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- [groans]
It's been a long, hard year, y'all.
A long, hard year.
Couldn't go to bars,
couldn't hit up the clubs,
liquor stores close all early.
Just stuck in the house eating snacks,
bored out my goddamn mind.
If y'all know what I'm talking about,
let me hear you say, "Hell, yeah."
all: Hell, yeah.
- So can you blame me for wanting to get
with Madam Page and Madam Ford?
Huh? Them some merry wives, man.
Just as fine as they want to be, right?
Beautiful, right?
I mean, look, if y'all know what I'm talking about
and you feel for me, let me hear you say,
"We feel you, Falstaff!"
all: We feel you, Falstaff!
- Thank you! [laughter]
- Here is the twin of thy letter.
[intriguing orchestral music]
- No! - Mm.
If he come under my hatches, hey!
I would sink. - Because he's so big.
[both laugh]
[both sigh shrilly]
- We lived a time when we were pushed inside.
Not a hug or held hand was felt worldwide.
Spirits, guide us in this time anew,
when we recognize a reckoning due,
for our hues and lives matter.
Full stop.
[cheers and applause]
Spirits!
♪ ♪
[gentle orchestral music]
♪ ♪
- [sighs]
These are all playbill albums, full.
And then there's some more over there.
These up here-- [laughs]
All of these on the top are Black shows, you know--
[laughs] Not that I don't care
about the others, but I just wanted to categorize.
And I don't have them in order of, like,
who--you know, which ones are important or anything.
Oh, there's my play!
Look at that. Yay, "School Girls."
I never thought I'd get here.
I never thought I'd have a office.
[laughs]
I never thought I'd have a lot of things.
Truly, truly. I'm not one of those people
who are like, "It was always in my sights."
It was in my sights, but it never felt like a reality.
Almost every story that centers around Black people
is about pain, is about some sort of struggle,
is about overcoming.
And that's not to say that
that's not what my shows are about either.
They're overcoming something.
That's, you know, kind of the purpose of a story is, like,
to show somebody moving through some sort of adversity,
but being told in a lens
that feels like you can enjoy it,
that it's not going to, like, bring your spirit down,
we don't have enough of those stories.
- You know, the summer of 2020,
as I was gearing up to do "Richard II,"
George Floyd was murdered the week
before our first rehearsal.
And it really, really made theater feel,
like, so unimportant.
It made it feel, like,
so frivolous, you know.
It was like, in this moment when we're talking
about the racial reckoning in this country
and Black lives,
like, should we be doing Shakespeare?
And as a community, as a collective,
we decided that, you know, art and activism
can actually live side by side.
Finding "Merry Wives," finding a way in that--
where the concept was about Black joy,
that happened because of last summer.
That happened because of George Floyd being murdered.
That happened because of COVID, you know?
All these things led to this production.
- Thank you, folks. We are back.
We are officially back. Thank you.
[intriguing orchestral music]
♪ ♪
- This is the public theater costume storage.
It's archival, but it's also active.
This was--Denzel Washington did a "Richard III"
at the Delacorte.
And this is Patrick Stewart from "Tempest."
A couple of "Twelfth Nights,"
this is what Anne Hathaway gets washed up onstage in.
Al Pacino's "Merchant of Venice"
with Lily Rabe.
My first show that I saw in New York in 1975
when I moved here was "Trelawny of the 'Wells'"
with a new actress named Meryl Streep.
And these were her debut costumes
in "Trelawny of the 'Wells'"
It's like the history of the Shakespeare Festival
all in one corner.
So all of this stuff in normal times
would've been put away,
put back on the rails for future use.
But when we all went home, this stopped.
So now we've got to get caught up.
I remember being stunned when Vanessa,
my associate, came in and said,
"They've just shut the city down."
And I kept saying to her, "What do you mean?
You can't shut New York down."
And she just goes, "Yeah, we all have to go home."
[car horn honks]
- [sighs]
[grunts]
March 2020 for me
was like the first episode of "Walking Dead,"
because I went into the hospital
on March 10th with COVID,
and when I came out, the theater had closed.
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
It started to feel like this is apocalyptic.
[insects chirping]
And I think when George Floyd was murdered,
that was psychically a bigger deal than even the pandemic.
We are recognizing our weaknesses
and the ways that we have failed our community.
- Hands up! all: Don't shoot!
- This is fundamentally a democratic theater,
and the culture belongs to everybody.
And that's both everybody should get to see it,
everybody should get to watch it and receive it,
but also everybody should get to make it.
- So this is the space where we'll be rehearsing.
These are, like, the, like, temporary set pieces.
So all the walls and the turntable,
they're actually to scale,
so this is the actual size.
The thing about the space--
I grew up in Nairobi
until I was in my early 20s.
I moved to the U.S. for college.
Front of it.
And then this is Falstaff's bedroom on that side--
I came as a computer science major,
and I switched my major to theater.
I didn't tell my parents,
because they were not gonna approve of that.
We're on page 79.
It was just undeniable.
Like, that was the thing that I had to do.
So, yeah, this is the model of "Merry Wives."
You know, the stores are below and their apartments are above,
Like, that's a very, like, New York thing.
You know, where I'm from, life is not like this.
So it feels like such a beautiful,
like, slice of New York City.
Very first time when I was reading the script,
the first image that came to my mind was these two women
in a braiding salon,
'cause it's the two wives,
and they're getting these letters from Falstaff,
and I was, like, hearing the West African dialect
and just picturing these two women
getting their hair braided and, like,
exchanging letters, and I was like, wow.
That's, like, it, that-- 'cause I was looking
for the concept, I was looking for the way in which
this was going to feel, like, unique and contemporary
but also a world that I find hilarious.
Because when I read the play,
I just heard it with those dialects,
and I was like, this is so much funnier,
when it's in, like, a Nigerian or a Ghanian accent.
So we're in a corner of New York,
and there's a turntable here
so that we can kind of switch locations
from time to time, so this rotates...
Into what's-- this is Falstaff's bedroom.
And then when it rotates to this side,
you have the laundromat.
And we're gonna get, like, actual laundry machines
that, like, can actually spin around.
I think it would be funny. We're gonna try and get, like,
Falstaff to, like, go in and hide--
try and hide when the husbands are coming in,
in one of the laundry machines.
And it's kind of green and white,
because the Fords are Nigerian,
and Nigerians are very proud of their colors.
Like, their flag, like, you know, they--
they, like, plaster that shit everywhere.
Beowulf and I really wanted to give a sense
of a street in Manhattan.
So just the sense of architecture, the buildings,
the way the street corners are,
so we feel like we're in New York.
- We spent, like, endless days just kind of biking around
just to look at the buildings and see what is specific
and different from, you know, Central Park West...
- Yeah. - Or the Upper East Side
or wherever.
We've got these details that are pulled very specifically
from the neighborhood...
- Mm-hmm. - To reference the reality
of New York in 2021.
How do I show that? - Mm.
- The sense of the old and the new
and these different cultures that are coming together
to make this kind of New York block
in this New York neighborhood. - Right.
