After splitting its summer of ’09 bill at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park between Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Euripides’ The Bacchae, the Public Theater announced today that its 2010 outdoor productions will be alternating performances of The Merchant of Venice and The Winter’s Tale with the same cast. This is the first time in almost twenty years that the Public’s Central Park plays will feature a rotating rep program for all eight weeks, as opposed to the two 4-week runs they’ve produced lately.
Though the plays haven’t been cast yet, Daniel Sullivan will direct Merchant and Michael Greif will helm Winter’s Tale. Sullivan directed Twelfth Night last summer and Manhattan Theatre Club’s recent Broadway production of Accent on Youth, while Greif’s most recent work at Shakespeare in the Park was Romeo & Juliet in 2007 and he directed the current Broadway production of Next to Normal. Previews of the two Shakespeare plays begin previews on alternating nights June 9 2010 and continue through August 1. Casting the part of Shylock should be interesting.