NEWSLETTER
Performances Begin with a Joseph Papp Free Performance on Wednesday, May 13 and Now Will Run Through Sunday, June 28;
Official Press Opening is Thursday, June 4
New York, N.Y. (May 6, 2026) – The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) has announced a one-week extension ahead of the world premiere production of GIRL, INTERRUPTED, written by Martyna Majok and based on the memoir by Susanna Kaysen. The new stage adaptation features music by Aimee Mann, with choreography by Sonya Tayeh and direction by Jo Bonney. GIRL, INTERRUPTED will begin performances in The Public’s Martinson Hall on Wednesday, May 13 with a Joseph Papp Free Performance. The production will now run through Sunday, June 28 with an official opening night on Thursday, June 4.
Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Martyna Majok brings GIRL, INTERRUPTED to The Public for its stirring world premiere. Based on Susanna Kaysen’s bestselling memoir, this empowering new theatrical production features original music by two-time Grammy Award winner Aimee Mann, choreography by Tony Award winner Sonya Tayeh, and direction by Tony Award nominee Jo Bonney. When Susanna admits herself to a psychiatric hospital, following a 15-minute session with a doctor she’d never met, she forms unexpected bonds with the young women inside as they search for connection and a way forward. Raw and unapologetic, this new play with music reveals that the people who witness our darkest moments are often those who truly see us.
The complete cast of GIRL, INTERRUPTED includes Leela Bassuk (Understudy), Ta’Rea Campbell (Valerie), Gabi Campo (Tori), Juliana Canfield (Susanna), Eileen Doan (Understudy), Manoel Felciano (Man/Musician), King Princess (Lisa), Gunnar Manchester (Understudy), Mia Pak (Grace), Katherine Reis (Daisy), Anna Roman (Understudy), Sally Shaw (Polly), Emily Skinner (Dr. Wick), Rachel Stern (Understudy), and Lauren Jeanne Thomas (Judy/Musician).
GIRL, INTERRUPTED features scenic design by dots, costume design by Sarah Laux, lighting design by Heather Gilbert, sound design and composition by Dan Moses Schreier, hair, wig, and makeup design by J. Jared Janas, and prop management by Claire M. Kavanah. Todd Almond provides orchestrations for the production and serves as the music supervisor. Andrea Grody is the music director. Patrick Mulryan is the dialect coach. Deborah Lapidus is the vocal coach. Sarah Lunnie is the production’s dramaturg. Molly Meg Legal will be the production stage manager. Michael Medina and Tiffanie Lane will be the stage managers.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI-NYC) is proud to join The Public Theater in support of this production. NAMI-NYC provides mental health classes, 30 support groups, family mentoring, multilingual Helpline, workplace mental health trainings, educational presentations, and much more. NAMI-NYC's services are free of charge and accessible to anyone who needs them. CEO Maggie G. Mortali, MPH will join a post-performance talkback in June. Learn more about NAMI-NYC's services, programs, and advocacy at naminyc.org.
Additionally, The Jed Foundation is proud to be a resource partner for The Public Theater on this production of GIRL, INTERRUPTED.
In just a few weeks, Free Shakespeare in the Park returns to the newly revitalized Delacorte Theater this summer with ROMEO & JULIET, directed by Public Theater Associate Artistic Director Saheem Ali, and THE WINTER’S TALE, directed by Delacorte veteran Daniel Sullivan. Shakespeare will be shared across the five boroughs with Mobile Unit’s AS YOU LIKE IT, directed by Emma Rosa Went. The Public’s annual Public Works’ production will also return to the Delacorte Theater for a limited engagement of the North American premiere of PUBLIC RECORD, the creation of a live album onstage, based on a concept by Dan Canham and Emily Lim. Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring, with music by Michael Thurber, direction by Emily Lim, and co-direction and choreography by Dan Canham, this electrifying new production stands as an act of collective hope, joy, and resistance.
The Library serves food and drink beginning at 5:00 p.m. and closing at midnight. The Library is closed on Mondays. For more information, visit publictheater.org.
BIOS:
MARTYNA MAJOK (Book) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her Broadway debut play, Cost of Living, which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Other plays include Queens, Sanctuary City, Ironbound, and the libretto for Gatsby: An American Myth, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett. Awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, Arthur Miller Foundation Legacy Award, Obie Award for Playwriting, Hull-Warriner Award, Academy of Arts and Letters’ Benjamin Hadley Danks Award for Exceptional Playwriting, Off Broadway Alliance Best New Play Award, Princeton's Hodder Fellowship, Lark / PoNY Fellowship, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, Hermitage Greenfield Prize, Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office, Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, Lanford Wilson Prize, Lilly Award, Helen Merrill Award, Helen Hayes Awards' Charles MacArthur Award, Jean Kennedy Smith Award, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream, among others. Majok is currently adapting Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 for Broadway and is working on several feature film adaptations, including Audition, which she will co-write with Lulu Wang. Her first screenplay, Preparation for the Next Life, was just released in theaters.
