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Sara Krulwich/ : From left, Susannah Flood, and Renee Elise Goldsberry in “,” for the 50th anniversary of Shakespeare in the Park. By STEVEN McELROY Published: June 7, 2012

TRY saying the following, and be sure to enunciate clearly, speak FACEBOOK

loudly enough for a crowd to hear and really hit those T’s: “She TWITTER Show Tuner BETA thrusts her fists against the posts and still insists she sees the GOOGLE+ Get suggested shows from our critics, by adjusting your preferences below. ghosts.” EMAIL

The actors David Berent and Paulo SHARE PLAYS MUSICALS BOTH Connect With Quiros chanted this and a few other PRINT Us on Twitter MOOD Follow tongue twisters as they warmed up @NYTimestheater their voices before a recent rehearsal REPRINTS for theater news LIGHT DARK and reviews from of Molière’s comedy “The School for AUDIENCE Broadway and beyond. Wives,” being produced by a small company called Extant Arts. Moments Enlarge This Image CHILDREN ADULTS later a plane flew overhead, STYLE crystallizing the importance of being in strong and articulate voice when performing outside, as these TRADITIONAL EXPERIMENTAL gentlemen are preparing to do. Directed by Greg Taubman, Extant’s artistic director, they were rehearsing Results: at Mineral Springs in Central Park, where the show will Evita Review run next month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/theater/shakespeare-and-friends-in-new-york-parks.html?_r=1[6/7/2012 5:38:18 PM] Shakespeare and Friends in New York Parks - NYTimes.com

Ted Minos Tribes Review : From left, Katie “The School for Wives” is one of many productions, Stults, Lilly Wilton and Keldrick Crowder in the Moose Hall Theater mostly of classical works, that are popping up in city parks My Children! My Africa! Review Company’s version of “As You Like and other outdoor locales, as they do each summer. The It.” number of viable — if challenging — theater spaces in New Chicago Review Enlarge This Image York increases significantly in the summer, when

inventive theater folk offer free, open-air performances. The Perfect Crime Review The granddaddy of them all, of course, is in Central Park, where “As You Like It,” part of the 50th-anniversary season of free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte, began preview performances a few TicketWatch: Theater Offers by E-Mail

Lee Wexler days ago. Sign up for ticket offers from Broadway shows and other advertisers. A parking lot: Alessandro Colla standing over McKey Carpenter in the Another “As You Like It” began the very next day in Drilling Company’s “” last year. Inwood Hill Park, courtesy of the Moose Hall Theater See Sample | Privacy Policy Enlarge This Image Company. And on a recent evening more than 200 people

followed a cast of about a dozen actors around Central MOST E-MAILED MOST VIEWED Park just inside the 103rd Street entrance as the New York Classical Theater presented its roving production of 1. Prep-School Predators “.” 2. DNA Blueprint for Fetus Built Using Tests ’s annual unofficial summer season of of Parents alfresco freebies, which seems to expand each year, has 3. New York Hospitals Look to Combine, begun, and during the next couple of months , Forming a Giant Dromios and other characters will bemoan their fates and rail to the heavens in open-air settings from 4. MAUREEN DOWD in to Flushing Meadows in to Carroll Is Pleasure a Sin? Park in . Some current and coming productions are listed below. In most cases, you’ll want to bring a chair 5. RAY BRADBURY | 1920-2012 Brought Mars to Earth With a Lyrical or blanket, and be sure to check individual Web sites for Mastery detailed schedules and location-specific information. 6. WELL Moderation as the Sweet Spot for Exercise Ellen B. Wright INWOOD SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Moose Hall Mineral Springs in Central Park: Tyler Theater Company has begun another three-play season at Kent in Extant Arts’ “Much Ado About 7. The Candidate Next Door Nothing” last summer. the Inwood Hill Park Peninsula, starting with “As You Like It” (through June 23). Donizetti’s opéra bouffe “Don Pasquale and His Trophy Wife” (June 27 to 30), featuring 8. How Do You Live Knowing You Might Underworld Productions Opera Ensemble, follows, and then comes “The Golem, Heart of Have an Alzheimer’s Gene? Light, Mind of Darkness” (July 18 to Aug. 4), a gothic/horror play based on kabbalah legends, written and directed by Inwood’s artistic director, Ted Minos; moosehallisf.org. 9. San Diego and San Jose Lead Way in Pension Cuts NEW YORK CLASSICAL THEATER Wear comfortable shoes: you’ll be following the

cast from one location to the next as this company applies its signature panoramic 10. EDITORIAL theater style to “Twelfth Night.” The show is being presented in Central Park, starting The Message From Wisconsin

just inside the entrance at 103rd Street and Central Park West (through June 24) and in Go to Complete List » Show My Recommendations Battery Park, as part of the River to River Festival, starting in front of (June 26 to July 22); newyorkclassical.org.

