The Delacorte Theater

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Delacorte Theater, home to New York's beloved free outdoor Shakespeare performances in Central Park, has undergone an $85 million refurbishment. Now clad in redwood timber from disused water tanks from each of New York’s boroughs, the structure has been made accessible for disabled audiences, actors and backstage workers. It's also been made water and raccoon-proof. Presenter Jeff Lunden has been following its progress – from a hard-hat tour in freezing February to the summer previews of a new production of Twelfth Night, starring Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave actor Lupita Nyong’o, Sandra Oh from Killing Eve, and Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service.
0:05.9	I'm Jeff London, and I'm in the heart of New York City's Central Park, right next to a
0:11.2	theater which has presented free Shakespeare in the park for more than 60 years.
0:16.6	The Delacourt Theater has been closed for the past 18 months for a big renovation,
0:21.6	and tonight it reopens with a star-studded production of Shakespeare's comedy of romance and mistaken identity, 12th night.
0:31.6	At 8.30 in the morning, there's a long, winding line of people, some in lawn chairs, some on blankets, one even in a hammock.
0:41.2	The very first person on the line is Mary Flum Peterson.
0:45.8	And where are you from?
0:46.9	I live here in New York.
0:48.1	I grew up in Wisconsin, but I've been coming to Shakespeare in the park since I was an undergrad at Columbia when I was 19 years.
0:54.9	So it's a tradition for me for many years.
0:58.8	I'll just leave it at that many, many years.
1:01.5	So when did you get here this morning?
1:04.7	This morning I got here at 4.30.
1:07.4	Wow.
1:08.5	Okay.
1:09.5	So you really want to see Shakespeare in the park? I do. I do.
1:12.8	Like Mary, I've been seeing Shakespeare in the park every year since I moved to the city in 1980.
1:18.7	My first show wasn't Shakespeare at all. It was a highly entertaining production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, starring Linda Ronstat and Kevin
1:28.9	Klein. I was enchanted, not just by the performance, but by the setting. One of the great
1:35.7	beauties of Free Shakespeare in the park is you never lose sight of the fact that you're in the
1:40.4	middle of New York City. That's Oscar Eustace, artisticistic Director of the Public Theater, which runs the Delacourt.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.