50 Years of the Delacorte Theater - An Oral History

NYTimes.com: IN the 50 years since Joe Papp successfully lobbied the city to build an amphitheater in the middle of Central Park, the Delacorte Theater has played host to all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays plus a smattering of Chekhov, Brecht, Ibsen, Aeschylus and, as of this August, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine (“Into the Woods”). During that time, more than four million patient theatergoers have waited in line to see a potent mix of raw talent, seasoned stage veterans and Hollywood imports do battle against the Central Park fauna, the occasional helicopter and the more than occasional thunderstorm to perform the classics free.