The Public Theater and International Rescue Committee present Welcome Home: A Celebration of World Refugee Day June 20 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The one-night-only event features readings and performances by a host of stars, including Bobby Cannavale, F. Murray Abraham, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Hoon Lee and Michael Cerveris; as well as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, who is leading a naturalization ceremony for new citizens.
The evening is part of the Public鈥檚 free Forum events; it kicks off with the naturalization ceremony at 7 PM, followed by the Forum program beginning at 7:30 PM.
Other performers include Okieriete Onaodowan, K鈥檔aan, Salman Rushdie, Kwame Kwei-Armah, David Henry Hwang, Natalie Cortez, John Ellison Conlee, Omar Metwally, Roc铆o Del Mar Valles, Nicholas Schmidle, Ato Blankson-Wood, Nicolas Niarchos and Condola Rashad.
Highlights of the evening include Abraham reading Shakespeare鈥檚 incendiary plea for refugees from Sir Thomas More; a performance of a song by K鈥檔aan; Cerveris performing 鈥淏etter Angels鈥� from Tom Kitt鈥檚 new musical The Visitor; Lee reading a work by Hwang; a chorus of New York City schoolchildren reading Emma Lazarus鈥� 鈥淭he New Colossus鈥�; Kwei-Armah reading John Winthrop鈥檚 鈥淎 Model of Christian Charity鈥�; Cortez performing 鈥淭here Is a Child鈥� from The Public鈥檚 Giant; and more.
鈥淎merica is a nation created by refugees; and at our best we have welcomed immigrants from across the globe, many fleeing persecution and oppression in their homelands,鈥� said artistic director Oskar Eustis in an earlier press statement. 鈥淭he pilgrims were refugees at Plymouth Rock, and The Public and IRC are proud to celebrate the best of American traditions, the welcome embodied by that lady in New York harbor.鈥�
Free Public Forum tickets will be distributed, two per person, at the Delacorte Theater beginning at noon.
(Updated June 20, 2016)
