Photo by Joan Marcus.

Sandwiched in-between he monolith musicals that stormed their way from the West End to Broadway throughout the 1980s (Evita, Cats, Les Miserables, etc.) was a different kind of British import, one that was, in fact, given new life by an American. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a 1985 Public Theater production, was musicalized and adapted from no less British a source than Charles Dickens himself. But there’s a hitch – “Drood” was the novel Dickens was working on upon his death, and it remained unfinished, the plot unresolved, the mystery unsolved.

Lyricist/librettist/scorer/orchestrator Rupert Holmes, the writer-musician behind such pop hits as “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” and “Him,” as well as the smart bio-play Say Goodnight Gracie, found a way to theatricalize this seemingly dead-end show with a meta move that predates Charlie Kaufman’s work by more than a decade. The proper plot of “Drood” is merely the meat of a show-within-a-show, set within the London Music Hall Royale in 1895, as an acting troupe performs “Drood” as an incomplete play, so the cast plays both singing Dickensian characters as well as hammy actors on various spots along the insecure-egotistical actors’ spectrum, mugging for audience love.

The inner plot is this: in Cloisterham, Drood (a gender-crossing Stephanie Block) is the nephew of John Jasper (a superb Will Chase), a twisted cleric who smokes opium provided by Princess Puffer (Chita Rivera) and pines for singing pupil Rosa Bud (Betsy Wolfe), who is engaged to Drood. Rosa is also the affectionate object for the Sri Lankan-esque Neville Landless, who has come from the British colony of Ceylon with his twin sister Helena; the rapscallion-like siblings, drenched in tan makeup, are played to the hilt by Andy Karl and Jessie Mueller. Jim Norton is The Chairman, a mutton-chopped host who introduces the action and characters, tongue often planted severely firmly in cheek.

After Drood disappears on Christmas Eve and is presumed dead, the outer layer of Drood begins, and it’s when the audience plays its role that director Scott Ellis really shows off his flair for moving slick shows like well-oiled machinery. There isn’t a clumsy misstep as the cast – which includes fine performances by Peter Benson, Robert Creighton, and especially Gregg Edelman in smaller roles – exhorts the audience in character to determine a villain, a detective, and a couple to fall in love at show’s end. It’s all very cute, but despite a winning, albeit slight, score that includes “Moonfall,” “No Good Can Come From Bad” and “Perfect Strangers,” Drood is more of a curio than a classic. Few of the technical elements, such as Brian Nason’s distracting lighting or Warren Carlyle’s serviceable choreography lift the musical to any greater heights, although I did occasionally find myself salivating over William Ivey Long’s dancehall era costumes.

No, Drood isn’t the kind of show that lingers, ultimately, but what does last is the sight of a talented cast clearly enjoying their part in this lighthearted show. Block, in great voice, is a comic triumph as Drood and Alice Nutting, her actress-y “outer role,” and it’s nice to see workhorse actor Karl continue his climb to musical stardom. Chase is magnetic, and even if her singing is a little wanting, Rivera looks like she is having a ball onstage (has she ever not?). Most especially though, just as she did last year in On A Clear Day…, the magnetic Mueller damn near steals the show. I cannot wait to see this gifted talent play the lead soon.

In the meantime, I have only one other quibble with the show. Why did no one serve piña coladas?

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St. Thru Feb. 10. www.roundabouttheatre.org.

‘Robokid’ Takes On East Village
East Village resident Jakob Kraus, 7, who has earned the moniker “Robokid,” is a self-taught hip-hop dancer who practices the style known as “animation,” according to his father. Now his videos, which can be viewed online, are on the brink of going viral.

Jakob’s father said his son was inspired by an Atlanta-based dance crew, Dragon House, according to the Daily News. He also avidly watches So You Think You Can Dance. Jakob has never taken professional dance classes and learns his moves from YouTube, reports the News.

Margaret Chin and Elected Officials Condemn Romney/Ryan on Women’s Rights
New York City Councilmember Margaret Chin joined several New York elected officials in urging support for Barack Obama and decrying Romney and Ryan’s policies on women. Chin called the GOP’s policies on women’s reproductive rights “antiquated” and “dangerous.”

