Shakespeare in Central Park

The theater that Andrew gives his Shakespeare performance in is New York City's prestigious Shakespeare Festival, performed in Central Park each summer. The festival has come to be a landmark of New York's cultural identity. The Shakespeare Festival was the idea of director and producer Joseph Papp, who, in the mid-1950s, conceived of a theater that would make classical drama accessible for all citizens. In 1956, he started the Public Theater as a mobile venture, traveling on a used truck to the five boroughs of New York with his company's production of Romeo and Juliet. The following summer, the truck was rendered inoperable: Papp parked it in Central Park, near the Belvedere Castle, and collected donations from corporate sponsors in order to put on plays for free. He fought for support from the city government, holding to the idea that the shows ought to...