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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. To close the show today, we're going to go over some of the many outdoor theater performances happening in our area this summer. Many of them are free, we'll start with those. There's, of course, all the Shakespeare plays that are put on annually, this summer, there's an Afro-futuristic take on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, we'll talk about that. We'll also talk about the outdoor plays that aren't Shakespeare that should get some attention too. Joining me to help navigate us through all of your options is Steve Smith, WNYC, and Gothamist Arts and Culture editor. Hey, Steve, welcome back to the show.

Steve Smith: Hi, Brian. Thanks a lot for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can take a few calls on this. We ran along with our last segment, but we can put in a few of your calls on performances that you are looking forward to outdoors over the next couple of months, Shakespeare in the parking lot maybe. I guess you can put a theater anywhere. 212-433 WNYC. Let's start with Shakespeare, Steve, then we'll move on to other plays, the popular free Shakespeare in the park, Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the public theater website calls it new York's favorite summer tradition. Putting on two Shakespeare plays, Richard III running now through July 17th, and the musical adaptation of As You Like It playing August 10th through September 11th, both public works production. That means the cast is made up of both professional actors and members of the local community who are not acting professionals?

Steve Smith: That's right. That's definitely true for Shaina Taub's adaptation of [unintelligible 00:01:53]

Brian Lehrer: Is it As You Like It?

Steve Smith: It is As You Like It, and I should know that because I was just listening to the album on band camp and it's really, really lovely. Her writing style really suits the upbeat and fun tone of that play. Right now, we are looking at Richard III, and the reviews are out this week, so people are going to be reading what the critics have assessed about this. The thing is Richard III is a tough play to sell. It's a long play, and it's about one of Shakespeare's most absolutely unlovable villains, somebody who is a member of a royal family and is so driven by obsession over deformity and unattractiveness that he wants to get rid of all of his rivals and become king himself.

It's a provocative statement to Danai Gurira in this role. She, of course, is a well-known actor who has done Shakespeare on other stage work. She is a playwright herself, but she's better known for playing things like the role of Okoye in Black Panther and other Marvel comic book movies, and she was Michonne for a long time in the AMC TV series, The Walking Dead. Presumably, there is a statement in casting her as Richard III. The problem is we don't really quite know what that statement is. The consensus of critics and my own personal take is that Robert O'Hara, the director who came to fame with Slave Play on Broadway, throws a lot of things into this staging, but they don't necessarily all cohere.

Now, is that a problem? For Shakespeare purists, maybe it is. I found myself really, really carried by these performances. As you said, there are a lot of different types of actors performing in this Richard III. Danai Gurira is absolutely riveting, you cannot take your eyes off of her, and as evil and scheming as she is supposed to be, you find yourself rooting for her a little bit. Also, she delivers some lines directly to the audience. She does some of her lines directly in the audience, in the aisle, you want to be the subject of her gaze, you want to be near her, and then she'll turn on a diamond, kill somebody in cold blood, so it's fun and it's chilling.

It's also at two hours and 40 minutes, it's very lean and it didn't feel overlong whatsoever. It was an entertaining evening.

Brian Lehrer: Two hours and 40 minutes long for a movie, short for a Shakespeare play.

Steve Smith: That's right. Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: Just to touch very briefly on the other two Shakespeare opportunities. There is, for people who don't know, this is a real thing that I mentioned before, Shakespeare in the parking lot, 27th season lower east side after spending some summers at Brian Park. This summer they're putting on Winter's Tale, and in Harlem, the Classical Theater of Harlem is putting on a series of summer outdoor performances as they do annually at the Marcus Garvey Park, Richard Rogers Amphitheater. This year, it includes this Afro-futurist take on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, now through July 29th with a concert by Jazz Mobile before the show, and that's free, but you have to reserve tickets.

What makes it Afro-futurist?

Steve Smith: Honestly, I'm dying to know. I want to find out myself what specifically makes this Afrofuturist, but I do know that the director Carl Cofield has done a number of stagings like this, where he'll tweak the setting and the time of Shakespeare to another time and another place. I had the opportunity to work on an NPR story in which Cofield was interviewed last year, and he put his goals very, very succinctly and straightforwardly. He said, "It might sound different because you're not used to seeing an actor of color be a Hamlet, a King Lear, a Falstaff, but if you stay with it and use your imagination, you might have a richer experience.

It might be a different experience, but it's an experience that I hope will make you think about the work in a new way." Now, I understand that this Harlem production involves virtual reality elements. I understand from the New York Times review that there may be a light saber dual involved, which is certainly not Shakespearean unless you draw the line from Shakespeare to George Lucas, which is not impossible. It does have Kara Young, a really, really terrific actress, somebody who tore up the stage and earned a Tony nomination for her work last year in Lynn Nottage's play Clyde's.