Chin said Ryan’s stances on women’s rights “show a complete disregard for women and the fact that we, too, are full, independent human beings.” Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney compiled a report on the “Top Ten Ways Romney and Ryan are Bad for American Women,” for which Chin and other officials expressed their support.

Public Theater at Astor Place to Celebrate Revitalization

The Public Theater at Astor Place will unveil and celebrate a $40 million revitalization this fall, and welcomes the public’s enjoyment of the renovations. The celebration will include eight weeks of events, some of which will be free of charge. The revitalization aims to open the building up to the community, including welcoming artists and students more readily into its midst.

The company hopes the rededication will spark renewed dialogue on the “important issues of the day.” The official opening ceremony will be on Oct. 4 at 10 a.m.

ACLU and NYCLU  Support Twitter’s Appeal to Protect User Privacy
The ACLU and NYCLU have filed a brief in support of an appeal by Twitter following a court order that it turn over an OWS demonstrator’s Twitter account information to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Malcolm Harris, the demonstrator targeted by the district attorney’s office subpoena, and Twitter filed motions in court to avoid turning over several months of user information. Both motions were rejected, and both parties respectively appealed the decision. The NYCLU and ACLU argue Harris’ First Amendment rights to free speech are being threatened by the case.

Squadron Urges Politicians to Reveal if Bills Are Drafted by ALEC
State Sen. Daniel Squadron is calling on politicians to disclose whether the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) helps draft the bills they introduce into legislation. ALEC is not currently registered as a lobby in New York, though it receives funding from corporate members. ALEC is instead currently registered as a charitable organization.
According to a statement from Squadron’s office: “[ALEC] hosts legislators at fully paid-for ‘retreats’ and issues ‘legislative resolutions’ to be submitted by legislator-members in statehouses around the country.” Squadron insists it’s only fair to disclose ALEC’s role in drafting bills.

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot
Tired of waiting in the stifling heat for Shakespeare in the Park to no avail? Fear not; there’s another free outdoor option to view the Bard’s work. The Drilling Company’s LES staple, taking place in the municipal parking lot at the corner of Broome and Ludlow streets, will present The Merry Wives of Windsor in July, followed by Coriolanus in August. Keep in mind that these productions are prone to interruption; the action occurs around parked cars whose drivers sometimes return and drive away mid-performance. Now that’s something performers never needed to concern themselves with during the Elizabethan era!
Thursdays-Saturdays, July 12-28 & Aug. 2-18, 8 p.m.; free. Broome St. at Ludlow St., shakespeareintheparkinglot.com.

Upper West Side
Shakespeare in the Park
It wouldn’t be summer without a trip (or better yet, two) to the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, where the Public Theater presents Shakespeare in the Park. This summer, it isn’t just the Bard taking the stage, however. In addition to As You Like It, starring Oliver Platt and Lily Rabe, there will also be a run of Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical Into the Woods, featuring movie star Amy Adams and Broadway vet Donna Murphy.
As You Like It opens June 5, Into the Woods opens July 2; free. The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, enter at W. 81st St. & Central Park West, shakespeareinthepark.org.

Upper West Side
Lincoln Center Theater Festival
The esteemed arts institution will offer a diverse mix of live programming, including two works—Giselle and Orpheus and Eurydice—by the Paris Opera Ballet and a 70th birthday tribute to late soul great Curtis Mayfield on July 20. Performers will include Tunde Adebimpe, Meshell Ndegeocello, Ryan Montbleau, Sinéad O’Connor and Mavis Staples. The National Theatre of Scotland will perform Macbeth, starring Tony winner Alan Cumming as the famed Thane of Cawdor. And six years after playing Hedda Gabler at BAM, Cate Blanchett and the Sydney Theater Company will revive another Chekhov classic, Uncle Vanya. Completists can check out both this version and Annie Baker’s adaptation at Soho Rep.
July 5-Aug. 5. Lincoln Center, W. 62nd St. & Columbus Ave., lincolncenterfestival.com.

Midtown
Marble Collegiate Church New Work Festival
Entering its second year, The Puzzle, Marble Collegiate Church’s festival of new work, brings together a host of freshly written theater pieces from New York and around the country for a three-week workshop process culminating in a week of plays, musicals and spoken word.
June 25-30; free. Marble Collegiate Church, 29th St. at 5th Ave., marblechurch.org.

