Joseph Papp(Theatrical Producer) - Research Paper Example

At the age of twelve years, Papp had already learned a gig as a soprano boy at a Sephardic synagogue in Brooklyn. Since then, he developed an interest in theatre, and to him intolerance was a greater threat than poverty (Horn 21). He was also the pioneer of the New York Shakespeare Festival and the public Theatre and he was the most important person in the American theatre during the second phase of the 20th century. Although he was not so good a student in academic work, Joseph Papp went to the Actors Laboratory Theatre College, which was situated in Hollywood where he studied acting and directing from the year 1946 to 1948.

With the help of his teachers, he was able to feel a strong urge for Shakespeare (Horn 23). This made him to get a position as an assistant stage director of the national touring company of an Arthur Millers “Death of a salesman,” (Ullom, 24) two years after graduating from the Actors Laboratory Theatre. He started the New York Shakespeare Festival after working for closely to two years as an assistant director for the CBS in New York City. The New York Festival that he started became so different organization from other theatrical institutions in that it was able to provide free and unrestricted presentations and performances of Shakespeare’s dramas across different places within the New York City, comprising the outdoor production at the Central Park.

When the company was given the Delacorte Theatre as their lasting base, JosephPapp worked for a long time with little pay just to make sure that he established the festival by remaining the decision maker of the festival while producing and directing most of the dramas and plays by himself (Epstein 33). Papp later started again the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre, in 1967, whose primary function was to look upon modern and tentative dramas. The majority of its productions in the end travelled to