Memories of Joseph Papp Abound at Public Theater Celebration

NYTimes.com: Fresh out of the Yale School of Drama in 1975, Meryl Streep was 90 minutes late for her first audition with Joseph Papp, the artistic director of the Public Theater and the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. Her train from New Haven had been delayed, and there were, of course, no cellphones or e-mail then. She arrived to find Papp sitting in one of his signature white suits, his impatience conveyed with a grimace and twitchy crossed-leg kicks. Yet a few minutes later, the potential of a great actress had transformed his mood, and soon he was offering a small role to Ms. Streep in what would be her Broadway debut: “Trelawny of the ‘Wells’” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, in an era when acting work in New York was hard to find.