Midtown
Signature Theater
In its first season in its new three-theater Midtown home, the Signature Theatre will present Athol Fugard’s My Children in Africa, Will Eno’s Title and Deed, the world premiere of Kenneth Lonergan’s Medieval Deed and Sam Shepard’s Heartless, among others. In addition to the plays, the theater will offer talk-back programs with performers and playwrights as well as pre-show discussions with designers.
Times and dates vary. Signature Theatre, 480 W. 42nd St., signaturetheater.org.

Citywide
New York Musical Theatre Festival
Featuring live music, workshops and full productions of brand-new musicals, the NYMTF has been giving New York audiences a chance to experience exciting musical theater without Broadway price tags (or tourists) since 1994. This year’s lineup is particularly strong, with 30 musicals including A Letter To Harvey Milk, about a butcher sending a letter to Milk; Baby Case, Michael Ogborn’s take on the Lindbergh baby’s disappearance; and Prison Dancer, a show based on the Filipino prisoners who became a worldwide sensation thanks to their YouTube performances.
July 9-29. Various locations, nymf.org.

Citywide
Fringe Fest
Even at 16 years old, this annual marathon of offbeat, cutting-edge theater—which birthed Rent, among other memorable shows—is devoted to the new and the strange. This year’s performances will include From Busk Till Dawn: The Life of an NYC Street Performer, Love Death Brains (A Zombie Musical), Occupy the Constellations: A Collaborative Revolutionary Puppet Tale and, all the way from California, a show called What I Learned From Porn. Not everything you’ll see at the Fringe is great, but it’s always done with humor and spirit, making it more interesting—if not quite as professional—than most other festivals. Aug. 10-26. fringenyc.org.

By Deirdre Donovan

Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice has meant very different things at very different times. It began its stage life with a comic Shylock in a false nose and evolved through the centuries into a drama of great pathos. But whether you see this play as a comedy or tragedy, Daniel Sullivan’s staging at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, starring Al Pacino as Shylock, is incisive and arresting.

Lily Rabe, Byron Jennings and Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice.

Pacino’s Shylock holds the attention. Without forcing a syllable or gesture, Pacino constantly makes a point. He is incredibly interesting to watch, and plays his character as a small-minded patriarch who prides himself on his money lending on the Venetian Rialto. There are emotionally searing moments: for example, his character’s best-known speech of “Hath not a Jew eyes?” reminds you again that the spiteful Shylock is not without human feeling. Other contemporary productions have stressed this conceit but Pacino, with his gritty New York voice, pulls it off with fresh gravitas.

Fortunately, the rest of the cast is not eclipsed by Pacino. While the star undoubtedly has mega-wattage on the boards, there are a number of other actors who deliver big-time. There’s Lily Rabe, as Portia, who turns in an especially luminous performance. Playing opposite Rabe is the protean Hamish Linklater as Bassanio, who evolves from a mere fortune-hunter to Portia’s true-love during the evening. Byron Jennings, as the nominal character, is suitably urbane.

To be sure, the real protagonist of this story is money. And it eventually taints everybody who lends, borrows, steals, uses or enjoys its luxuries. Venice is a city of commerce, after all, and even the Christians know that money is the vital ingredient of their workaday world.

This production takes a few liberties with Shakespeares’ text: Sullivan has inserted a scene that has Shylock baptized in full view of the audience. This invented stage business vividly underscores one of the sticking points of the story: The Christian morality in Venice is often cruel and punitive.

If The Merchant of Venice is a deeply disturbing play with dark energies, then The Winter’s Tale is awash with enchantment. Although the drama opens like a tragedy, Shakespeare’s genius turns the plot inside-out before the final scene arrives.

The story, in many ways, resembles a fairytale. Polixenes, King of Bohemia, visits his old friend Leontes, King of Sicilia. Polixenes is so charming to his wife Hermione that Leontes believes that they are lovers and he has fathered her unborn child. I would be a spoiler to recount all the intricacies of the story here, but suffice it to say that Leontes’s mad jealousy causes a number of tragic events.

The problem with this production is that Ruben Santiago-Hudson is miscast in the leading role. Merely adequate in the part, Santiago-Hudson doesn’t add any fresh nuances to his character. Curiously, the star turn in this production belongs to Marianne Jean-Baptiste, playing the feisty Paulina. This show, directed by Michael Greif, also has the daunting task of playing in repertory with Merchant. Repertory theater has many virtues, but it has one unavoidable drawback: one production typically outshines the other.

