Joe Papp in Five Acts tells the story of this indomitable,champion of the arts. As founder of The Public Theater, Free Shakespeare in the Park and producer of groundbreaking plays like Hair, A Chorus Line and for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, Papp believed great art was for everyone, not just a privileged few. A cultural change agent for more than fifty years, Papp’s stages held up a mirror to society with work that reflected the reality of people’s lives.

More than perhaps any other cultural figure in recent history, Papp worked to expand public access to the arts. “We have public libraries,” he would argue, “Why not public theaters?” Papp recognized the role artists could play in building a more democratic, inclusive society. At a time when theatre was largely the domain of white men, he was convinced that women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and other marginalized communities, denied power elsewhere in society, could develop it on the stage. His goal was a “theater of inclusion” on-stage, backstage, and in the audience.

Featuring rare footage from the 50s to Papp’s death in 1991, and up-close scenes from the performances themselves, Joe Papp in Five Acts tells his own story without narration. His great accomplishments and his own, often tumultuous, personal history is told by the artists he helped create—and, in some cases, tried to destroy—including actors Kevin Kline, James Earl Jones, Meryl Streep, Olympia Dukakis, Mandy Patinkin, Martin Sheen, Christopher Walken and playwrights Larry Kramer, David Hare, Ntozake Shange, George C. Wolfe, David Rabe, and Liz Swados, among others.