This article is about one of the most popular American festivals, which offers both locals and tourists free theatrical performances of plays by the famous English writer William Shakespeare. Read more about the festival’s origins and work on manhattanski.
The birth of the festival
Shakespeare in the Park is an annual free summer theater program dedicated to Shakespearean performances. Traditionally, this event is held at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater located on 81st Street in Manhattan’s Central Park. The theater is managed by the American artistic organization The Public Theater.
The first free Shakespearean performances were offered and conducted by the American theater producer and director Joseph Papp in 1954. The first themed events were held in the parks of the Lower East Side in Manhattan. But later the Off-Broadway theater was moved to the lawn of Central Park, which is near Turtle Pond. Interest in the festival grew. By then the number of spectators had grown to several thousand.
Theater construction
Due to the festival’s high profile, disputes soon arose with Park Commissioner Robert Moses, who demanded that Joseph charge visitors $1-2 per ticket to cover the cost of replacing the grass that was being damaged by theatergoers. Papp did not agree to this, so for one year they had a terrible argument. When J. Papp decided to solve the problem by legal means, the commissioner eventually relented and offered an alternative – to build a theater in the park, which would later be called The Delacorte Theater.
The local authorities allocated about $250,000 for this purpose. The design was done by architects from the Parks Department. It was planned to open in 1961. But due to lack of funds, construction was completed in 1962. The theater opened with a performance of The Merchant of Venice starring James Earl Jones and George C. Scott. In general, the built-up area looked like an amphitheater and could accommodate 1,872 spectators. The audience area had a semicircular stepped shape. The stage was quite large and in close proximity to the audience. A turtle pond is next to the theater, which adds a great atmosphere and comfort.
Theater plays
Later, The Delacorte Theater staged such plays as Much Ado About Nothing starring Sam Waterston, as well as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, Othello, Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida, All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Timon of Athens, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Henry V, The Life and Death of King John, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Richard II, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Wars of the Roses, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. In addition to Shakespeare’s plays, the theater also stages plays by Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and others (Peer Gynt, Electra, The Threepenny Opera, The Pirates of Penzance starring Kevin Kline, etc.).
Recognition and popularity
Shakespeare in the Park has become so popular that some of the plays of the summer festival have even been staged in Broadway theaters, including The Tempest, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, etc. Also, thanks to its activities, the festival was able to attract many famous actors, such as Al Pacino, Morgan Freeman, Meryl Streep and Martin Sheen.
In general, the Shakespeare in the Park festival continues to be extremely popular today, both among the local population and tourists. Every year, about 80,000 people attend Shakespearean performances, which is a high figure.
It is also worth noting that in 2020, the festival was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, the reconstruction of The Delacorte Theater began.