Theater News

Public Theater Announces 2015's Free Shakespeare in the Park Season

Michael Greif will direct ”Law & Order”’s Sam Waterston in ”The Tempest”.

Sam Waterston will star as Prospero in the 2015 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Tempest.
Sam Waterston will star as Prospero in the 2015 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Tempest.
(© David Gordon)

The Public Theater has announced the lineup for its 2015 season of free Shakespeare in the Park productions playing at the Delacorte Theater. This season will feature feature Shakespeare’s late romances The Tempest, directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, from May 27-July 5, and Cymbeline, directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan, from July 27-August 23.

The Tempest will feature the return of Oscar and Tony nominee Sam Waterston (Law & Order) to the Delacorte stage as Prospero. The production will mark his 13th Shakespearean production at the Public.

"With these two gorgeous productions, we will have produced all of Shakespeare’s late romances in one season, The Winter’s Tale in Public Works and Pericles with the Mobile Unit," said Artistic Director Oskar Eustis in a statement. "These wise, magical, and emotional works were Shakespeare’s climactic achievement in the theater. In these plays, hope can be found in the darkest hour, every loss can be restored, and even death is not permanent."

Conceived by founder Joe Papp as a way to make great theater accessible to all, the 2015 Shakespeare in the Park season continues a 53-year tradition of free theater in Central Park. Since 1962, over 5 million people have enjoyed more than 150 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at the Delacorte Theater.

Tickets to Shakespeare in the Park productions are distributed at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park on the day of the show, two tickets maximum per person. The Public Theater will also again offer free tickets through its Virtual Ticketing lottery on the day of the show.

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