Still, you can’t go wrong with this show. Certain plays repay repeated seeing, and The Winter’s Tale is one of them.

Instead of thinking in the “hit and flop” mentality of Broadway, you should go to both Delacorte offerings this summer to enjoy their Shakespearean resonances and to watch the actors perform in contrasting roles. In Merchant, you have a rare opportunity to watch the legendary Pacino on the boards; and in The Winter’s Tale, you can reflect on the wonder of “second chances” in life.

_

Shakespeare in the Park
Performances continue through Aug. 1.
Tickets to both shows are free.
For additional information, visit www.shakespeareinthepark.org or call 212-539-8750.

The last New York staging of The Bacchae was at the 2008 Lincoln Center Festival, with Alan Cumming playing a flamboyant Dionysus in the National Theatre of Scotland production. The problem is that it breezed in and out of the city so quickly that many theatergoers missed the opportunity to see the adapted classic.

Jonathan Groff as bad boy Dionysus with Anthony Mackie, a young, arrogant Pentheus in The Public Theater production of The Bacchae, by Euripides. Photo by Joan Marcus

In this current show, Jonathan Groff headlines as Dionysus, the “bad boy” of Mount Olympus. He’s ideally cast as the god of the vine who has come to Thebes to introduce its citizens to his intoxicating brew. Groff looks like a goldilocked Adonis, complete with hip jeans and a leather jacket. Incognito for much of the story, Groff’s Dionysus surreptitiously aims to convert the minds of any Thebans—including his royal cousin Pentheus—who doubt Zeus is his father. And he has an uphill battle. Rumors have spread that his mother fabricated her story about Zeus impregnating her. Worse, she was struck dead by lightning (Hera’s revenge for her husband’s philandering) before his birth. Out of pity, Zeus implanted Dionysus into his own thigh, carrying him to full-term.

In this trim production, Akalaitis mixes dance, mime, speech and song in service to the ultimate god: narrative. She deftly guides us through the old story, translated by Nicholas Rudall, using broad dramatic strokes that delineate the plot and characters without mummifying them. In short, she steers clear of making this a pious exercise, or bogging us down with reverential rituals.

To be sure, the evening belongs to Groff, playing the young Dionysus with a fierce vengeance and a quicksilver mind. His performance in Broadway’s Spring Awakening, which netted a 2007 Tony nomination, and in the Delacorte’s Hair last year were impressive. This time he truly comes into his own as a thespian, quite capable of undertaking a classic Greek role and giving it a contemporary spin. His most stunning moment is when he appears above the “palace” triumphantly gloating over the death of his cousin Pentheus, who has been ripped apart unknowingly by his mother and The Bacchants (he was spying on their revels, dressed as a woman). It’s a bravura show-off speech—and Groff rightly plays it to the hilt.

Like many productions at the Public Theatre, the casting here is colorblind. Anthony Mackie plays the young, arrogant Pentheus, and Joan Macintosh plays his mother, Agave. Other actors featured are Andre De Shields as the blind prophet Teiresias, George Bartenieff as Cadmus, and Karen Kandel as the Chorus Leader. There’s no weak link in this cast. And, incidentally, the dozen actors in the Chorus (all female) are more than just voices embellishing the narrative. In fact, they are really the living theatrical glue that fuses the tragic event into a whole.

John Conklin’s set is as minimalist as it gets: an expanse of open stage with ultra-modern bleacher seats that ominously—and significantly—slope downward. In fact, there’s a late scene that registers with incredible pathos, in which the old prophet Teiresias re-enters the stage, and silently seats himself on a low bleacher as Cadmus drags in the corpse of his grandson Pentheus wrapped in a bloodstained sheet. The visual images, stage business and the idea of Fate powerfully coalesce in this episode and poignantly express the tragedy.

Philip Glass’ original music envelops the production in his famous “sonic weather.” His modern score never overstates itself, but one can detect its haunting presence in each pivotal scene. Kaye Voyce’s costumes for the Chorus go a little overboard with their flaming orange colors and exotic look. They look a bit too sensational next to the modern dress of Dionysus and Pentheus.

