Shakespeare in the Park

On Tuesday, June 5th, The Public Theater in New York City will be holding “Shakespeare in the Park”, an event that is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The Shakespeare workshop was founded by Joseph Papp back in 1962 and is now recognized as a distinguished cultural institution. The Public Theater, conducting free plays and musicals in the Delacourt Theater in Central Park, has housed a variety of Shakespearean classics such as Richard III in 1990 with Denzel Washington; Othello in 1991 with Raul Julia and Christopher Walken, and Twelfth Night in 2009 with Anne Hathaway.

This summer’s production will be As You Like It, from June 5th until June 30th. As You Like It has all of the drama, humour, and romance that you would expect of a Shakespearean comedy. It opens with our main character Rosalind being banished to the Forest of Arden. Love affairs soon arise and the forest that once seemed like a perfect escape turns into a wild adventure. Shakespeare seems to toy with soap opera cliches in his melancholy Jacques, love-obsessed Orlando, and dim-witted Audrey. “As You Like It presents a world in which clashing viewpoints on divisive matters eventually coexist. The reconciling tolerance and acceptance that Rosalind embodies ensures a newer, stabler kind of society, one that can laugh at itself.” (Shakespeare For Beginners)

“All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts.”
(Act II, scene viii)

For more information on Shakespeare in the Park visit: http://www.shakespeareinthepark.org/

-Claire Kennedy

Summer Intern