Movies Under The Stars: Joe Papp in Five Acts

Through Movies Under the Stars, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and NYC Parks bring more than 150 film screenings to parks throughout the five boroughs. Enjoy family-friendly entertainment in the city’s parks and playgrounds, ranging from great new movies to all-time classics. Our movies have chairs reserved for seniors and people with disabilities, so that everyone can enjoy a good movie. Bring some food, find a great spot, and enjoy the show!

Joe Papp in Five Acts tells the story of this indomitable, feisty, street-wise champion of the arts. As founder of The Public Theater, Free Shakespeare in the Park and producer of groundbreaking plays like Hair, A Chorus Line and for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, Papp believed great art was for everyone, not just a privileged few. A cultural change agent for more than fifty years, Papp’s stages held up a mirror to society with work that reflected the reality of people’s lives.

Papp worked to expand public access to the arts. “We have public libraries,” he would argue, “Why not public theaters?” He recognized the role artists could play in building a more democratic, inclusive society. At a time when theatre was largely the domain of white men, he was convinced that women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and other marginalized communities, denied power elsewhere in society, could develop it on the stage. His goal was a “theater of inclusion” on-stage, backstage, and in the audience.

Featuring rare footage from the 50s to Papp’s death in 1991, and up-close scenes from the performances themselves, Joe Papp in Five Acts tells his own story without narration. His great accomplishments and his own, often tumultuous, personal history is told by the artists he helped create—and, in some cases, tried to destroy—including actors Kevin Kline, James Earl Jones, Meryl Streep, Olympia Dukakis, Mandy Patinkin, Martin Sheen, Christopher Walken and playwrights Larry Kramer, and David Hare among others.

***Directors Tracie Holder and Karen Thorsen will introduce the film.