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- A favorite New York City tradition halted
during the pandemic is planning a comeback this summer.
- I am happy to say the bard is back in Central Park.
[tool motor revving]
Shakespeare in the Park is the epitome
of the New York ideal.
And no place represents all of us more
than right here where we are, the Delacorte Theater.
For this to be coming back
is a great harbinger of better things to come
in New York City.
- Hands on.
- For laughing together, for crying together,
for getting sunburned waiting in line together.
This collective experience is what makes New York special.
- We're excited to fill this theater with laughter,
with radical Black joy, and to celebrate the rich diversity
that New York City has to offer.
[indistinct chatter]
- I think next to both of the movers
is gonna be the best decision.
- Yeah.
- Hold there. both: Holding.
- Can you imagine? There's gonna be people here.
[laughs]
- Is Falstaff here?
- Fe--fe--fe--fe--him? - Yes!
- "Merry Wives" is a comedy.
This character gets up to all sorts of antics.
He's trying to seduce these two women, the merry wives,
who discover his plot.
- Who does he think he's fooling?
- Me, I know not.
- Let our wives yet once again, to make us public sport.
- Falstaff in our production is played
by the extraordinary Jacob Ming-Trent.
- So can you blame me for checking out Madam Page
and Madam Ford, you know?
These are some merry wives, man.
You feel me?
- It just felt really, really important to me
to not only create opportunities
for these actors, to show this community onstage.
Like, a Black, immigrant community in New York
at the Delacorte being uplifted in this way.
To me, there's something beautiful
and subversive about that.
- Wives may be merry, and yet honest, too.
[birds chirping]
- Watch your feeties. - Hands on the back.
Hands up. - Got it.
- One, two, three.
Relax.
I like that.
We usually start prepping
and opening up the Delacorte in March.
We had just started and just ordered all of the material
to begin our build, we had all the plans ready.
And they told us to go home.
So everything was just kind of
weatherized and sitting here
waiting, um...
For a year.
And then when we came back, it was a whole new set design,
so we had to start from scratch.
Off the record, we are way behind.
[laughs]
The performance date, the opening night,
that date never changes,
so it's always kind of a scramble.
That's, I guess, part of the excitement of theater.
- One, two, three.
[cheerful marimba music]
- When I tell people that I work
on Shakespeare in the Park, they have this image
of just sitting on a blanket and a rolling hill
and there being some sort of meadow
in which Shakespeare happens.
So I think the fact that it exists in this physical space
is sometimes a surprise for folks.
- Working outside is a slow process.
We're working in the middle of Central Park.
It's not like working downtown, where you have,
like, ample supplies and materials and tools.
Like, we bring up what we need.
The problems are so unique to, like, that space--
and I'm supposed to take a left here,
and I don't think I can do that.
[honks horn] Go.
Yeah, and, like, you know, wood warps
when it's outside, it gets wet.
So things that we make now,
three days from now might get wet.
And then we'll have different problems to solve
once the wood has absorbed some water.
[laughs]
- We're constantly contending with the elements
and raccoons, weather.
Anything that can happen in a park,
we've probably experienced it at the Delacorte.
- This is exactly what I thought I was gonna be doing
when I got that theater degree.
Just carrying heavy things through the park
among strangers going like,
"Hey, how do you get to the turtle pond?"
"You know where the bathroom is?"
Oh, my God.
We're very limited by the amount
of covered space we have.
We've got cable runs everywhere, tools down here.
It looks like a million bucks out there,
you know, Meryl Streep's on the stage,
but under here, it's--
it's just under risers.
There's nothing special about it, nothing flashy.
We just got to get super creative
using every single inch of storage,
especially this year.
You can see some of the wiring--
raccoons love this stuff.
They love to be just, like, up in here,
especially when these machines get on a little hot.
This is the lighting shop.
And everything in here has to get loaded in.
We take everything out-- every cable, every wire,
the stage, the truss, the sets.
Like, all of this has to get reloaded in.
Coming this way...
Let me show you the dressing rooms.
But, like, here's the--
I guess, the Gate One...
Like, book.
Like, the rounds that the security made,
and you can see...
it just sort of stops, 3/12/2020,
3/16/20,
and then we just stop, right, then it's just...
empty.
They got it going for the top of the summer.
Just sort of ends there.
I don't know, just stopped.
It's kind of weird.
We all thought we'd be right back.
[doorbell rings]
- Hello? - [speaking indistinctly]
- Hey.
[laughing]
How many years, it never gets old.
[laughs]
- [sighs]
What in the world?
- I live in the Mt. Everest of Manhattan.
- You know what?
When I move, I'm gonna make you take the steps.
Okay, you're not allowed to take the elevator.
Jesus.
My God.
- Hey. - Hi.
Whew. - Come on in.
Okay.
[breathing deeply]
I've earned whatever I'm eating tonight.
- [laughs]
- Okay.
I guess we should talk through
what's gonna be the big changes for--
Okay, so you want to keep this "goat meat" line?
- [laughing] Why, you don't like it?
[laughter]
- I just don't know if--
Okay, okay, okay, hold on.
"I'm glad to see your worships well."
You know, "I thank you for my goat meat, Mr. Shallow."
[sighs] 'Cause what is the joke here?
- Yeah. Honestly, it's probably a joke that doesn't land,
so we should just cut it.
- They might just be like, "Why they over here eating goat?"
- [laughs]
- Even though goat is delicious.
He's saying, "I wish I was younger...
- Yes, yes. - So I could holler at her"?
What?
- There are, like, all these, like--
There's xenophobic, there's also, like, you know,
paternalistic, sexist, like, there all--yeah.
We just need to clean all that shit up.
- Ugh. - I know.
- Like, chill out. - [laughs]
- Billy Shakes. - [laughs]
Like, Shakespeare gets put up on this pedestal,
but it's like, he also wrote
some problematic shit, you know.
So it's like, you can take that stuff out
and, like, keep the good parts, but just because it's there
doesn't mean it's, like, all right.
- I didn't think it was gonna happen.
Like, when you called me about it--
- I called you in February. - Yeah, I was like, okay.
I said yes because I was like, it's not happening.
- [laughs]
- And then next thing you know,
mid-March, you know, they're like, we're announcing.
I'm like... - [laughs]
I've written nothing.
So, yeah, yeah, it was very quick.
I opened my laptop quickly that day,
trying to figure it all out.
So, yeah, I just didn't think it was--
I just-- I--
I was-- at that point, I was done
with getting my hopes up about anything.
There's two things, you know, with plays.
That, one, they're meant to be performed, not read,
otherwise they'd just be a book.
And two is that you need an audience
to actually complete the play, otherwise it's just--
- It's incomplete. - Yeah.
Even if it's theater for one, you know, that's--
it's incomplete without an audience.
- Like, after 50 years of Shakespeare in the Park...
- Yeah. - There has never been
a production that had, like,
a community of, like, immigrants of color...
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - Onstage, like--
- Yeah. - People thought, like,
they've seen it all.
- Mm-hmm. - You know?
But they hadn't seen this. - Yeah, yeah.
- You know? - That's true.
