Rosemarie Tichler, a 26-year veteran of Off-Broadway's Public Theater who has been the company's artistic producer for ten years, will leave the theatre after this summer's production of The Seagull in Central Park.

"I feel blessed to have started at the Public under Joe Papp and to have been at the center of the artistic life of this theatre for so long," Tichler said in a statement. Tichler was hired by Papp in 1975 and served under all three of the Public's artistic directors: Papp, JoAnne Akalaitis and George C. Wolfe.

She served as the Public's head of casting from 1975 to 1991. In the capacity, she cast such landmark productions as Richard Foreman's Three Penny Opera, The Pirates of Penzance, Ntozake Shange's for colored girls...., Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart and Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon.

As artistic producer, her credits include The Tempest on Broadway, Caryl Churchill's The Skriker and Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mt. Morgan. Tichler also founded and directed the company's summer acting school, the Shakespeare Lab.

Tichler will continue to teach at NYU and Juilliard. —By Robert Simonson