should have a place to gather around story."
— James Ijames, Playwright
His committed leadership through changing economic tides, a global pandemic and generation-defining cultural upheaval, alongside his clear-eyed dedication to bolstering The Public's foundational mission, found expression in the groundbreaking programs he developed. Those include: the Emerging Writers Group, which over the past 18 years boasts alumni such as Dominique Morisseau, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Ryan J. Haddad, Ethan Lipton, and Else Went; the revived Mobile Unit, which has reached audiences in every corner of the city, from parks to correctional facilities; Public Works, which has been adopted across the world as it mixes community members and professional artists in creating profound works of art; and Public Forum bringing world class thinkers, from Michael Sandel to Samantha Power to Reverend Samuel Barber, into dialogue with the theater.
“The Public has been my artistic home since I was 22 and Joe Papp produced my first play. With his protean intelligence, energy, and passion, Oskar built on Joe’s vision, continually proving that the most innovative, inclusive, and politically-engaged art can also be the most critically and commercially successful. As the finest dramaturg of his generation, he made The Public into America's best theater for writers, nurturing and supporting our works to become the best versions of themselves. Oskar showed that theater still has the power to make better our communities, our world, and ourselves.”
— David Henry Hwang, Playwright
Highlights of Oskar's directorial work with The Public include the New York premieres of Rinne Groff’s The Ruby Sunrise and Compulsion; Larry Wright’s The Human Scale, which also toured to Tel Aviv; Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and Public Works’ Twelfth Night at The Delacorte; the world premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks’ White Noise; and the revival of Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day.
"It takes a Village. I am sure by now many folx have witnessed and can testify, first hand, to how Oskar would use his vantage point at one of the most important institutions to empower artists; I certainly can and have. But what astonished me time and again was the way he galvanized producers and supporters, other theaters, or even patrons who love art, from around the world to help me on my path and practice in art making. Launching a career in theater was tough and is getting harder by the second. Without his generous help, extending himself and his family, I don't know that there would have been so clear a field to make a path. For example, I could not see myself as the lead in an organization for a long time, but I remembered that my job wasn't leadership solely, Oskar's example reminds me that my first job is to be of service."
— Tarell Alvin McCraney, Playwright
Oskar first walked into The Public Theater as a 16-year-old in 1975. He then spent 30 years, inspired by The Public, leading five theaters, from Switzerland to San Francisco to Rhode Island, until he had a chance to return to the theater that first taught him what a theater could be in 2005.
He commissioned Tony Kushner's Angels in America when he ran the Eureka Theater in San Francisco (1980-1989) and directed its world premiere while at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles (1989-1994).
"Have you ever stood beneath a redwood? Stared up at its expansive branches and realized you’re standing inside an entire ecosystem that exists simply because this one living thing has spent a lifetime reaching upward while making room for countless other forms of life to flourish as well. That’s Oskar…he’s an entire ecosystem… countless artists have found shelter beneath his canopy. One of the greatest privileges of my life is to have grown underneath his branches. And I’m in extraordinary company; writers like Lynn Nottage, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Suzan-Lori Parks, Jordan E. Cooper, and Tony Kushner have built nests in his upper branches. Visionary directors and dramaturgs like Saheem Ali, Lear deBessonet, and Jack Phillips Moore have burrowed in the hollows of his trunk. Even now a new generation of artists are taking root in the rich soil of The Public Theater, itself a part of the living ecosystem that is Oskar’s very legacy. That’s what Oskar has given to the American Theater, an ever widening community…a vast forest with the right conditions for generations of artists to grow."
— Stevie Walker-Webb, Artistic Director, Baltimore Center Stage
In 1995, he became Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island, where during a 10-year tenure he revitalized the theater, twice winning the Eliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production in New England (for the world premiere of Paula Vogel's Long Christmas Ride Home and Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul). While there, he founded and chaired the Trinity Rep/Brown University Consortium for Professional Theater Training.
Oskar serves as Professor of Dramatic Writing and Art and Public Policy at NYU. Previously, he held professorships at Brown, Middlebury College, and UCLA, and currently holds the A.D. White Professorship at Large from Cornell University. He has Honorary Doctorates from Brown, Middlebury, and Rhode Island College. He was elected to the Theater Hall of Fame in 2017 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022.
"There isn't enough room in this release to share the outsized impact that Oskar Eustis has had on the American Theater and on my life. I have been learning from him since his dramaturgy course at Brown University, where I first encountered our world's greatest contemporary playwrights. Then through working with him, I got to work directly with so many of those brilliant theater artists—first, as an intern at Trinity Rep to 15 years producing at the Public to collaborating on co-productions and tours with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. His own theatrical legacy may be large, but larger still is his love and deep dedication to all the non-profit American Theater can stand for, not only in this country as a whole but for each and every one of us."
— Maria Manuela Goyanes, Artistic Director of LCT3 and Producer, Lincoln Center Theater
Following the step-down, Oskar shared, “I am looking forward to spending many more evenings with my beloved wife, Laurie, and I will continue to teach, to write, and to serve the field in any way I can. I Chair the Board of New York Focus, a brilliant investigative news organization devoted to revealing how power works in Albany; Richard Nelson has pulled me deep into relationship with Kyiv's Theater on Podil, and I suspect that relationship will only deepen as well; I am newly devoted to Almasi Collaborative Arts, a theater in Zimbabwe founded by Danai Gurira; my participation with The Professional Non-Profit Theater Coalition, a country-wide advocacy group that I founded in 2020 with Nataki Garret and Maria Goyanes has brought me great satisfaction; and I am also co-chairing a long-term study on the role of cultural spaces in communities for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Mostly, I plan to cheer on my successor at The Public and support my beloved theater any way I can—including by staying out of the way.”
Photo credits:
Oskar Eustis. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Oskar Eustis and Suzan-Lori Parks. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Oskar Eustis and Gail Merrifield Papp. Photo by Valerie Terranova.
Laurie and Oskar Eustis. Photo courtesy of The Public Theater.