That is true. I was--
I remember that when you called me, and you were like,
yeah, but it would be, like, you know,
like, African people.
And I was like,
saying the text?
- [laughing]
- Huh?
It was like, yeah, I mean, of all the Shakespeare I've seen,
I guess I never-- I don't think I've ever--
I mean, and I'm sure it exists somewhere.
I do not want to be presumptuous
in thinking that we are, like, you know,
reinventing the wheel here,
but at least for Shakespeare in the Park,
we're adding some new spokes, for sure.
- [laughing] - For sure.
So to be able to, like, do a show, you know,
that's comedic and joyful and fun
that, like, kind of centers Black joy,
after a time of experiencing so much Black pain,
is like, very important to me.
So I'm--
Another thing to take seriously.
- The very beginning of the process before rehearsals,
I said to the management, I said, I'd love to talk
about anti-racism and what it means at The Public
and what it's gonna mean for "Merry Wives."
I would've never done that
two years ago, a year ago, without question.
And I actually--
I sort of conflate March, April, May, June, July,
'cause it all was that summer-- spring/summer time
when it felt like-- it just felt like...
There were so many Black people being killed, you know,
at the hands of our police.
And so that's-- that, to me, will always be
what 2020--
and then the pandemic, of course.
In 1994, Daniel Sullivan directed a production
of "Merry Wives of Windsor."
Andrea Martin-- Who else was in that?
David Alan Grier, Tonya Pinkins.
I was a production assistant on that production.
It was my first--
Was that my first time in the Park?
That was my first time in the Park.
Had a miserable time.
Was treated horribly.
And...
Yeah, I mean, I don't even think--
I didn't have words for it.
I didn't even know
the racism and the abuse that I was living under
until much, much later.
We all want to feel valued.
We all want to know that we matter, that our work matters.
We all want to be able to show up to work, you know, and--
with our authentic self and--
and that be okay, as opposed to,
you know, marginalized in any way.
And all of that-- again, I didn't have words
for any of that back then, but that is absolutely
what I vowed to do.
[soft music playing]
♪ ♪
- I got a feeling it's gonna change...
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely, absolutely.
- With the actors, yeah.
"When you were born." - [vocalizing]
- Pah! She talks again, no sound.
"With trial fire touch his finger end.
If he be chaste, the flame will be--"
So it's like, that's in silence?
- Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
- "And turn him to no pain, but if he start,
it is the flesh--"
Yeah, "But if he start,
it is the flesh of a corrupted heart."
Duh-duh-duh, "A trial, come."
It's getting a little louder. - Yeah, yeah.
- "Aha, but stay." Bum!
"I smell a man of middle-earth."
Gung, gung!
Then-- duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.
- Rrr-- - Okay.
- "Flesh of a corrupted heart." - Got it.
- Pastor Evans says, "Come, spirits, come.
"Remember your parts. Be bold, I pray you.
"Follow me, and when I give the signal, do as I bid you.
Come, come, gather."
And he gives Farai the signal. Farai starts.
And then, like, the spirits move
and start to shift the stage.
- Yep. - "And as you trip,
still pinch him to your time."
[vocalizing drum beat]
You know, I think we just start there.
[continues vocalizing]
[drums playing]
♪ ♪
Faster. - Okay.
- [vocalizing drum beat] Like, faster.
♪ ♪
Uh-huh, uh-huh. - So, then when we get
to the next layer, we have that little acceleration into it?
- Yeah, yeah.
At the part where it goes, bah, bah, bah,
that'll probably be collective group going all together,
all together, so really make that really, like...
- Mm-hmm. - Duh-duh, duh-duh, duh-duh!
♪ ♪
- Hey! - Yeah, that's awesome.
- [laughing] - All right, man, that's it.
That's it, that's it. That's it.
African people are not a monolith.
The languages are different.
I love drumming,
because that's one of the common things that's found
all over the place, but it's so different.
I can't even tell you, like, now I get into a cab,
I can hear somebody talk and be like, oh, you from Senegal--
because you sound like the drum.
The rhythms that I'm playing are intentionally secular.
So they don't have a spiritual connotation,
they don't call down spirits, in a way, 'cause I--
I'm not a person that's in any specific spiritual practice,
but I have ultimate respect for it.
I never take any of them lightly.
One of the biggest things I do at the beginning of the show,
I always pour a couple of drops of water, of libations
to their spirit and their energy, because it's real.
I feel like we do have to pay respects.
This is why I can't have family and relationships,
'cause everything is instruments.
[laughs]
So these are my drums.
♪ ♪
When you create music or you create film or theater,
we're able to get into the hearts and minds
of the people
and in a way that's non-offensive,
you know, and nonjudgmental.
And that constant mantra that we provide in the arts
creates society.
If Congress took a African dance class,
we'd get bills passed.
Now all of a sudden, you're able to take hundreds
of people and make them all dance to the same beat
and, you know, work in the same thing.
And then the beauty of African culture
is that there's also space in that for individual expression,
which is universal through African culture--
the cypher, the break dancers, coming into the circle.
So you have a core that brings people together,
and then you have space for individual expression.
That is the core of any intellectual pursuit.
So, without art in balance of technology and advancement,
there is no society.
[atmospheric music]
♪ ♪
- Oh, this is in "Othello," yeah.
Yeah, that's great.
I emailed Saheem, and I said, can we put the--
Doctor Caius' name on the clinic door?
- Mm. - 'Cause I love that,
that their names are all just written there.
Every one of the laundries had all the bubble stuff
all over it, and so we were trying to copy that.
- And one, two, three, magic.
And one, two, three, magic!
All right, rolling. And...
one, two, three, magic.
- That looks cool.
Well, this was dirty.
- I have definitely not
been a lover of Shakespeare, traditionally.
I never really thought it was for me.
And I never really, like-- I never went out of my way
to see it or to work on Shakespeare-related things,
but right before we talked,
I had just read this essay that James Baldwin wrote
about why he stopped hating Shakespeare.
And it was when he moved from America to France.
And in being in a country with a different language,
he realized how much Shakespeare's English
really spoke to the Black American experience.
And how it was the language of the people
and how the kind of epicness of it
felt very true to his experience.
Shakespeare actually is messing up
a lot of standard English in the ways
that actually ask for there to be more freedom
in adaptations of Shakespeare, as opposed to more rigidity.
Yeah, I just-- I've seen so many productions
where Black and brown people-- like, actors are put onstage,
the production team's white,
the lead characters are still white,
and the story is told in a, like, post-racial,
racially blind way,
where those actors are kind of expected to still speak
in a white dialect, still be telling a white story.
And what's really important about this production
is that it's not doing that.
It's telling Black stories.
The production team has so many people of color on it,
so many Black people.
The rehearsal room-- I take for granted so often.
I'm never in a rehearsal room
where everyone around me is Black,
and it feels so different but in a way that I forget
how rare it is, because it feels so right.
- Is it the one that has, like--
that stayed up longer?
- A little bit. - Okay.
- It had at this cannon.
- Yeah, this is the one that stayed up the longest.
- Yes.
- Square cut. Ah.
