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Free Man of Color
by John Guare
directed by George C. Wolfe
originally produced at Public Theater,
New York, NY.
January 1,1900
through January 1, 1900
About the Premiere Production:
In their first collaboration, theater powerhouses John Guare and George C. Wolfe team up to bring us an historical comedy of epic proportions. A Free Man of Color re-creates the sexually progressive New Orleans of 1802 when the landscape of race was shifting and the Louisiana Purchase could complete America’s unfinished maps. Featuring a host of historical characters including Napoleon, Josephine, Jefferson, Talleyrand, and others (you name ‘em, they’re in it), A Free Man of Color is a racially charged re-telling of America’s coming of age. Both uproarious and profound, this grand production is all at once a hilarious sex farce, a tale of international intrigue and a story of slave rebellion. Free Man of Color is scheduled to open in 2010.
Artistic Statement
From Artistic Director Oskar Eustis:
A Free Man of Color is exactly the kind of play the Public Theater was born to produce. Written by one of America’s greatest playwrights, John Guare, it would never have existed without the Public: we commissioned it from John, and in the commissioning asked for a play on the largest and most public scale imaginable. What John has created is a meditation on American history that is as original as it is profound. It also marks John’s first new work for the Public Theater in over a quarter of a century, and as such is a wonderful homecoming.
Free Man of Color was written for George C. Wolfe, our longtime artistic director, to direct, and for Jeffrey Wright, a longtime Public mainstay, to star in. It concerns the brief period in New Orleans before the Louisiana Purchase, where under lax Spanish oversight we had a moment in which it was possible to imagine an alternaive future for America, where race was not an absolute definition of identity. In the course of the play, that Edenic Republic becomes an Empire and America is changed forever.
This is a play that matters, and it asserts that theater matters. It tackles some of the thorniest issues we have in wildly funny and theatrical terms. It brings together some of our greatest theater artists, black and white, to create a production that people will be talking about for years to come.
Director: George C. Wolfe
Featuring: Mos Def and Jeffrey Wright
Additional Funders:
The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust provides leadership support for The Public’s year-round activities.