Research Paper on Joe Papp
Josef Yossil Papirofsky popularly known as Joe Papp was born on 22 June 1921 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. He was the second born of four children of Samuel and Yetta Papirofsky. Both of his parents were of a Jewish descent, with his father being a trunk maker, and his mother was a seam-stress. Josef Yossil was the one who gave himself the nickname Mr. Papp, when he shortened his name one time when he was filling a time-clock record, while working at the CBS. Asked later about why he did this he said that he felt his name had extra vowels that should be removed.Growing up Papp’s first language was Yiddish. However, from an early age, English, and the operations of the theatre fascinated him. When he was in the first grade he played as Scrooge in one of the school’s plays.
He attended the eastern District High School, where, Miss McKay, his English teacher, influenced him. He later on stated that Miss McKay was the one who inspired him to produce plays to the public without charging them tickets to come to the theater i.e. he wanted the public to enjoy free shows. The works of Shakespeare were also an inspiration to his life, and they motivated him to want to be in the theater business (ROTHSTEIN, 1991).While he was in school, Papp was excellent in English. However, he was a poor student in both math and science, and this meant that he could not receive a college level education. This did not deter him from his dreams and he began working low paying jobs holding various capacities around Brooklyn. In 1942, he enlisted to be in the Navy, and served under the Special Services Division. During this period, he wrote and staged various performances for his navy companions that he was serving with at that time. After the end of his duties, he moved to Hollywood to join the Actors’ Laboratory Theater.
This was an experimental theater troupe at that time but it provided him with a chance to study what it entailed to be able to produce successful plays. He stayed with the group, serving under different capacities, and even at one time, he was the managing director. Luck was on his side and it enabled him to become an under-study of Biff as a stage manager for the national tour of ‘Death of a Salesman.’ The only reason why he was employed to work in this capacity was because the show producer had mistaken him to be the nephew of a famous producer at that time known as Kermit Bloomgarden. After working as a stage manager, Papp began to produce and direct plays that were highly criticized especially outside New York. They were considered to be of low quality and produced by an amateur. This did not deter him from his dreams. Between 1952 to 1960 he worked as a stage manager for CBS. At one time, he was fired because …