SUSANNA KAYSEN (Author of Girl, Interrupted) has written the novels Cambridge, Asa, As I Knew Him and Far Afield and the memoirs Girl, Interrupted and The Camera My Mother Gave Me. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
AIMEE MANN (Music) is one of the most distinguished singer-songwriters of her generation. Her successful solo career has spanned several decades with several Grammy nominations, two Grammy Awards, and the release of nine critically acclaimed solo albums, including the profoundly popular soundtrack for the film Magnolia, which garnered an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for Best Song in 2000. Time magazine has said, “Mann has the same skill that great tunesmiths like McCartney and Neil Young have: the knack for writing simple, beautiful, instantly engaging songs,” while NPR voted her one of the “Top 10 Best Living Songwriters” along with Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. Her release in 2017 called Mental Illness won her a Grammy for Best Folk Album. Her latest release Queens of the Summer Hotel came out to critical acclaim. It is based on music she wrote for the stage adaptation of the memoir Girl, Interrupted. Earlier in her musical life, Mann fronted the band Til Tuesday, releasing three albums. She has also made numerous memorable cameo appearances in films such as The Big Lebowski and TV shows like “Portlandia” and “The Daily Show.”
SONYA TAYEH (Choreography) is a creative visionary whose work relating to the body in motion explores many different worlds. She is the dance backbone behind numerous stage and screen projects, notably in Moulin Rouge! The Musical, for which she won the Tony Award for outstanding choreography. Produced on stages globally, Tayeh has gleaned many accolades for her distinguished work across genres on both stage and screen including two Emmy nominations, an Obie Award, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, and a Critics Circle Award. Her work has been characterized as a powerful weaving of versatility and theatrical range constructing onstage worlds for which she has been lauded for her chameleon-like choreography and ability to adapt her storytelling to any scale. For a deeper look inside Tayeh’s work visit sonyatayeh.com.
JO BONNEY (Director) has directed the premieres of plays by Alan Ball, Hilary Bettis, Eric Bogosian, Eleanor Burgess, Hammaad Chaudry, Culture Clash, Eve Ensler, Jessica Goldberg, Isaac Gomez, Danny Hoch, Ione Patricia Lloyd, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Martyna Majok, Lynn Nottage, Dan O'Brien, Dael Orlandersmith, Suzan-Lori Parks, Darci Picoult, John Pollono, Will Power, David Rabe, Jose Rivera, Abby Rosebrock, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Alexis Scheer, Christopher Shinn, Diana Son, John Turturro & Ariel Levy, Universes, Naomi Wallace, and Michael Weller. Bonney has also directed plays by Caryl Churchill, Nilo Cruz, Anna Deavere Smith, Charles Fuller, Lisa Loomer, Paul Lucas, Carey Perloff, and Lanford Wilson. Bonney received a Tony Award nomination for Direction of Cost of Living, two Obie Awards for Sustained Excellence of Direction, Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Musical and Best Revival, Drama Desk nomination for Direction of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, AUDELCO Award for Father Comes Home from the Wars, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, Alliance, and Lilly Award. Bonney is the editor of Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (TCG).
THE PUBLIC continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation’s first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public’s wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City’s five boroughs, Public Works, and Joe’s Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 64 Tony Awards, 197 Obie Awards, 62 Drama Desk Awards, 64 Lortel Awards, 36 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, 70 AUDELCO Awards, 6 Antonyo Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes. publictheater.org
The Public Theater stands in honor of the first inhabitants and our ancestors. We acknowledge the land on which The Public and its theaters stand—the original homeland of the Lenape people. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this territory. We honor the generations of stewards and we pay our respects to the many diverse indigenous peoples still connected to this land.
Produced by special arrangement with Barbara Broccoli, Angelica Zollo, Patrick Milling-Smith,
Brian Carmody, and Level Forward.
Generous production support is provided by the Laurents / Hatcher Foundation and the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
TICKET INFORMATION
GIRL, INTERRUPTED begins performances in The Public’s Martinson Hall with the Joseph Papp Free Performance on Wednesday, May 13. The production officially opens on Thursday, June 4 and runs through Sunday, June 28, following a one-week extension.
Tickets are available now and can be accessed by visiting publictheater.org, calling 212.967.7555, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street.
The Public’s Joseph Papp Free Performance initiative will offer free tickets to the performance on Wednesday, May 13 through TodayTix. The Lottery will open for entries today, Wednesday, May 6, and will close at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13. Winners will be notified by email and push notification anytime from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., and if selected, winners will have one hour to claim their tickets.
The performance schedule is Tuesday through Sunday at 7:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. (There will be no 1:00 p.m. performance on Saturday, May 16 or May 17.)
The Audio Described and Open Captioned performance will be on Saturday, June 20 at 1:00 p.m.
The full performance calendar can be found at publictheater.org.
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