Ooh. - I know.
- Oh! - [laughs]
- I love how it stays up.
Okay. Let's go with this one. - Okay.
- You're tall, too! - Yep, yes.
[laughter, chatter]
- Hi. It's a pleasure.
- Yas! [laughter]
[cheers]
- Whoo! - I know!
- I can't even believe it.
[laughter]
- Yay!
- Air hug, air hug.
- Nuts. - I know!
I know. - I'm like...
15 months... - [laughs]
- Since I've last been in a rehearsal room.
- Oh, my God. - And it wasn't even
for this play.
- No, I know.
- Exactly! You know, we manifested it.
- This is, like, a first-class...
Little-- you know?
- Very cute. - It's--
And some lotion. That's how you know
we working on a Black show.
We in the big leagues now, baby.
- Hey! - Hey!
- We are here. We are here, we are here.
[cheers and applause]
This is wild. Wild, wild, wild, wild.
Incredible, incredible. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
We're gonna-- we're gonna just, like, begin.
We're going to dive into something
that is familiar yet new.
Oskar, you want to say anything
before we start to introduce folks?
- The only real thing I want to say, guys,
is we're inaugurating this entire complex
of rehearsal studios today,
as well as bringing New York back to the theater.
This is... [cheers and applause]
The power of people gathering together,
it's gonna be great,
and I'm just so, so grateful you're here.
Welcome, guys. - Hey!
- Thank you.
Jocelyn, you want to say something?
- I'm just-- I'm really just in shock.
Honestly, like, that's really it.
And I'm really very, like, emot--
Like, it's so great what we do.
It's hard what we do. It's crazy what we do.
But it's like, it's a beautiful and an amazing thing,
and for that thing to just be completely yanked from us
for so long feels insane and sad and whatever,
so this is, like-- I am really emotional about it,
because I think what we do is a really beautiful thing,
and to be able to come back again
with this incredible company and doing this show
feels really remarkable.
So I'm just thrilled to be here, yeah.
Yay. [laughter, cheers]
Oh, Lord Jesus.
[laughter]
Cried on the Zoom, crying in the rehearsal.
- Relax, chill. It's all good.
Any questions before we dive in?
- So we can take this off?
- Yes, yes. - You can take off your mask.
- You are in your playing space.
- Whoo-hoo! ♪ Can you feel it? ♪
- Literally. [laughter]
- I'ma work my way up to the other ear.
[laughter]
- And, Abigail, whenever you're ready.
- "Merry Wives" by William Shakespeare,
adaptation by Jocelyn Bioh.
Act one, scene one-- enter Shallow, Slender,
and Pastor Evans.
- Pastor Evans, persuade me not.
- Robert Shallow, Esquire.
- Hey, I never believe that.
- And neither should you, eh?
[both laugh]
Oh, Madam Page, give me some counsel.
- What's going on?
- If only my husband saw this letter,
it would give him eternal food for his jealousy.
- Right. Look where he comes.
- This chasm that people have created
between people of color and Shakespeare,
it's the most ridiculous thing.
A teacher told me
that Jamaicans didn't do a lot of Shakespeare
in the U.K. or whatever
because they didn't have a grasp
of the language or something like this.
And I remember being like...
"What?"
When you study Shakespeare, as I've had for many years,
like, the language itself is filled with an energy.
Like, you don't just speak words.
Every words has an energy, a drive, and a subte--
Who speaks like that all the time?
You tell me.
Ah, it's almost time. To the oak, to the oak!
I've never seen a production of Shakespeare
done in this dialect.
That's a beautiful thing.
- I do invite you tomorrow morning to my house
for breakfast.
After, we'll go to the park
for some bird-watching together, ah?
Shall it be so? - Anything.
- I think when you see a theater show,
it really encompasses that idea of,
we are all the same in different ways.
People that come to see it are gonna feel
like they're being invited into a world
that they never would experience.
And I think that is what is so important about it.
- I wish I could knock him in the head just one more time.
How could he do this?
- Marry, sir, the pittie-ward, the park-ward,
every way but the town way.
During the pandemic, my mom had a health scare.
She had a stroke.
She keeps saying in Twi, like--
[speaking Twi] Which means "I'm gonna come."
Like, she's so excited to come and see it.
But me just talking about it
to her, I'm like,
there's Twi in this play, Mom,
like, we're wearing kente,
we're wearing authentic things,
like, you're gonna love it,
like--
And she's like, "Oh, wow!"
You know, she's never seen anything like that, so...
This is a story for us.
- All things do lie open. - Money talks.
- Mm. - Always has, always will.
- Truth. Blaow, blaow.
And I have a bag... - [laughter]
- Of money there that troubles me.
My family's Nigerian. My mother's very religious.
My family's very religious.
Grew up loving a white God
in a country that was carved out
by a white colonizing nation.
And that still very much infects what it is
to be Nigerian,
either here or in Nigeria.
- Act two, scene two.
- I think this play can do so much
for so many people as far as finding the power
in their lineage.
- It's been a long, hard year, y'all.
Couldn't go to the clubs, couldn't hit up the bars,
liquor stores was closed all early.
I been stuck in the house just eating snacks,
bored out my goddamn mind.
[laughter]
You know what I'm talking about?
When I was being taught how to perform this writer,
it was always from a place of, this is outside of you.
You're gonna-- and this was said--
you're gonna have to rise up.
You're gonna have to change and augment yourself
to be able to earn the right to perform this...
to be good enough, to be worthy...
of it, but it's my birthright.
The language doesn't control me.
I'm using it for what I want to use it for.
Oh, pshh!
Please. Pshh, pshh.
Man, off with him.
I will stare him out of his wits.
I will tap-dance like the late, great Gregory Hines
all over his lips.
I shall hang like LeBron James over the cuckold's horns.
- Uh-huh.
- I quit theater because of an experience
I had at the Delacorte.
It really made me go, "I've had enough."
I walked away because of how I was treated.
And the idea of tokenism was going on,
the idea of what kind of Black you are.
I was a different kind of Black.
I'm an urban Black.
So that was less acceptable. What do we do with that?
How much can you give to something
if it keeps slapping you in the face?
- We're gonna come up this way.
We're gonna go around the front of the stage.
- [speaking indistinctly over PA]
- Sorry, just gonna have to go around.
- Come on up, and we're gonna go out
and around this way first.
- Not yet, no. - Yeah!
- Check this out.
- Oh, my goodness!
Falstaff, my man!
[atmospheric music]
- Man, when my bedroom turns around,
and there's my face with the crown on,
it's like, I'm like, yo...
God's got a good sense of humor, bro.
[laughs] You know what I'm saying?
Like, I'm a man of faith, I'm not gonna hide--
God has a really good sense of humor.
♪ Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? ♪
Man.
It's such a gift.
If you had--
♪ ♪
[voice breaking] I'm sorry.
If you had told me...
That this would-- I wouldn't have believed you.
[sniffles]
It's a gift.
- Three...
- It's a community
and truly is a play about community.
- Yay! Amazing, genius!
- Then you go, "Ugh!"
And then you go, "Ha!"
