Title: The Delacorte Theater Reopens With 'Twelfth Night'

[MUSIC]

Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Yes, it's back after nearly two years of renovations. The Delacorte Theater in Central Park has reopened just in time for the return of Free Shakespeare in the Park. For its first act, the Public Theater is staging Twelfth Night, the classic Shakespearean comedy filled with mistaken identities, unrequited love, and all kinds of mischief. The show opens in a newly rebuilt Delacorte with improved accessibility, upgraded lighting and sound, and a refreshed stage, but the project is also part of a broader conversation.

What does it mean to be public, as in Public Theater, in today's New York? Who gets to see, perform in, and direct these stories? How do you keep a beloved institution relevant to the city it serves as the city changes? Joining us now to talk about all of this is Patrick Willingham, executive director of the Public Theater, and Saheem Ali, associate artistic director of the Public Theater and director of the upcoming run of Twelfth Night at the Delacorte. Patrick and Saheem, welcome to WNYC.

Patrick: Thank you, Brian. As a proud, public-facing organization, we're really happy to be on public radio this morning.

Brian: Thank you. Patrick, for anybody who hasn't been inside the Delacorte yet, what's new? What will people notice when they walk in?

Patrick: Interestingly, Brian, very few people have gotten to get inside the Delacorte yet. We've done a couple of donor events in the last few days, but tomorrow will be the very first time that the general public in our audience is going to be in the Delacorte. One of the things I've been saying over the last several months is the experience of the audience isn't going to change dramatically once they're in the seating bowl.

There is nothing better than the Shakespeare in the Park experience. Sitting out under the stars, the moons rising over Belvedere Castle, you've got this fabulous production that Saheem has directed of Twelfth Night. That experience we could not improve on. However, we certainly needed to improve on the level of accessibility, both for audiences and for folks working there. The seats are far more comfortable for those of us who [chuckles] want to be comfortable while we're-

Brian: Benches?

Patrick: -watching theater. Exactly right. Not benches, but wider seats than we've ever had before. The big thing I think people will notice, and that they've begun to notice since we took the construction fence down a few days ago, is the outside, the exterior of the theater is just much more reflective of the artistry that happens inside. It used to look a bit like a dilapidated baseball stadium, and now I think it looks like a real theater that's ready to say what's happening inside is as exciting as the way that the venue looks from the outside.

Brian: Listeners, we could sneak in a few questions here in a relatively short segment on the phone or on text, if you have anything about the Delacorte or Shakespeare in the Park for Patrick Willingham, executive director of the Public Theater, and Saheem Ali, associate artistic director at the Public, and directing this about-to-open run of Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, call or text. Saheem, why Twelfth Night? I saw Twelfth Night at the Delacorte, Shakespeare in the Park, I think, 2017, 2018. Why come back to that one as the one to reopen the space with? Oh, do we have Saheem?

Saheem: Yes, hello? Can you hear me?

Brian: Oh, now we have you. Sorry about that. We got you.

Saheem: Beautiful. I was saying, it's a beautiful play. It's got comedy, it's got humor, it's got shenanigans, it's got this incredible cast. It's got a lot of opportunities for fantastic performers. Twelfth Night was the first show that I ever saw in New York City, actually, at the Delacorte in 2002. I was a college student in Boston, and I took what was then called the Chinatown bus that took you from one Chinatown, from one city to another. I couldn't afford to see--

Brian: Yes, for like $10. Love the Chinatown bus. Anyway, go ahead.

Saheem: It was $10. It was $2 if you bought your first ticket, but I didn't quite manage to snag that.

[laughter]

Saheem: It was just such a beautiful experience. I'll never forget it. I could not believe something that was so excellent and high quality was free for me, as someone who couldn't afford to see anything else in New York City. This feels like a full-circle moment for me, coming back to that first play that made me fall in love with Shakespeare in the Park and theater in New York.

Brian: You want to talk a little bit about how you're approaching it or who's in it?

Saheem: Absolutely. We have an extraordinary cast. It's really an embarrassment of riches. We've got Peter Dinklage, Sandra Oh, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lupita Nyong'o, and her brother playing her twin. It's just an incredible, incredible cast.

Brian: Anything you want to add to that, Patrick?

Patrick: Yes. The one thing that we've been thinking a lot about as Shakespeare in the Park returns, we were dark last summer because of construction. I have to say, Brian, if the city and the world needed Free Shakespeare in the Park now more than ever, we're really excited. This isn't really just about the architecture, isn't just about a great show. It's really about the return to our mission of ensuring that everyone in New York understands that this is theirs, this is their theater, the culture belongs to them. They not only get to watch it, but they get to participate in it. That's really the beauty of this incredible program that we get to produce every summer.

Brian: Expand on that, because it goes back to something I said in the intro. Why is Shakespeare centuries-long dead European white guy, relevant to New York City today?

Saheem: I can speak a little-- Go ahead

Patrick: Yes, go for it, Saheem.

Saheem: I can speak a little to that. I grew up in Kenya, born and raised, and actually, I met Lupita doing Shakespeare. She was 14 years old. I was 18. We were doing Romeo and Juliet in this tiny theater, and we had this invitation to be artists, to be performers, to wrestle with this language as ourselves. The Public Theater was the first place with Joe Papp where this notion of colorblind casting was invented. We have this incredible legacy of inviting performers and artists of all stripes to come and wrestle with this beautiful language, this theatrical language, these characters that have been speaking to us for hundreds of years. At the Public, truly, we reinvent these plays and make them speak to the current moment.

