PUBLIC/PRIVATE blends a behind-the-scenes view of the Public Theater's dazzling history with an affecting memoir of the author's life with Joe Papp. She opens with the Public's beginnings in the Sixties and Seventies and the twenty-five year association the couple enjoyed, staging staged hundreds of productions, from Shakespeare in the Park to such musicals as Hair and A Chorus Line, and plays like for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (currently re-mounted on Broadway with seven TONY award nominations)—with actors whose careers were launched at the Public, including James Earl Jones, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Sheen, Gloria Foster, George C. Scott, and Morgan Freeman, all of whom appear in stories Gail Papp tells in the book.

The author explores Joe Papp's creative process, highlighting how the Public was fueled by his ambition to create a producing home focused on original plays and musicals from new voices while employing non-traditional casting, which made it a haven for many of the most creative people in American popular culture. She traces the founding of the Shakespeare Festival, when its role was for a time limited to small venues around New York City, later moving into Central Park where its Shakespeare renditions became an indelible feature of summer in the city, and the Public's evolution into cultural renown and national significance, a lasting beacon of social change.