- [shouting indistinctly]
[all grunting]
- It's like the way that that thing works
is it hits down on the pipe. The pipe...
- Tip it up a little bit.
Thank you. Next.
♪ ♪
- Yeah, that's my mom. Welcome to my family corner.
Um... [clears throat]
My mom's still in Texas, which is where I'm from.
Can't be out here with bad edges.
My barber would kill me.
She was a single parent.
She works for the government.
She does loans for FEMA, which is dope.
She says she really wants to come
to Shakespeare in the Park
'cause that's actually something she...
she just has heard me talk about my whole life,
just being like,
"I want to work at Shakespeare in the Park."
So now that I'm finally doing it,
I think she will be swooping in.
There's some moments where I'm like, this is just a dream,
I'm gonna wake up, and I'm not gonna be in New York working.
'Cause I just moved here, like--
I moved here August 30th.
I was here for, technically, six months,
and then the pandemic hit.
So I was quite literally just beginning my, like--
Like, The Public was the first place to hire me.
To be just graduating from college
and to be hired at The Public,
I was extremely blessed, and I still am.
My mom, she's an amazing singer,
so I've actually been in, you know,
the fine arts-- good morning--
the fine arts and all that stuff for a bit.
And she wanted to go do it, but my grandmother got sick.
My mom's the only daughter she had, so she had to stay.
It's that weird, like, I'm doing this for myself,
but I'm also really doing this for my mom.
Ugh.
Ah, I hear it.
I had a 12-year plan.
I was like, all right, I'ma move to New York,
I'ma work at some off-off-off-Broadway theater,
you know, really, like...
in the gutter, you know, just doing the work
to work my way up.
But The Public Theater, that was the goal.
I'm a Black, queer woman in sound.
You don't see a lot of us.
And to automatically get to the Public,
just as over-hire, like, that was,
like, year 8 in my 12-year plan, right?
Every day there is a part of me--
and it's a very quiet voice in the back of my head...
[train announcer speaking indistinctly over PA]
But it's so insistent,
that's saying, "The reason why I am where I am right now
"is because I ticked off the diversity and inclusion card
on anything."
It's a very quiet voice,
but it's there, you know?
No, but I'm good. I know I'm good.
And that's the other, louder voice on the other side
that's like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
Chill the fuck out. You're at The Public."
It's The Public Theater, like,
some of the best works start at The Public, you know?
So, yeah, no, it's still a flex.
It's still a hard flex. I'm like, "I did that."
Well, my mom and everybody that helped me, we did that.
[train announcer speaking indistinctly over PA]
[birds chirping]
[indistinct chatter over radio]
- The colors this year look pretty.
[indistinct chatter]
[cheerful music]
- It's so hot.
On our first day, it's 95 degrees.
Okay, Central Park, here we go.
♪ ♪
I don't know. I'm super hyped, 'cause--
I don't know. It's like, theater's coming back.
I've never done the Park before.
I feel like we have a really great show.
And, like, I don't know. This is, like...
The actor dream, you know, doing Shakespeare in the Park.
Come on, mask. I know you're in here.
I got, like, coconut water.
I got Essentia.
I got bug spray.
I got sunblock.
I'm ready for the park, man.
It's real. Oh, snap.
[laughing] Oh, wow.
The Ford's Laundromat...
hair braiding salon.
Hello. Hi.
- Hey. Isn't it amazing?
- Yeah, yeah.
[power tools buzzing]
What are we doing? We're doing a show.
Look at that. - I know.
- Oh, not the broken A/C.
- [laughs] - Authentic.
Authentic. - All right, listen.
Listen. - I love it.
- All the way, all the way. - All the way.
- Yeah. Isn't it amazing?
- It's really cool. - It's--it's gonna be glorious.
- Yeah.
- Folks, welcome to the first day of tech...
[cheers and applause] For "Merry Wives."
We are here. We made it.
[cheers and applause continue]
- Most important thing is hydration
and staying in the shade as much as you're able to.
Sunscreen is available at the hydration stations here.
- And the last thing I want to say is,
in the rehearsal room, the cast knows,
Saheem and I really tried to make an environment
where everyone felt heard and seen and welcome,
which is not to say that
that means that there's no challenges
or problems or frustrations.
There will be challenges and problems and frustrations.
But what this means is that we are able to actually speak up
and everybody has agency.
- I'm from Ghana, born and raised.
Lived there half my life, and so for me,
this show has been very rewarding
in the sense that I could tap into a culture
that I've been around growing up.
I've also lived in Harlem. I've been to Senegal.
So I had a lot of fun just thinking about the differences
and the nuances that you would find
within different African cultures.
The curtain-call look that we have--
Abena, who plays Anne Page, which was custom built
by The Public Theater costume shop.
And it's out of woven fabric from Ghana,
and this is traditionally called kente cloth.
This is a fun one.
This is for our Pastor Evans, who's played by Phillip.
And you'll see here, we've custom embroidered
a patch on here for his ministry.
So there are little details that we've speckled
through the entire show just to add more depth and layers
to who these people are.
Even before we're onstage, there's a part of theater
where I'm in the fitting room with an actor,
and I might put a scarf on them,
or I might put them in a specific blouse,
and I see them morph in front of me.
They automatically, like, shift
their, like, body movement.
And we're like, "Yes, we found the character."
That alone is, like--
it's transformation before my eyes.
- I do look good! - The shoes.
[laughter]
You look fabulous. - So do you.
Oh, beautiful! - Yeah.
- Yo, this is dope. - Wonderful.
- Oh, my God. Look at you.
- Yeah. - Wow.
- You look like a--
You look like a floating ghost.
- Yes, it's like... - [laughs]
- Except I got to be very careful.
[all cheering]
- Hey! - Yay!
- Yeah! - Hey!
[laughs]
- Oh! Are you a blonde?
- I am a blonde. - Why are you blonde?
- Oh, okay. - Beyoncé.
- Nkechi Beyoncé. Is that your middle name?
- Madam! - Husband!
[groans]
- You guys look beautiful. - Oh, wow.
- Turns out that I'm the most African representation on here,
and I'm the most urban looking.
[chuckles]
But you see here, like, the way that Dede's designed everybody,
she's made everyone specific to a region
and a style as well.
Not just a region but a style.
So it's really cool. Shows the diversity.
And I think that's what makes this show unique,
'cause we're not just representing one country.
We're literally representing every African in Harlem,
which is-- she did a pretty good job.
- It's fashion! It's a fashion show.
Fashion, fashion. [indistinct chatter]
- All right, welcome back, everyone, welcome back.
You all look amazing.
Can we give a round of applause to Dede Ayite, please?
And costume folks. You all look amazing.
Rodrigo, the whole crew, the whole crew,
the whole costume crew, thank you.
All right, so we're gonna go from top of show.
Ah, Narda, anything?
- We are teching officially.
Literally, we're gonna go through
and setting all of the cues.
It's very likely that the next time we come back
to any of this, we will be in a run-through situation.
So, once again, Farai has been playing and playing,
and it's just about 8:00.
Good evening, folks, welcome to the Delacorte Theater.
