The Public Theater is readying to bring back its annual Free Shakespeare in the Park series with a starry production of Twelfth Night at the newly renovated Delacorte Theater in Central Park August 7-September 14. Watch above to go in the rehearsal room with the cast.
That cast includes Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Take Me Out), Lupita Nyong'o (Black Panther), Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent), Junior Nyong'o, b (Netflix's You), Khris Davis (Death of a Salesman), John Ellison Conlee (The Full Monty), Ariyan Kassam, Valentino Musumeci, Moses Sumney (MAXXXINE), Kapil Talwalker (Night Court), and Joe Tapper (You Can't Take It With You).
Saheem Ali will direct the production, which he's trimmed down to 90 minutes.
The ensemble includes Dario Alvarez, Jaina Rose Jallow, Precious Omigie, Chinna Palmer, Nathan M. Ramsey, Jasmine Sharma, Julian Tushabe, Adrian Villegas, Ada Westfall, and Mia Wurgaft.
Twelfth Night will be the first production at the Delacorte following the theatre closing for the last two years to undergo an almost $80-million renovation.
For those who want to attend Twelfth Night in person, tickets will be distributed in Central Park for that day's performances, as well as at the Public Theater and designated spots across NYC's five boroughs. There will also be a digital lottery via TodayTix. Learn more here.
For those who cannot attend, PBS will broadcast the play November 14, beginning at 9 PM ET (check local listings). The program will be broadcast as part of PBS' Tony Award-winning Great Performances series. Twelfth Night will also be available to stream on PBS.org or the PBS app.
This upcoming Twelfth Night will be the seventh time the romantic comedy has been presented in the series, following earlier stagings in 1969, 1986, 1989, 2002, and 2009, plus a Public Works musical adaptation (by Kwame Kwei-Armah and 2024 Tony winner Shaina Taub) in 2018.
Since its inception in 1954, the Free Shakespeare in the Park series has been an annual summer offering completely free to the public, with tickets usually distributed at various locations throughout the boroughs of NYC. The program often recruits A-list actors to lead its outdoor productions, which focus on the Shakespeare canon but have also included stagings of such works as Into the Woods, Hercules, and Hair. In past productions of Twelfth Night alone, the series has seen performances from Jeff Goldblum, Anne Hathaway, Nikki M. James, Hamish Linklater, Audra McDonald, Michelle Pfeiffer, Fisher Stevens, Julia Stiles, Michael Stuhlbarg, and more.
A full schedule and more ticketing information is at PublicTheater.org.
Lupita Nyong’o and Sandra Oh
Peter Dinklage and Sandra Oh
Sandra Oh
Peter Dinklage and Lupita Nyong’o
Peter Dinklage and Lupita Nyong’o
Peter Dinklage and Lupita Nyong’o
Peter Dinklage and Lupita Nyong’o
b
Khris Davis
Khris Davis and Saheem Ali
Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o
Junior Nyong’o and Lupita Nyong’o
Junior Nyong’o and Lupita Nyong’o
Saheem Ali and Lupita Nyong’o
Khris Davis, Ariyan Kassam, and Lupita Nyong’o
