WNET (Channel Thirteen) program "New York Voices" will present "The Public at 50" on Oct. 21 and 28 at 9:30 PM. The show will feature interviews with George C. Wolfe, Anna Deavere Smith, Tony Kushner, John Guare, Sam Waterston, Oskar Eustis, Donna McKechnie, Roscoe Lee Browne, Michael John LaChiusa and Frank Rich. The program will trace the creation of the Public Theater—nee The New York Shakespeare Festival—from its founding, by Joseph Papp, in a church basement on the Lower East Side to its present life as one of the most prominent theatres in America.
Talking of the Papp days will be Papp's widow, Gail Merrifield Papp, who was in charge of play development at the Public Theater, and Bernard Gersten, who served as the Public's associate producer for 17 years and is now a producer for The Theater at Lincoln Center.