Announcement and announcement, and announcement ends.
♪ ♪
- Critters, they've run riot.
Free creatures there looking at me...
trying to come out.
'Cause you don't know what they're gonna do.
You think they're gonna go, "Wahh!"
- Yeah. They're brave, those guys.
- They're brave.
- Great, folks, we're ready to try this
and continue forward.
Falstaff, we're gonna take it from your out.
And go, please.
- Okay, I'll answer it straight.
I don't have it.
This is now answered.
- One moment, I'll give you the go.
"Okay, I will answer it straight."
So standby on Paige. Standby, wives.
- All right. - Hold on, hold on.
- Good, it feels great.
It feels like-- - Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
- It feels similar to what's in the rehearsal room.
- Okay, great.
- Where the lookout was.
Are we ready to move on? - Yes.
- What's very difficult with being in an open-air theater
is you can only tech--
and, you know, and that's looking
at the lighting, the sound,
and everything--in the evening,
because in the afternoons
when the actors rehearse, it's daylight.
So you can't really do lighting.
You can't really do things.
Anytime that you lose,
you're really biting into that very precious time
that there is to get the show on.
- I have, like, five more microphones I need to prepare,
listen to.
- This outdoor theater taught us all
that rain is like-- "Oh, it's gonna rain?
Okay, we just stop."
It teaches you that you have no control.
It's like, sit down, take a breath,
and how can you be productive in this rain?
Get 'em, get 'em, get 'em!
More!
[vocalizing drum beat]
Exactly. [all cheer]
Yeah.
Here, here, here, and here. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- In the beginning.
- "Corrupt, corrupt, tainted in desire."
I feel like-- one idea is to then get--
- I guess many people don't know--some people know,
my mother passed very recently.
She passed right before rehearsal started.
You know, she died from COVID.
A show like this, she would have loved it
because she would have seen herself.
Here we go! Let's go to the top, with Mama Quickly.
- Spirits, black, gray, green, and white,
you moonshine revelers and shades of night,
- Every night in the show, Shola, Mama Quickly--
Jocelyn wrote this beautiful speech
about spirits and ancestors, and we're doing it for you.
It's everything I need right now every time I hear it.
- Spirits, I call on you, come about,
all of you spirits, both within and out,
for we made it through the great test of storms.
Now freedom--now days of love, joy, freedom born.
- "Now many spirits have joined you spirits above,
"honored forever in dignified love.
"New meaning to life, we all understand
"that love is present...
wherever we land."
I mean, to see the words is--
[voice breaking] That's it.
Um...
This is why we live.
[sniffles]
How lucky am I to get in a show
where she wrote this for this show?
You know?
I can't--
I can't ask for more, you know?
It's like a blessing. Your steps are ordered.
You know?
Lean in.
So that's gonna go flip. It's gonna go up.
These actors, this creative team,
this whole process has been very healing.
Good.
Just thanks for all your experimentation
and just being there with us and your patience.
Yeah, thank you. all: Thank you.
- Thank you so much, too, for helping us.
Farai, hey, thank you.
[cheers] - Yeah, Farai.
[indistinct chatter]
[overlapping speech]
- Could you come backstage right?
One of these trees just fell apart.
- We need a second--
[indistinct chatter]
Did someone lean on it? - No.
- Fell on its own? - Just on its own.
- I think it's something about, like,
if a tree falls on the stage...
- I'm guessing-- - Does anybody hear it?
- But an audience isn't in the house--
- But no audience is there--
- I heard it.
- What's the rest of that?
- If a tree falls in the theater
and no one's around to hear it, is it art?
- I need a D-ring screwed to this wall right here,
and I'm gonna safety up this tie.
[power tools buzzing]
- Yeah, it looks, like, real, right?
- Yeah. - It looks intentional.
- They won't even notice.
- Today is the last day of tech.
Ordinarily, we would have run through the show
on Saturday before the day off,
and then today's about addressing
what we learned from there,
but because we lost so many hours due to the rain,
we're behind.
So, yeah.
We are hopefully gonna run most of the show
this evening.
We'll have to stop and tech the rest of it.
So, at this juncture, it's looking like the first time
we're gonna get through the show from start to end
will be with an audience for first preview,
which happens sometimes, you know?
You want to be a bit ahead of it,
but when the elements--
when Mother Nature steps in and says--
[laughs] Laughs at us,
then we just got to roll with the punches.
So we're gonna work tonight with costumes
and then continue teching the show,
and then we'll have our first audience tomorrow.
- ♪ Spirits, I call on you, come about ♪
♪ All of you spirits, both in and out ♪
♪ Now many have joined you spirits above ♪
♪ Honored forever in dignified love ♪
- And let's hold right here, please.
So I believe Darrell may be working with some folks.
- Just go to your sides.
Yeah, so let's say Farai is on deck,
and remember who's after Farai.
So we're gonna go from "Away. Disperse."
- Away. Disperse.
But till 'tis 1:00, folk.
- Oh, thank you.
[indistinct chatter]
- First time is really the worst.
- [laughs] - But you got this.
Once you do it, you can do it every day
for the rest of the summer..
- The front-of-house staff has been furloughed
since March of 2020,
so it's really emotional
to have everybody back, and we're all excited
and nervous and just all the things.
- And, folks, we will be warming up onstage vocally.
We will be warming up onstage vocally, thank you.
[both vocalizing]
- First preview's always special.
It's always the first time.
You've been rehearsing just by yourselves.
You've been laughing at your own jokes.
You know, you know what's coming.
And so you don't have that fresh feeling,
and especially for a comedy, the first audience is like--
they're a barometer, you know.
I can't wait, I can't wait. We're ready.
Even though we lost hours of tech, we're ready.
[mellow percussion]
♪ ♪
- Actors are just naked people in the dark
without some tech.
[laughs] So...
♪ ♪
- This is a break. This is ten minutes.
Please take your microphones off.
- [grunts] - Take your microphones off.
- Oy vey. - [laughs]
- It's hot.
Here we are. - Yeah.
- First preview! [all cheer]
Yeah, I'm so excited. I'm so excited.
You all have worked so, so hard to get to this point.
It's been an extraordinary journey.
There was so much that was unknown,
and we have figured it all out together.
Oskar was saying that in the 16 years
he's been at the Delacorte,
we are the worst-hit tech in 16 years,
in terms of just the hours that we lost because of weather.
The spirit is there. The heart is there.
The soul is there. The generosity's there.
Everything that makes this show special is there.
Tonight we get the final piece.
We invite the audience to us.
There are folks here who haven't sat in a theater
for over a year.
They haven't watched live performance for over--
They haven't sat next to strangers for over a year,
you know, so it's going to be unlike any other first preview
we might get in our lifetime, you know?
Thank you. Have a great first preview!
[cheers and applause]
[wind gusting loudly]
- [speaking indistinctly]
- Back up and then left on the ground, all over it.
- Stay underground. Go back underground.
- What are we doing with this?
- We got to leave this. - Okay.