You'll come and see this Twelfth Night, and for me, it's about immigration. Viola comes from somewhere else, and she gets a job in this strange new land really effectively. We also speak to the gender binary. It's a land where also Viola arrives, and she has to dress up as a man in order to succeed. These two notions, I feel like, can speak to our current moment, and who does that better than Shakespeare? Plays that were written hundreds of years ago, and yet, today we can find a fresh new way of reinventing them.

Brian: I want to acknowledge the--

Patrick: I'm going to steal a--

Brian: Go ahead, Patrick.

Patrick: Oh, sorry, Brian. I was just going to steal [crosstalk]

Brian: Oh, you're going to use it elsewhere?

Patrick: I was going to note I was going to steal a quip from Troy Anthony, who's composing the music and lyrics for our Public Works production of Pericles that will be premiering at the Cathedral St. John the Divine in September. He said, Shakespeare is like tofu. It takes on the flavor of whatever is around it, which really just delighted me because, in part, as Saheem was saying much more eloquently, the beauty of the work is that they are such human stories. It's the humanity that allows it to resonate in 400 years later, whatever is happening in our environment.

Brian: It takes a chef to put the right ingredients around the-

Patrick: [laughs]

Brian: -tofu, and that's exactly what you do at the Public. I want to acknowledge that just about all the callers are asking a version of the same question, and I'm going to let Carol in Manhattan speak for the group. Carol, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Carol: Hi. Thank you for taking the call. I love Shakespeare in the Park. I'm a native New Yorker, one of a dying breed, and I'm, I'll just say, over 50 years old. I've only been able to get tickets twice in my lifetime. Your website is a little bit confusing on how to access tickets, but I do know that one way to get free tickets is to stand in line at the Public Theater in the middle of the day, where most people who work don't have access.

I remember at one point, you could just sign up for the lottery online, and that was the last time that I was able to get free tickets, and that was a great process. To become a member is a minimum of $100, which a lot of people can't afford. I'd just like to hear from the director what he thinks, some thoughts on making it more accessible, not for people with accessible needs, physical needs, but who would like the free tickets.

Brian: Carol, thank you. Saheem will let you off the hook as an artistic director here and throw this one to Patrick as the boss of the place. I'm sure you get it all the time about, "Oh, my God, the lines, the access to tickets."

Patrick: Absolutely. Over the past decade or so, we've really worked to expand the number of ways and the number of places that folks can access tickets so they're not just required to stand in a line in the middle of Central Park. Every day, we are distributing tickets in one of the boroughs, so we hit all five of the boroughs throughout the entire run of every performance. We're generally partnering with public libraries in each of the boroughs, so we show up in neighborhoods there.

We also have a new sponsor this summer, Citizens Bank, and we're showing up at some Citizens Bank branches to distribute tickets. Of course, as we've mentioned, there's the old standby line in Central Park where folks have been waiting since Joe Papp began this program in 1962 to pick up their tickets. We also have the digital lottery, as you noted. In addition to that, we have a lottery that happens every day downtown at the public theater. I won't say that this is the best-kept secret and a great way to score tickets, but I maybe just said that.

Come down to the public at noon. There's a lottery for the folks who are in person, and I usually discover that most folks who show up end up getting into the show that evening. Then finally, as you noted, there's the possibility to donate in order to reserve your seats, and all of that information is on the website. I'm going to check that out. I didn't realize it was as confusing as you're noting, so I want to make sure it's clear to everybody. The whole idea is to ensure that as many people have as much access as possible to this program. That's just at the heart of Free Shakespeare at the Park.

Brian: All right. I hope that's helpful to alot of people. Let me get a Twelfth Night-specific call in here before we run out of time. Joan in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Joan.

Joan: Oh, hi. I just want to say Twelfth Night is one of my absolute favorite plays because it's really funny. I understand in Shakespeare terms, they call a comedy a comedy, even if it's not particularly funny, just if no one dies at the end, but Twelfth Night is truly funny. One of the funny things about it, and I have this question, that technique that Shakespeare uses, and he uses it also in As You Like It, you refer to it where the woman has to dress up like a man to be safe. I'm wondering, does he do that in any other plays? Of course, it results in the hijinks where a woman falls in love with her, thinking she's a guy, and she has to figure out how to fix that, and also brings up the--

Brian: I have to go because I have to leave a little bit of a time for response. Saheem, that's a low bar for the definition of comedy. For one thing-

Saheem: [laughs]

Brian: -nobody dies.

Patrick: [laughs]

Brian: How else would you respond to her? Thirty seconds.

Saheem: Usually, it's a wedding at the end, right? People getting married at the end is the bare minimum for a comedy in Shakespearean terms. The dying is the tragedy. Twelfth Night is as good as it gets. You have so many incredible comedic characters. You have the mistaken identity, you have the twins, you have someone who thinks he's in love with unrequited love. Really, Twelfth Night is as perfect as it gets for a comedy.

Brian: They didn't have the term rom-com in-

[laughter]

Brian: -Shakespeare today, but maybe it's that. Patrick, literally 10 seconds, what comes after Twelfth Night? Anything this summer?

Patrick: After Twelfth Night, Pericles at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, our fabulous Public Works program. We hope you'll check it out.

Brian: Patrick Willingham, executive director of the Public Theater, and Saheem Ali, associate artistic director. Twelfth Night opening-- Is it tomorrow?

Saheem: Tomorrow's first [crosstalk]

Patrick: First performance. Yes, exactly right.

Brian: At the Delacorte Theater-

Patrick: Opening August 21st.

Brian: -now reopened in Central Park. Stay tuned for Alison.

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