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Originally built as a temporary structure in 1962, the Delacorte Theater is still in place and was renovated in the late 1990s
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The Delacorte Theater is the summer home of the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. Joseph Papp began Shakespeare in the Park on a shoestring budget in 1957. Fueled by philanthropy and royalties from certain Broadway hits — notably A Chorus Line — the Public Theater has brought great open-air theater free to New Yorkers each summer. All you need is the patience to wait in line for a ticket — a process that has become a New York tradition. The Public Theater also distributes tickets from its Astor Place home downtown at 425 Lafayette Street.
"The Shakespeare Marathon" was Joseph Papp's plan to produce all of Shakespeare's plays at the Delacorte or the Public Theater. The Marathon began in 1987 with Much Ado About Nothing, and ended in 1997 with Henry VIII. The Delacorte has also hosted classical plays such as Electra, Agamemnon,The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Seagull — and musicals including The Pirates of Penzance and On the Town. Actors who have appeared at the Delacorte include: Blythe Danner, Richard Dreyfuss, John Goodman, Gregory Hines, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Earl Jones, Raul Julia, Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Liev Schreiber, George C. Scott, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, and Denzel Washington.
Originally built as a temporary structure in 1962, the Delacorte Theater is still in place. The setting is without peer. The audience sits in a horseshoe shape, just short of being in the round. The backdrop to the stage is Turtle Pond, bathed in a shifting shimmer of artificial lighting. Beyond the Pond is the velvety night green of the Great Lawn. And to the right, perched on Vista Rock, is Belvedere Castle, profiled in a spotlight.
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