[metal clattering]
[rain pattering]
[contemplative music]
♪ ♪
- The real thing that we're waiting for
is for the lighting to be calm
within 5 miles for 20 minutes,
at which point, we can begin some setup
that can happen in heavier rain.
- We encourage you to keep wearing your masks
and stand by.
We will try to open the house as soon as possible.
- This is how we show how dedicated we New Yorkers are.
Nothing could be better than Shakespeare in the Park.
It's my favorite thing in the world.
I come for every show.
I mean, I can't miss this, whatever happens, you know?
As long as I don't get struck by lightning,
and even if I do, it'll be worth it.
[indistinct chatter]
- I think there's a movement happening right now in theater,
and I think this is the start of it.
And we're here in the rain to see the beginning of it,
if we can see it.
- Whoo! - We're gonna do it.
We're gonna do it. Yeah.
Let's do it.
We're gonna do it.
- Are we gonna do it? - We're gonna do it.
- Come on, come on. Let's go.
- We're gonna do it, friends. - All right.
[indistinct chatter]
- Let's do it. Let's do it.
All right, now.
- Let's go. Let's go, let's go.
[squeals]
- We have made the decision to proceed
with tonight's performance. [cheers and applause]
- [laughing]
[laughs]
- What time is it? [thunder booms]
- Oh, my gosh. - Wow.
- Nope, we're not going. - Did they call it yet?
[indistinct chatter]
- Should've done "The Tempest."
- May I have your attention-- - They're calling it.
- We apologize for the inconvenience,
but we are sadly going to cancel
this evening's performance of "Merry Wives."
- No! - We appreciate you
for hanging out with us so much that we invite you all
to email info@publictheater.org
and use the code "merryrain"
to reschedule your tickets for a future date,
pending availability.
[thunder booms]
- We'll have it tomorrow.
- [sighs] It's okay.
I don't know.
It just feels like, yeah, COVID shut it down again.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's that same feeling, you know?
So... - Yeah.
- But it is what it is, right?
I mean, what are we gonna do? - It is what it is, yeah.
- It's been a really tough... - Yeah.
- Tough, tough, tough week.
- Yeah.
- And it won't stop. - I know.
It feels like it's, like-- well, it's like--
- It's like it's trying to make a point.
- [laughs] It's like, every time--
- But I haven't gotten the point.
- [laughs]
It's like, here's something, and here's something...
- Oh, my God. - And here's something, yeah.
Yeah. - [sighs]
- I know. - Okay.
Okay. - Love you.
- Love you, too.
- We will never forget "Merry Wives."
- No, we won't! [laughter]
[sighs] We certainly will not.
- I guess I want to know what happens
to people who did have tickets.
- They're getting rebooked. - They'll just get rebooked?
- Yeah, and it's not a usual policy,
but I think tonight... - There will be an exception?
- For people waiting around, they're getting a code.
- Okay.
I mean, I counted it back.
I actually was like,
"When is the last time I've seen
a live theater show?"
So I went back, and it was, like, March 11, 2020,
which was 482 days ago.
And as somebody who has 15 binders...
[laughing] Full of playbills, like,
who goes to see theater multiple times a week,
it's not just something that I do,
it's also something I really enjoy.
So I was like, "Oh, my God, I'm gonna get to see a play again."
And it just so happens to be, you know,
a play that I've been a part of, so...
But I got to wait another night.
That's it. That's how this is going.
all: Hi.
[indistinct chatter]
[birds chirping, distant siren wailing]
- All right, Falstaff, check one, two, two, two.
Hey, hey. Check one, two, two, two.
- [over radio] Falstaff is good.
- Madam Ford, Madam Ford, Ford Madam, Madam Ford,
Check one, two, Madam Ford. Hey, hey, check one, two.
Madam, Madam, Ford, Ford. Check one, two, Madam Ford.
Hey, check one, two--
- [over radio] Madam Ford is good.
- Sweet.
- Take two.
Take two.
- I was just about to check the weather again.
- [laughs]
Yeah, they were saying they managed to rebook everyone
from yesterday, so that's good.
- Oh. - Wah.
- Ah...
[all vocalizing]
[vocalizing trails off] - Shh.
- [clears throat]
- As we've been preparing for this run,
we have not managed to do the show from start to end
without stopping, so tonight... [laughter]
You are going to see this show from start to end
for the first time along with the rest of us!
So welcome! [cheers and applause]
[drums playing]
♪ ♪
- You two, I see you.
I see you. You're not slick.
Go on. Go on.
[indistinct chatter]
- Could you actually get to, like, here?
Yeah. Yes, that seam.
Perfect. Nice tag.
Yeah? - Yes.
- Sweet.
Thank you. All right.
- The lift to get "Merry Wives" on has been
so huge.
You know, we had the torrential rain.
We had the killing heat.
[indistinct chatter]
The first preview, rained off.
Second preview, we went up at quarter to 9:00.
Third preview, I can't remember what time.
Fourth preview, we went up at 10:00.
- Big with rich increase.
Bearing the wanton burden of the crime,
like widowed wombs.
- At what point does the show not go on?
You know, at what point do you say,
we tried, and we can't do it anymore?
And that point hasn't arrived yet.
- Tonight's performance at Shakespeare in the Park
has been canceled
because of a cast member testing positive for COVID.
A spokesperson for The Public Theater says
that the company learned about that case on Wednesday.
They canceled tonight's show and last night's show
out of an abundance of caution.
The Public Theater does plan
to resume performances tomorrow.
♪ ♪
- Tuesday, July 27th...
It's supposed to be opening night.
[chuckles]
We had to put out the press release
about the COVID case.
The performance that night and the next day were canceled,
and then we had to cancel a third performance.
It's just been odd. It's just been odd.
Like, even today, it's like...
you know, it's supposed to be opening night.
[chuckles] Like...
you know, I'm supposed to be...
feverishly finishing cards and, you know...
Calling the bakery to make sure
the, like, you know, dozen, two dozen cupcakes
or whatever I ordered for the crew, you know,
will be delivered on time kind of thing, like...
It's just a different-- and now it's just Tuesday.
[chuckles] So it's just kind of--
it's a weird buildup, you know?
When you, like, make theater, you know,
you just know that, yeah, these are the--
this is the order, you know.
You have first rehearsal,
you go through the muckity muck of, you know, rehearsal,
you forge through...
tech.
You know, but then you go through tech--
even, like, dress rehearsal--
sometimes you have, like, an invited dress rehearsal,
like, that builds the energy.
Like, yeah, we've just had none of that.
[laughs] It's just been like...
harrowing, harrowing, harrowing,
the whole way through.
Trying to bring theater back
after...
well, what we thought was coming
out of the cloud of a pandemic
and then we got dealt a curveball
with, you know...
COVID really just doing the remix, you know?
[sighs]
[keyboard clacking]
- It's been a tough road back.
I think it's all part of this COVID time.
You know, what is the next act?
I mean, I've done this for my whole life.
I've been at this theater for over 30 years,
and this may be it.
And if it is...
I'm happy it's this one.
So...
I don't know.
A long road, a long...
It's been a long time, and...
I'm getting on there, so...
