Free Shakespeare in the Park Returning to Redone Delacorte Theater This Summer: Details

By Bonnie Eissner

For more than a year, the only sounds emanating from the Delacorte Theater in Central Park have been the clangs, beeps, and booms of construction, and, in downtimes, the scratches and howls of the park’s resident theater visitors — raccoons and, recently, a pair of coyotes (aptly dubbed Romeo and Juliet by two local photographers who have been following them). 

But on August 7, after a hiatus of over a year, actors’ voices will once again ring out as Free Shakespeare in the Park returns to the renovated theater with Twelfth Night, starring Lupita Nyong’o, Sandra Oh, and Peter Dinklage, and directed by Saheem Ali.

West Side Rag was invited to a behind-the-scenes tour of the Delacorte last week, and it’s clear that the $85 million overhaul was worth the wait and expense and will enable the Public Theater, which operates the Delacorte, to sustain the vision of its founder, Joseph Papp, to make extraordinary theater available to everyone.

With the Delacorte’s infrastructure upgrades — permanent wiring, rebuilt lighting towers — the Public intends to extend its Free Shakespeare in the Park season.

“Our hope is next summer to start performing towards the end of May, and not stop performing until the middle of September,” said Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public, who co-led the tour with Patrick Willingham, the Public’s executive director, and Stephen Chu of Ennead Architects, the renovation’s lead architect. 

In the past, the season ran from June through early September, with an intermission of about three weeks after the first production to mount the second one. 

A stretched, nonstop season, Eustis said, would yield an additional 20 performances for 40,000 more people. That doesn’t bring more money, he noted. “The riches that matter,” he said, are “being able to serve that many more people.” 

And the people who come will have an elevated and more comfortable experience.

Just walking up to the theater is a treat.

In place of the former dull, worn cedar façade is a bright, textured, cantilevered one made of Redwood reclaimed from 25 New York City water towers. The theater’s organic, elegant, yet unfussy exterior complements its park surroundings. The revitalized Delacorte is both in and of the park. 

Ringing the theater is a canopy that extends up to 18 feet, which will shade and shield patrons. 

Inside, the familiar green seats are wider — 19 to 22 inches, with 16 27-inch seats. Importantly, a prime viewing row in the middle of the theater is reserved for wheelchair users, with two audience ramps leading to it.

The previous pine flooring, painted battleship gray, which rotted continuously, Willingham said, has been replaced by Kebony, a wood product from New Zealand treated to withstand the elements. That means fewer repairs and a natural look that complements the park setting.

Beneath the wood is corrugated steel. Patrons won’t notice it, but cast and crew members will because it will make the backstage area, where the likes of Meryl Streep and James Earl Jones once dodged raindrops, watertight. 

Actors will also experience what Willingham described as a “mind-blowing” transformation to the cinder block dressing rooms and mildewy bathrooms. 

“There are actors who wanted to work here, and after taking a look at the conditions, felt like they couldn’t,” Eustis said. “I think that will change.”

Six bright, well-lit, air-conditioned dressing rooms and clean, gender-neutral bathrooms and showers now await performers.

The tour didn’t venture into the restrooms next to the Delacorte that are heavily used by patrons, and which have gotten a needed $10 million gut renovation, funded by the city and the Central Park Conservancy. Willingham reassured, though, that the women’s room includes 11 new stalls.

“This will probably be the first time in our history that women will get to see the beginning of the second act of Free Shakespeare in the Park,” Willingham said, wryly, attributing the line to Eustis. 

Willingham and Eustis took rightful pride in pointing out that the stage is now fully accessible to cast and crew via a ramp, and an elevator now reaches the control booth at the back of the theater. 

“Anybody can work in this theater,” Willingham said. “It has the most accessible stage area and dressing room area in the city. Again, it’s just wildly important for us to be able to send that message that this is how you deliver a people’s theater.” 

Twelfth Night will run at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park from August 7 through September 14.

There are five ways to access free tickets:

Distribution in Central Park

Free tickets are distributed at the Delacorte at noon on performance days. There are lines for general distribution, for seniors (ages 65 and over), and for people with disabilities. The lines can get long, so plan to arrive early. 

TodayTix Mobile Ticket Lottery 

On each performance date, a limited number of free tickets are distributed via random mobile lottery on the TodayTix app. 

In the Five Boroughs

On specific dates, a limited number of vouchers for that night’s performance will be distributed at a location in one of New York’s five boroughs. 

Downtown Lottery

On each performance date, a limited number of vouchers for that night’s performance will be distributed via an in-person lottery downtown at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street at Astor Place. Sign-up begins at 11:30 a.m., and the lottery will be drawn at noon.

Standby Line

On each performance date, an in-person standby line for tickets will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets will be distributed when available until the performance begins.

Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.