Measure for Measure

My absolute favorite New York summertime tradition is Shakespeare in the Park. Every summer, the Public Theater produces two plays at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park FOR FREE. The caveat is that you have to wait hours and hours and hours in a line that snakes through the park (which, if the weather is nice, is usually a really fun experience in itself) UNLESS you win tickets in the virtual lottery. Which I did, yesterday!

Usually there are two plays performed with separate ones (roughly a month each), but starting last year, they've done two Shakespeare shows in repertory, which means that they have the same casts (or almost the same casts) for two different shows, which then alternate throughout the two-month run. Last year's season consisted of The Merchant of Venice (with Al Pacino) and A Winter's Tale. The production of Merchant of Venice went to Broadway after its summer run in the park, and was nominated for several Tony Awards. This year's shows are All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure, which we saw last night.

I thought it was a great production, and I also enjoyed it a lot because I was in a production of Measure for Measure my senior year of high school. I had forgotten a lot of the plot since then, but it all came back to me as I was watching it performed in the park. Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to see All's Well That Ends Well too!