Public will present Public Forum: Shakespeare in America

6/12/2014 12:19pm


The Public Theater ( Oskar Eustis, Artistic Dir; Patrick Willingham, Exec Dir) has announced additional casting for the free one-night event, PUBLIC FORUM: SHAKESPEARE IN AMERICA on Mon June 30 at 8:00 PM at the Delacorte. Poet Elizabeth Alexander, Alec Baldwin, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Brian Dennehy, Colin Donnell, Michael Friedman, Renée Elise Goldsberry, André Holland, Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, singer/songwriter Stephen Merritt, Kelli O’Hara, Bryce Pinkham, Caesar Samoyoa and poet Vijay Seshadri join the previously announced Sarah Amengual, Colman Domingo, James Earl Jones, Cynthia Nixon, Annie-B Parson, Steven Pasquale & Michael Stuhlbarg to celebrate Shakespeare and the newly released Library of America book, Shakespeare in America, edited by Public Theater Shakespeare Scholar in Residence James Shapiro. Highlights of the evening will include James Earl Jones reading a scene from Othello, marking his return to the Delacorte after a 40-year absence and celebrating the 50th anniversary of his playing Othello on the Delacorte stage; Alec Baldwin reading scenes from Macbeth and an account of Abraham Lincoln’s Shakespearean dreams; Kelli O’Hara and Renée Elise Goldsberry singing from The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night; and Steven Pasquale singing Tony in the “Tonight” duet from West Side Story. Free Public Forum tickets will be distributed at 12:00 PM on Mon June 30 at the Delacorte.  Press contact: Laura Holliman/Public Theater (212/539-8624)...