Definitely, you've got, again, some star power in the production and an attempt to make Shakespeare if not relevant, per se, with a capital R and a scoldy tone, then at least something that you can assimilate in a different way in this setting.

Brian Lehrer: We should mention that The Adventures of Pericles will alternate each night with Much Ado About Nothing across the five boroughs, and Jersey City tickets are free. Is that part of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, or what's the context for that?

Steve Smith: This is a different company called Hip to Hip Theater Company, and it is now in its 15th season. Yes, it is running the much-loved comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, and a bizarre, very little-known adventure. I have to admit, this is one I was not familiar with whatsoever, The Adventures of Pericles, which sounds like it's going to be a real romp. I assume that there is some significant cutting involved because both of these plays are built as being 90 minutes long. That ought to make them ideal for newcomers and younger viewers. They're doing them, as you said, in parks and recreational areas all over the five boroughs and New Jersey starting on July 27th.

Then if you want to get a calendar, you can just go to hiptohip.org.

Brian Lehrer: Great. Moving on from Shakespeare. I see the Hudson Classical Theater Company is putting on an adaptation of the Jane Austin novel, Emma, at Riverside Park through July 24th.

Steve Smith: That's absolutely true. Although we don't get away from Shakespeare long because, Brian, after all, now is the summer of our barred content. Yes, I went there. They're going to be queuing up a Macbeth pretty soon, but right now, as you said, they are doing an adaptation of Emma, which is a delightful Jane Austin novel that has been variously treated in films before. They are running that one in Riverside Park up until July 24th, and then they take it down, and then they put up Macbeth, which I guess they had to wait until the star-studded bloody, Broadway version starring James Bond was out of the way. You're going to get a little more Shakespeare before the summer is out, believe me.

Brian Lehrer: The summer of our barred content, I heard you. Here's an interesting-looking one, Lincoln Center's Summer for the City, which runs through August 14th. As part of that, [unintelligible 00:08:53] Broadway is putting on another production in American sign language, tell us about that.

Steve Smith: This looks really extraordinary. They are doing a version of Steven Sondheim's Into the Woods, so not only a play, but a musical. The way they're doing this, evidently, is a Sweeney Todd film adaptation will be on a screen behind the actors, but the actors will also be simultaneously performing the play in sign in front of it. It's a really remarkable adaptation, and definitely, a sign that Lincoln Center is being very, very deliberate and proactive about accessibility and diversity and bringing in as many people as possible into the theatrical experience, not only in the audience but on stage as well.

That's one of two things actually that they're doing in late summer that play into this. There's the Sweeney Todd, as you said, which is on Sunday, July 31st, and then on Friday, August 12th Ping Chong & Company are presenting something called Inside Out, which is literally a documentary theater piece with firsthand experiences of seven individuals living with disabilities. This is a really, really important season for Ping Chong, who has been a mainstay of New York experimental theater for many, many decades. This is the company's 50th anniversary. It is also Ping Chong's last season with his own company before he steps down and they transition to a new model.

I think this is going to be one of the most remarkable things that we can possibly see this summer and it's happening on Friday, August 12th.

Brian Lehrer: From what I've read, that's supposed to be powerful and moving this documentary play and funny too.

Steve Smith: Absolutely. This is a thing where it's fascinating to see these very deliberate moves that Lincoln Center is putting on these specific productions that are involving differently-abled actors. The fact is we're seeing this more and more commonly everywhere and that brings us back to where we begin, which is that in Richard III at the Delacorte Theater from Shakespeare in the Park, there was a very well-known actress who works in a wheelchair. There were two members of the cast who were deaf and that meant that they were signing and that the speaking actors were signing back to them.

It made for actually one of the most amazing moments in Richard III was when Danai Gurira literally turned her back on the woman who was playing her mother. It is to say, not only won't I hear you but I can't hear you now because my back is turned. It was remarkable integration of differently abled actors. It didn't draw attention to itself but that in itself felt important and refreshing

Brian Lehrer: 30 seconds left. Anything I haven't mentioned that you want to throw in outdoor theater?

Steve Smith: I think that's just about it unless you want to get to the fact that-- The thing about outdoor theater is that it's open to serendipity and interruption and yes, you're going to hear police sirens and yes, you're going to hear helicopters and [unintelligible 00:11:59] Pearl in 2020 wrote a very-very useful guide to the raccoons of the Delacorte Theater. The idea that things might go off script is part of the experience and part of the thrill and why we go to the theater at all.

Brian Lehrer: Some mothers coming in from listeners real quick. Steven Monclair says Outpost in the Burbs is something like this in Monclair and Anne in Montrose says an amazing production called Mr. Burns at the Hudson. Let's see, let me get the full name of that. It's at-- I'm going to give it to you, even though we're overtime at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. There you go. Steve Smith, WNYC arts and culture editor. Thanks a lot.

Steve Smith: Thank you, Brian.

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