Summer 2016: May 24 – June 26 Shrew! July 19 – August 14 Troilus & Cressida

The Public Theater had its beginnings in Joe Papp's Shakespeare Workshop, so it's altogether fitting that one of the Public's—and New York City's—most beloved theatrical traditions is the annual staging of Shakespearean plays in Central Park's Delacorte Theater. Performances are free, and one of the more democratically distributed tickets in the city. In addition to Shakespeare in the Park and their considerable theatrical programming, The Public also trains the next generation of classical performers through the Shakespeare Lab, an annual summer acting intensive.

Past performances have included As You Like It, The Tempest, Richard III, directed by and starring Liev Schreiber, and Twelfth Night with Anne Hathaway, but there have been non-Shakespeare performances as well, like 2002's staging of Anton Chekov's The Seagull, which starred Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, John Goodman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, Natalie Portman, and Kevin Kline.

To reserve tickets:

In Person at Delacorte in Central Park: Tickets are distributed at noon every day. Two tickets per person until they run out. Arrive early to ensure tickets!

Astor Place On each performance date a limited number of tickets are available via lottery at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street. Sign-up for the lottery will begin in the Lobby of The Public at 11:30AM. The lottery will be drawn at 12:00PM noon.