Monster Mash: Public Theater plans a facelift; Tracy Letts in ‘Virginia Woolf’; big bucks at arts fair

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--Stretching out: New York’s Public Theater has launched a $35-million, two-year project to fix up its facade and expand and modernize the lobby and other common areas. (Bloomberg)

--Center stage: Actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts (‘August: Osage County’) and veteran ensemble member Amy Morton will play George and Martha in Edward Albee’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ in one highlight of the 2010-2011 season announced by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. (Chicago Tribune)

--A really big show: A record 263 dealers will offer an estimated $2.7 billion in paintings and other pieces in hopes of luring wealthy buyers to the 23rd annual European Fine Art Fair -- a.k.a. Tefaf -- the world’s largest art and antiques fair, which is opening in the Dutch city of Maastricht. (Bloomberg)

--In style: Veteran Broadway and Hollywood costume designer Albert Wolsky, an Oscar winner for ‘All That Jazz’ and ‘Bugsy,’ will receive the T.D.F./Irene Sharaff lifetime achievement award in New York. (New York Times)

--Tough topics: Eight artists from around the world are taking on serious subjects such as consumerism and globalization with a chance at winning serious money -- about $60,000 -- in the fourth Artes Mundi prize exhibition in Cardiff, Wales. (Guardian)

--Reemerging: The New York City Opera plans a lean new season of five productions -- including Leonard Bernstein’s ‘A Quiet Place,’ a revival of Strauss’ ‘Intermezzo’ and the first opera by Stephen Schwartz (‘Pippin,’ ‘Wicked’) -- as well as a series of concert performances. (New York Times)

--And in the L.A. Times: Suicides are casting a shadow on the government’s prosecution of looting cases involving Native American artifacts in the Southwest.

-- Karen Wada

Above: Actor Sam Waterston and Gail Papp, Public Theater board member and widow of founder Joe Papp, participate in the groundbreaking Tuesday for the theater’s expansion and modernization project. Credit: Jemel Countess / Getty Images