Shakespeare in the Park is putting on a production of The Tempest at the Delacorte Theater on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and it just might blow your mind. For one thing, as many as 200 people will be on the stage at the same time.
The Public Theater reached out to five neighborhood groups to engage people from throughout the city in the performance. “We’re actually going to take the life of the city and put it on stage,” said Oskar Eustis, the artistic director at the Public Theater. It’s not entirely clear how it will work, but the video below offers some clues.
Getting tickets is similar to the usual Shakespeare in the Park process: you can wait in line for tickets that will be handed out at noon or attempt to win an online lottery. Learn more here.
“Free Public Works Tickets will be distributed, two per person, at 12:00 p.m. on the day of the show at the Delacorte Theater. Free tickets will be available via the Virtual Ticketing drawing on the day of the performance. Summer Supporter tickets are also available for a tax-deductible donation of $75 each. For information and to donate, call 212-967-7555.”
Patrick Stewart as Prospero in 1995 was one of the best Shakespeare in the Park production. Then they tried to capitalize on that success and put it on Broadway, which didn’t fare well as the free one in the park.
This one? “We’re actually going to take the life of the city and put it on stage,”
Am skeptical, even though it’s free. Better off seeing the life on the city unfold in front of me, but not on stage.
“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”