Sullivan, who will helm All's Well That Ends Well, will join Shakespeare Initiative director Barry Edelstein May 18. Following will be Measure for Measure director Esbjornson, who will chat with Edelstein May 25.
As previously reported, the Public will stage the two plays in repertory this summer as the 2011 Shakespeare in the Park offerings.
Sullivan staged Twelfth Night for SITP in 2009 and last year's Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino, which transferred to Broadway. Esbjornson recently directed the Broadway revival of Driving Miss Daisy.
The 6:30 PM salons will take place at BONDST Restaurant (located at 6 Bond Street). Tickets, priced $25 (including a glass of wine), are available beginning April 28 by phoning (212) 967-7555 or by visiting PublicTheater.
In Measure for Measure and All's Well, John Cullum (The Scottsboro Boys, Shenandoah) will portray Escalus/King of France with Tonya Pinkins (The Wild Party, Caroline, or Change) as Mistress Overdone/Countess. The acting company will also include Kristen Connolly (Juliet/Diana), Carson Elrod (Pompey/Interpreter), Danai Gurira (Isabella in Measure for Measure), Joe Forbrich (Friar/Duke of Florence), Michael Hayden (Angelo/Second Brother Dumaine), André Holland (Claudio/Bertram), Jordan Lund (Abhorson/Rinaldo), David Manis (Elbow/Lavatch), Dakin Matthews (Provost/Lafew), Caitlin O’Connell (Nun/Widow), Annie Parisse (Mariana/Helena), Lorenzo Pisoni (Duke/First Brother Dumaine), Reg Rogers (Lucio/Parolles) and Lucas Caleb Rooney (Barnadine/Gentleman). Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal composer Tom Kitt will pen music for All's Well That Ends Well, and John Gromada (Next Fall, Julius Caesar) will create music for Measure for Measure. Kitt also scored last season's Winter's Tale.
The productions will have scenic design by Scott Pask; costume design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy (Measure for Measure) and Jane Greenwood (All’s Well That Ends Well); lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski; and sound design by Acme Sound Partners.
Here's how the Public bills the classics:
Measure for Measure "sweeps from the corridors of national power to the intimate confines of the bedroom, and from the convent's chapel to the executioner’s block. It is Shakespeare at his grittiest: a bracing and bawdy glimpse of what happens when those in power allow their basest human impulses to range unchecked."
All's Well That Ends Well "is a fairytale for grown-ups. This beguiling fable follows the low-born Helena, one of Shakespeare’s most resourceful heroines, as she inventively surmounts obstacle after impossible obstacle in order to win the love of the aristocratic and haughty Count Bertram."