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK The Public Theater is celebrating its 50th- anniversary season at the Delacorte with “As You Like It” (through June 30), featuring original bluegrass music by Steve Martin, and a much-anticipated revival of the Stephen Scarlett Johansson won a Tony Award for featured Sondheim- fairy tale “” (July 23 to Aug. 25), starring actress in 2010 for her role in ______? as the Witch, both at the Delacorte Theater (enter at 81st Street and “A View from the Bridge”

Central Park West or and ); shakespeareinthepark.org. “The Royal Family”

HUDSON WAREHOUSE This company, which calls itself “The Other Free “Lend Me a Tenor”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/theater/shakespeare-and-friends-in-new-york-parks.html?_r=1[6/7/2012 5:38:18 PM] Shakespeare and Friends in New York Parks - NYTimes.com

Shakespeare in the Park,” doesn’t just do Shakespeare. Its non-Shakespeare offering this summer is Aphra Behn’s Restoration comedy “The Rover” (July 12 to Aug. 5). The three- show season also includes “,” which opens on Friday night (through July 1) and “Richard III” (Aug. 9 to Sept. 2), all presented at the North Patio of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park, ; hudsonwarehouse.net. Ads by Google what's this?

THEATER 2020 The producing artistic director Judith Jarosz calls her young New York City Choppers company’s offering family-friendly Shakespeare. The show, “The Comedy of Errors” Best Price for New York Helicopters (Saturday and Sunday), is being done in 90 minutes by a cast of five men, five women Call for best service to Hamptons and five puppets. The play “is presented in a very clear, animated fashion, but all Bard,” BlueStarJets.com Ms. Jarosz said. Performances are in Brooklyn , part of the Bard at Pier One series; theater2020.com.

EXTANT ARTS After four summers of free Shakespeare, Extant is branching out with a Molière comedy this year. Performances of “The School for Wives” will be in the Music Pagoda in (June 16 to 24) and Mineral Springs in Central Park (July 14 to 22); extantarts.org.

BOOMERANG THEATER COMPANY Idyllic surroundings don’t necessarily mean lighthearted works. Boomerang will present “Hamlet” (June 23 to July 5) with Zach Calhoon in the title role and the company’s artistic director, Tim Errickson, directing. While the company’s regular stamping grounds, the bridle path near the park entrance at West 69th Street, is being refurbished, performance will be held instead just inside the entrance at 77th Street and Central Park West; boomerangtheatre.org.

SMITH STREET STAGE Brooklyn-based alumni from New York University, the University of Connecticut and the Yale School of Drama will present “Twelfth Night” (June 25 to July 8) in Carroll Park, Brooklyn; smithstreetstage.org.

COMPANY SJ A Beckett piece by two actors in a downtown alley is a less traditional — and less pastoral — take on the free summer theater concept. Part of the River to River Festival, Company SJ’s production of “Act Without Words II” (June 26 to 29), performed on a cobblestone alley between Nassau and Centre Streets, comes to New York after being seen in Ireland and since 2009; rivertorivernyc.com.

PULSE ENSEMBLE THEATER One of the most popular summertime titles, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (July 2 to 22), heads to Harlem in Pulse’s annual summer Shakespeare project. Performances of the up-to-the-minute interpretation, which incorporates themes of gay marriage, unemployment and other contemporary issues — without changing the text — will be at the amphitheater at Riverbank , and Riverside Drive, Harlem; pulseensembletheatre.org.

PIPER THEATER You have to believe they are magic; after all, the folks at Piper are most likely the only ones with a cast working outdoors on roller skates this summer. “Xanadu” (July 5 to 20), with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, will be at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Brooklyn; pipertheatre.org.

SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKING LOT Most companies performing outdoors choose idyllic surroundings, but not the Drilling Company; it can hardly get more urban than a municipal parking lot at Ludlow and Broome Streets on the . Head there for “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (July 12 to 28) and “Coriolanus” (Aug. 2 to 18); shakespeareintheparkinglot.com.

SUMMERSTAGE A mash-up of “Hamlet” and Pearl Jam’s rock album “Ten” (with songs including “Jeremy” and “Even Flow”), the theatrical concert-style event “A King of

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/theater/shakespeare-and-friends-in-new-york-parks.html?_r=1[6/7/2012 5:38:18 PM] Shakespeare and Friends in New York Parks - NYTimes.com

Infinite Space” (July 13 and 14) sounds intriguing. The show sets this Shakespeare revenge tragedy on the Lower East Side but the performance will actually take place in the Bronx, at Crotona Park, as part of the annual City Parks Foundation SummerStage series of free performances; cityparksfoundation.org/summerstage.

HIP TO HIP THEATER COMPANY Flushing Meadows, , Gantry Plaza. ... This Queens company continues to expand, planning performances in 10 parks in that borough, with “Hamlet” and “The Comedy of Errors” running in repertory (July 25 to Aug. 18); hiptohip.org.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 8, 2012, on page C32 of the New York edition with the headline: Free in the Parks: Sun, Shade and Shakespeare.

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