Joe Papp in Five Acts

Joe Papp, the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival and, subsequently, The Public Theaterarguably the most important theatre in North Americais profiled in this documentary that neither sanctifies nor vilifies him. He brought us free Shakespeare in the Park, Hair and A Chorus Line, and nurtured many of Americas greatest playwrights, directors and actors. His complex personality and mercurial behavior are much in evidence and spoken of with frankness through interviews with some of Americas most celebrated artists, including Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Kevin Kline, and James Earl Jones.