The Public Theater^303
Paula ScherPaula Scher (b. 1948 ) is not a native New
Yorker, but she has acquired the self-
assured, sarcastic, and abrupt elocutions of
one. Scher believes that the best way to
communicate to New Yorkers is to shout.
“What better way to get a message across
than for someone to yell something like
‘I’m pregnant!’ down a corridor; it’s better
than the Internet,” she said. And this is
exactly how she designs for The Public
Theater. She shouts with type—boldly and
unmistakably.
Scher’s posters for The Public’s
1995 season, only a component of a larger
shouting campaign, have been included in
virtually all the design annuals and shows,
but one has to be a New Yorker (or at least
from the environs) to truly appreciate the
impact of The Public’s language on the
public. This is not the typically benign
illustration sandwiched between layers of
billing and flowery hyperbole. Rather,
Scher’s cacophony of disparate woodtypes, silhouetted photos, and bright,
flat colors is more akin to the two-color rag bond or oak tag bills produced
by job printers or run off at Kinko’s to advertise circuses, county fairs, prize
fights, and dance bands—the kind that are stapled and wheat pasted every
time the New York sanitation authority’s back is turned. Scher’s scheme,
inspired by today’s street graphics and yesterday’s Victorian playbills, was
purposefully designed to appeal to a broad audience, from the inner city to
the outer boroughs, especially those who have not been attracted to the
theater before and for whom the typical “Broadway style” of advertising
says exclusion.
Scher’s street-based campaign supported the vision of The Public’s
creative director, George C. Wolfe, the director of such plays as The Colored
Museum,Angels in America, and Jelly’s Last Jam. After taking over in 1993 ,
three years following the death of impresario Joseph Papp, The Public’s