To pin down precisely what this drama means is slippery—and it would also diminish the greatness of Euripides’ masterpiece. Suffice it to say that the tragedy can remind us that passion, however destructive it can be in the extreme, is still a sacred part of the human psyche. Moreover, an excess of law-and-order (think of Pentheus’ perverted leadership in Thebes) is just another term for fascism.

One senses that Akalaitis has not only cracked the code of Euripides’ work but has managed to give us a production that whets our appetite for more Greek drama. No doubt this show will be hard to beat.
–
The Bacchae
At the Delacorte Theater in Central Park
Through Aug. 30
For free tickets, call 212-967-7555;
limited number of free tickets through a Virtual Line, available at
www.publictheater.org

Strangers
An examination of green card marriages set against the backdrop of film noir (complete with cameos by femme fatales and private eyes), Strangers combines live music and video to explore how people live in our paranoid age, and how everyone wants something else. (May 28 to June 13, The Ontological Theater, 131 E. 10th St. at 2nd Ave., 212-352-3101, www.ontological.com)

Hudson Warehouse’s Shakespeare in the Park
This summer, give Central Park a break and check out Hudson Warehouse’s sixth season in Riverside Park, where the company presents The Tempest (June), Hamlet (July) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (August). (June to August, Riverside Park, W. 89th St. at Riverside Dr., www.hudsonwarehouse.com)

Bandit just loved Rock of Ages. The wired hair Jack Russell terrier mix is about 2 years old.

The Antidepressant Festival
If you find the summer heat depressingly oppressive, give The Antidepressant Festival a try. Nineteen shows are guaranteed to provide “instant and medicated happiness,” and ticket prices are much less than paying for enough booze to pass out without tossing and turning and sweating through your sheets. (June 5 to July 4, The Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Ave. at Union St., Brooklyn, 212-352-3101, www.bricktheater.com)

Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe
The Classical Theatre of Harlem presents an original adaptation of Moliere’s Tartuffe, the name has changed a bunch, but we’re sure now that it’s  Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe. Instead of taking place uptown at the Gatehouse in West Harlem, it’ll be on Theatre Row. Expect the original work, by Alfred Preisser and Randy Weiner, to be full of interesting twists and turns: it’s set during the apex of the Harlem Renaissance and inspired by the work of Father Divine. (June 12 to July 19, The Clurman Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St. betw. 9th & 10th Aves., 212-868-444, www.classicaltheatreofharlem.org.)

Heart of the City
Oscar-nominee Melissa Leo (Frozen River) hits the boards this summer in a “quintessential New York tale” about finding love on the Brooklyn IRT, young artists trying to survive the asphalt jungle and the correct way to make a matzo ball. (June 11 to 29, Theatre at 30th Street, 259 W. 30th St., at 7th Ave., 212-242-9113, www.heartofthecityplay.com)

The Wiz
Songbird Ashanti eases on down the road as Dorothy in this R&B version of The Wizard of Oz (remember Diana Ross in the film version?). For the third year in a row, Encores! presents a limited engagement of a Broadway show that has all the charm of summer stock, plus mountains more talent. (June 12 to July 5, NY City Center, 130 W. 56th St., at 6th Ave., 212-581-1212, www.nycitycenter.org)

Pebble-and-Cart Cycle: One-Line Tragedies
Conceived and directed by Polina Klimovitskaya, these one-line tragedies featuring puppets are the first half of a six-part cycle that combines folk legends, animal archetypes and religious rites to reveal the “theater of inner conflict.” (June 16 to 25, Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie St. at Delancey St., 212-219-0763, www.dixonplace.org)

The Comedy of Errors in Central Park
The scrappy little Boomerang Theater Company offers free Shakespeare in Central Park as well. This year it’s more comedy by the Bard. (June 20 to 28; July 11 to 19, Central Park at W. 69th St., the lawn between Strawberry Fields and Tavern on the Green, www.boomerangtheatre.org)

Barefoot in the Park
Sure, the Neil Simon comedy was just revived on Broadway and hasn’t aged all that well. But seeing the show staged in the tiny (and deliciously air-conditioned) MTS theater (and with an extra $5 for anyone who runs through the newly re-opened Washington Square Park) is perfect for a hot summer night when thinking too hard isn’t an option. (July 9 to July 26, Manhattan Theatre Source, 177 MacDougal St. at 8th St., 212-501-4751, www.thetheatresource.org)

