Two World Premieres from Suzan-Lori Parks, A Raisin in the Sun & More Set for Public Theater Season

The Public Theater has announced offerings for its 2022-2023 season, including several world premieres as well as a new staging of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge will have its New York premiere beginning on September 24. Conceived by Greig Sargeant with Elevator Repair Service and directed by John Collins, the piece is a presentation of the legendary debate between virtuosic writer James Baldwin and father of American conservatism William F. Buckley Jr.

Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun will begin on September 27 in a production helmed by Slave Play's Tony-nominated director Robert O’Hara. The staging marks Hansberry's Public Theater debut.

Another New York premiere begins on October 28 with Madeline Sayet's Where We Belong. Directed by Mei Ann Teo, this intimate and exhilarating solo piece echoes a journey to England braved by Native ancestors in the 1700s following treatise betrayals—and forces us to consider what it means to belong in an increasingly globalized world.

On March 13, 2020, as theaters shut their doors, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks picked up her pen and set out to write a play every day. The end result is Plays for the Plague Year, a personal story of one family's daily lives, as well as a sweeping account of all we faced as a city, a nation and a global community. This will run in the intimate Joe’s Pub beginning on November 4 and is directed by Niegel Smith.

Winter 2023 will offer an additional world premiere from Parks. A new musical adaptation of The Harder They Come, featuring the songs of Jimmy Cliff, tells the story of Ivan, a young singer who arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, eager to become a star. Directed by Tony Taccone, with co-direction by Tony winner Sergio Trujillo and choreography by Edgar Godineaux, The Harder They Come is adapted from the 1972 movie produced and directed by Perry Henzell and co-written with Trevor Rhone. Winter will also bring Ryan J. Haddad’s newest autobiographical play Dark Disabled Stories and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames' Good Bones, directed by The Public’s Associate Artistic Director and Resident Director Saheem Ali.

Spring 2023 will bring Erika Dickerson-Despenza's shadow/land. Candis C. Jones directs this examination of the ongoing effects of disaster, evacuation, displacement and urban renewal rippling in and beyond New Orleans.

“The artists who make up The Public's season are prophetic voices, who will give us sustenance, vision and provocation," Artistic Director Oskar Eustis said. "James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry are the two classic writers who speak most presciently to the crisis of our times. Suzan-Lori Parks, James Ijames and Erika Dickerson-Despenza are brilliant contemporary writers whose work reflects our moment beautifully. Ryan J. Haddad brilliantly explodes our ideas about disability, while Madeline Sayet examines her relationship to Shakespeare through her Mohegan identity and perspective.”