The Diva Is Dismissed

Paula Scher · 1994 · Offset lithograph, production poster

One of the first production posters from Scher's new Public Theater identity, made for Jenifer Lewis's one-woman show, co-written and directed by Randolph-Wright, in a limited engagement downtown. Lewis's face is reproduced as a duotone knockout in ultramarine on chrome yellow, then bound and gagged by diagonal bands of compressed wood-type lettering that carry the title and credits at hard angles. The gesture is theatrical and slightly violent, a visual pun on being silenced and dismissed, and it proved the identity could stretch to a single performer without losing its voice. The full Public Theater program was later acquired for the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt.

The Public was about making theater feel like it belonged on the street, not in a lobby.Paula Scher

View this poster in The 29 Collection