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot
For the 16th summer in a row, The Drilling Company offers up a fun, low-rent alternative to Shakespeare in the Park. This year, parking lot attendants perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Measure for Measure. So pull up a hubcap and crack open a 40. (July 9 to Aug. 15, The Parking Lot, at the corner of Ludlow and Broome Sts., 212-877-0099, www.drillingcompany.org)

Thank You for Being a Friend
If Bea Arthur’s death has still got you bummed, try some communal healing at this musical parody, about roommates Blanchette, Dorthea, Roz and Sophie, and their feud with next-door-neighbor Lance Bass over his loud, outdoor gay sex parties. Last time that happened to us, we had to move. Thanks, Lance! (May 24 to July 12, The Kraine Theater, 85 E. 4th St., betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves., 212-352-3101, www.horsetrade.info)

Gorilla Rep
If you don’t have the budget for big sets, use the monuments the city gives you. Last summer, Gorilla Rep presented a beautiful version of Hamlet just outside the Cloisters. This July the company returns to Ft. Tryon Park’s Pinegrove with a new take on Joan of Arc, penned by Robert Ackerman. Then, in August, take in playwright Laura Lynn MacDonald’s new adaptation/translation of Ibsen’s wild fairy tale Peer Gynt—complete with masks and puppets—on and around Central Park’s Spirit Rock. (July & August, www.gorillarep.org)

East to Edinburgh Festival
Attention to direction is all in this festival—these shows are trying to reach the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, not moving on from it. This year includes a rock version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in case you can’t get enough Shakespeare between Memorial and Labor days. (July 14 to Aug. 2, 59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th St. at Park Ave., 212-279-4200, www.59e59.org)

Tally Ho!, or Navigating the Future
This kid-friendly musical—about a young bank teller’s adventures in high finance—is part of Theater for the New City’s annual summer street theater tour. This year it starts at Morningside Park and will continue in other parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs. (Aug. 2 to Sept. 13, various parks & locations, 212-254-1109, www.cityparksfoundation.org)
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The Hottest Free Ticket in Town

By Nick Broad
Every summer, the Public Theater offers free performances of Shakespeare and other classic works in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater. On stage this year will be one of the Bard’s most beloved comedies, Twelfth Night, starring Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway as Viola and directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan (June 10 to July 12). The theater will also present The Bacchae, a Greek tragedy directed by Joanne Akalaitis, with music by Philip Glass (Aug. 11 to 30).
Sam Neuman, the theater’s press manager, spent a few minutes talking about the “insanely busy” summer season. Below is an edited transcript.

How did you choose Twelfth Night? We want to present something that’s in keeping with our mission and is popular with the Central Park crowd. This one is comic, and lasts two-and-a-half hours. Anne Hathaway’s character disguises herself as a man, and then it turns out she has an identical twin brother. It’s very fun, and always gets a good reaction.

We know the ticket line gets busy—how bad is it? There are always people who wait overnight for those tickets. There are even people who pay others to wait in line for them. Street musicians come out to entertain the crowd, others come around with food and daily newspapers, and people have picnics and play board games. A few times I’ve seen a man dressed up in a Shakespearean costume. Last year, for Hair, a lot of people got their retro clothing out.

What if you don’t want to wait in line? www.publictheater.org allows people to sign up for the chance of getting tickets online, but it’s not guaranteed. And if you don’t get a ticket in the park, there’s also a standby line, which forms as soon as the other tickets stop being sold.

What do you do if it rains? If it’s light, the performance goes on. One year we were forced to stop, as the stage for  Romeo and Juliet had become a pool of water. We get some delays, but there are very few rainouts.

How much preparation goes into each season? We begin rehearsals a month early. Then about a week beforehand, we do tech, which is where everyone rehearses on stage. They spend about a week doing 12-hour days; it’s an intense rehearsal schedule. People describe the experience as being a sort of summer camp. Something about being outdoors and with a collaborative theater, being out there with the elements.

Free tickets to Shakespeare in the Park are distributed on the day of the performance beginning at 1 p.m. at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Limit of two tickets per person. A limited number of tickets are also available the day of each performance online beginning June 10. Note: The Public Theater will not be distributing tickets downtown at 425 Lafayette St.