It's good to pass things on as well
to people,
to the next group...
So that they can...
Have their own tour of this place.
- Mm.
Mm.
Mm!
You know, more and more, this process is just--
it's not about Shakespeare or is just about Shakespeare--
it's not just about Black people doing Shakespeare.
It's just about the human spirit,
the will to keep going, you know?
We got a lot of people out,
and we're still just finding a way to be here.
We can't ever admit defeat.
That's how I'm feeling now, as a group.
What shall I say more than I've already inferred?
- We've done so many different versions of this show,
I feel, over the course of the different weeks.
It doesn't matter if you're a cover
or if you were someone who'd already been in the show
or someone who was in the crew.
Every single person--
Narda, Ben, everyone had to rally for this.
Change is our constant, you know?
Because at a certain point, we're gonna say bye to Shola,
we're gonna say bye to Susan, you know?
Change is gonna be our constant.
And other folks are gonna have to step in,
so, really, truly,
this thing is bigger than any single one of us.
We knew that doing a show right now would be an uphill battle.
We knew that.
[laughing] But, God almighty,
we didn't know it would be like this.
We've made our plans,
and let's see what the universe brings us.
[cheerful music]
♪ ♪
- Shakespeare is returning to Central Park tonight
for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic,
weather permitting, of course.
Chopper 2 flew over the Delacorte Theater
during final preps for the start of performances
for "Merry Wives."
- We're just in time.
- Perfect, thank you. - Thank you very much.
[chuckling] Happy opening.
I know I'm here because I'm good.
And I know I'm here because they want to work with me,
they want to see me grow.
I couldn't be more excited looking forward
to what this moment will bring me in the future.
♪ ♪
- I mean, it's live theater,
so although we've done this show now a million times,
you know, the fact that anything could happen
always comes into play.
But that's also why we do it, 'cause anything could happen.
It's that electricity.
Theater's such a temporal thing.
Every night it's just gonna be that night.
And at one point, there won't be any more nights
of doing this with those people there.
It's a practice in being present.
[lively music]
♪ ♪
- Hi.
- You look amazing. - Thank you.
- Happy opening. - Yeah, you look so good.
- Thank you. So do you guys.
- Thank you.
- Oh, my gosh, you look great. - Thank you.
Thank you. - Happy opening.
- Hey, friend. - Hi.
- [chuckles]
- Lot of emotions. Lot of, like...
- Handheld one, handheld one...
- Anxiety and doubts about the business.
- Happy opening! - We're here.
Don't say it yet.
We haven't finished the show today yet, so...
- You're right. We have to finish the show.
- Exactly. We'll celebrate at 10:00--
10:00, 10:30.
- Then you reach opening night,
and then you realize, "Oh, okay,
"this is why we do it.
This is why we're here."
- [trilling lips]
- The coming in and working until midnight
or being out in the rain or, you know, 8:00 am
to how many hours that's six days a week.
There has to be something that keeps you coming back to it.
And I think taking those moments
to acknowledge the beauty and magic of what we create
is what keeps us here.
- Very proud of you guys. - Aw.
[indistinct chatter]
- Just like that. Enjoy the show.
- Thank you.
- I am thrilled.
All the way from Texas to see her.
This is my first time traveling to New York
to see something.
And then with COVID, you know, I didn't get to see her
for, like, a year and a half, so...
She said, "Mom, you're gonna like it.
You're gonna be ecstatic about it."
And she said, "You won't go to sleep."
[laughs]
- What I can say, I think, with honesty
is that this year and a half
is a transition point for me,
where I am clearly recognizing
that my job right now
for this last phase of my career
is about handing over power.
The institution requires it. The field requires it.
And it's what I have to offer.
[applause] - Oh, first lady's coming!
[indistinct chatter, cheers]
- Come on in, Pastor, darling.
[indistinct chatter]
- It's been a long time coming.
[cheers]
- Preach, preacher!
- This is what we came here for...
[all humming assent] - That's right.
- To be revitalized,
to be changed...
[hums of assent] To be renewed...
[hums of assent] To open our hearts,
that there be a great coming together.
- Yes. - That this opening
is not just of a show but of our bodies,
of our spirits, of our souls, of our minds, of our hearts,
that everything that we have put into this, oh, God,
has been opened up and given right back out.
And it'll be multiplied over and over and over.
We thank You.
There is nothing wasted but everything gained.
- Yes! - All because we are here,
all because we have been obedient,
all because we are alive,
because we are Black, because we are strong...
[mutters of assent] Because weather can't stop us.
[shouts of assent] And COVID can't stop us.
So tonight...
we open this joint up...
for all to see, hear, love, and believe.
"Merry Wives" on three. [all shout]
all: One, two, three, "Merry Wives!"
[cheers and applause]
[lively music]
- Welcome back to the Delacorte.
Welcome back to live theater.
Welcome back to Shakespeare in the Park!
[cheers and applause] Ah.
Oh, my goodness.
It is so, so, so wonderful
to see you all out here tonight.
We are going through some difficult times,
but it is really, really special
to be out here tonight.
We don't know what tomorrow will bring,
but tonight we are here, we are sharing space,
we have a community, you are a blessing.
We are so, so, so ready for you, so thank you.
[cheers and applause]
[percussion plays]
♪ ♪
- ♪ Come, let me say Ashe ♪ all: Ashe.
- ♪ Come, let me say Yevo ♪ all: Yevo.
-♪ Come, let me say Ame ♪ all: Ame.
- ♪ Come let me say Ago ♪ all: Ago.
- What's up, New York?
[cheers and applause]
- Where's the money you owe me, Falstaff?
This shall be answered!
- Okay, I'll answer it straight.
I don't have it.
This is now answered.
- Opening night has a certain magic to it.
- Let's consult together against this greasy scoundrel.
Come, come. - Yes.
Let's get to the revenge part.
both: Aha!
- It has a certain beauty to it.
- Oof. Odious is the name.
- What name, sir? - The horn, I say.
- Hey! Hey, hey.
- The sum of its parts
is greater than any individual part.
And this is such a beautiful manifestation of that.
That's the gift.
[lively music]
- I left this place. Thought I'd never come back.
And now I have a big picture of my face with a crown on it.
Life's crazy.
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh... ♪
I've come out of this taking ownership for who I am.
[uplifting music]
[both grunting]
- I desire you in friendship.
- Why did you send that letter? - I just want love to win.
- Creating an all-Black production
of a Shakespearean play,
none of that was new to me.
I only write for Black people.
[laughs]
- Now many have joined you spirits above,
honored forever in dignified love.
- It's really about what theaters, what producers,
what tastemakers are doing to uplift.
How are you going to support people
who are creating work like that?
This is the future.
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
- Happy opening! - Thank you.
Aw. - Aw.
- We did it, bro. - Yes, we did it.
It's done. We're open.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
- I want to drink. I want to dance.
- Hi!
- Happy opening. - Happy opening.
- 16 months without this has been weird.
But to have it back, this is like a dream today, man.
- Whoo. - I see you looking.
- Oh! [laughter]
- Whoo.
♪ ♪
[bright tone]