Joe Papp and Shakespeare in the Park, with Kenneth Turan (Rebroadcast)

Joe Papp was responsible for some of modern American theater's most iconic institutions: New York City's free Shakespeare in the Park. The Public Theater. The whole idea of "Off-Broadway." We spoke with Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan about Papp's life and works, from his hardscabble childhood, through the frightening era of Joe McCarthy, to the founding of Shakespeare in the Park and The Public. Published in 2009, Turan's epic oral history of the early years of the New York Shakespeare Festival and The Public Theater is called Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told. To create that book, he spent untold hours with Joe Papp and also talked with New York politicians, Broadway producers, and seemingly everyone else who helped Papp make Shakespeare in the Park a reality, including performers like James Earl Jones, George C. Scott, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Colleen Dewhurst, Tommy Lee Jones, and a Staten Island car-wash employee who would go on to play Romeo under the stage name of Martin Sheen. Turan is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Kenneth Turan was film critic for the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told was published by Anchor Books, a division of Random House. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Originally published August 7, 2018, and rebroadcast June 7, 2022. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, "This Green Plot Shall Be Our Stage," was produced under the supervision of Garland Scott, and is presented with permission of rlpaulproductions LLC, which created it for the Folger. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster and Esther Ferington. Ben Lauer is the web producer. We had technical help from Lauren Cascio and Nick Bozzone at Formosa Commercials recording studio in Santa Monica, California.