Photo Coverage: 'Hamlet' Opens With Public Annual Gala 2008/06/18

Photo Coverage: 'Hamlet' Opens With Public Annual Gala

Wednesday, June 18, 2008; Posted: 11:06 AM - by Walter McBride

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Mara Manus)� 2008 Summer Gala honored Public Theater Board Member David Rockwell for his outstanding leadership and commitment to the institution for the past 20 years.� Chaired by Stephen M. Ross and Daniel H. Stern, the Gala will took place on Tuesday, June 17th at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park on the opening night of HAMLET, the first production of the Shakespeare in the Park summer season.

"David Rockwell is an amazing artist, a visionary businessman, a deeply committed philanthropist, and a great friend of the Public Theater," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis.� "We are proud to honor him."

�"The Public Theater produces Shakespeare with no admission charge (a miracle unto itself!)," said David Rockwell.� "It bustles with new actors and new scripts. It works ceaselessly to build a large, diverse audience of first-time theatergoers.� It is a people's theatre in the very best sense of the word, and I am exceptionally proud of my association with it."

The Public's annual Gala is one of the more unique events in New York City, featuring an outdoor buffet dinner in Central Park, followed by a performance at the Delacorte Theater and a post-show cast party at Belvedere Castle overlooking Turtle Pond and the Delacorte. Past gala attendees include President Clinton, Mayor Bloomberg and other top government officials, CEOs and business leaders of Fortune 500 and other major corporations, established leaders of the social community, young trendsetters and a wide range of celebrities.

Directed by Oskar Eustis and featuring Tony Award nominee Michael Stuhlbarg in the title role, this summer's production of HAMLET marks the first time this bard classic has been done in the Park in 33 years. It will run May 27-June 29 with a cast that includes Margaret Colin as Gertrude, Andre Braugher as Claudius, Sam Waterston as Polonius and Lauren Ambrose as Ophelia.� It will be followed in July by a revival of the landmark rock musical HAIR. These two productions were the first to open The Public Theater's permanent home on Lafayette Street, during the 1967 season.

David Rockwell is the CEO and founder of Rockwell Group, an award-winning architecture and design practice with projects ranging from hotels to hospitals, restaurants to airport terminals and Broadway set designs to consumer products. Current and past projects include the Elinor Bunin-Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center; interior work for the new Jet Blue terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport; Chambers hotel and Town restaurant (New York); W New York and W Union Square; the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards ceremony (Los Angeles); the Broadway musicals Hairspray, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Legally Blonde as well as the upcoming Houdini (co-producer and designer); the Children's Hospital at Montefiore; Adour Alain Ducasse at The St. Regis; Nobu; Nobu Fifty Seven; Bar American; Caf� Gray; Gordon Ramsay's Maze (London); and a collection of wall coverings for Maya Romanoff. His monograph, Pleasure: The Architecture and Design of Rockwell Group, was published by Universe, a division of Rizzoli Books in 2002.� Spectacle by David Rockwell with Bruce Mau � a book examining the history and public fascination with larger-than-life man-made events � was published by Phaidon Press in October 2006. David Rockwell has been honored this year with the National Design Award by Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt for outstanding achievement in Interior Design; is included in Interior Design magazine's Hall of Fame; and was awarded the Presidential Design Award for his work for the Grand Central Terminal renovation. Rockwell serves as Chairman of the Board of the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) and is a member of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum's committee on Exhibitions.