Amy Sherald, Christian Slater & More Set for Public Forum at The Delacorte

The Public Theater has announced that the revitalized Delacorte Theater will welcome more audiences than ever this summer. Alongside Free Shakespeare in the Park, Mobile Unit, and Public Works, Public Forums and Public Stories stand as affirmations of more than just programming, but as a declaration of interdependence, a reassertion of The Public Theater's belief that culture belongs to everyone.

Monday evenings, typically the night off from The Public's Free Shakespeare in the Park performances, will now feature the revival of the PUBLIC FORUM series. The series will feature a distinctive mix of performance and conversation and a focus on American voices on this year's 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Public Theater Associate Artistic Director Alexa Smith, who leads the program with Jeremy McCarter, shares, “Amy Sherald, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Michael Sandel, Ayanna Thompson, and Logan Ury join New Yorkers in Central Park for a live invitation to wrestle with the biggest questions right now, drawing energy from across art forms and industries. Everyone is part of it. This is a people's ‘Theater of Ideas' in motion.”

Additionally, PUBLIC STORIES is The Public's new civic storytelling program, expanding work done with the Public Works community for the past three years. By centering community members as storytellers and artists, PUBLIC STORIES affirms storytelling as a vital practice in a democratic society. As the country recognizes the Declaration of Independence's 250th anniversary as a document that catalyzed our democracy, The Public is producing PUBLIC STORIES: GOVERNMENT VOICES, directed and conceived by Julian Goldhagen, in partnership with District Council 37 (DC 37), New York's largest union and the country's largest municipal employee union. Any current or former municipal, state, or federal employees can access a series of free storytelling workshops and, then this summer, have the chance to share their work before select performances of Free Shakespeare in the Park and Mobile Unit. Learn more at ThePublic.NYC/PublicStories.

As previously announced, SHAKESPEARE FOR THE CITY presented by Citizens, running May 22 through September 8, will feature Free Shakespeare in the Park's ROMEO & JULIET, directed by Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director Saheem Ali, and THE WINTER'S TALE, directed by Daniel Sullivan, Public Works at the newly revitalized Delacorte Theater, and Mobile Unit's AS YOU LIKE IT, directed by Emma Rosa Went. The JL Greene Foundation returns as Lead Sponsor of Free Shakespeare in the Park.

PUBLIC STORIES

PUBLIC STORIES: GOVERNMENT VOICES

Partnering with District Council 37 (DC 37), New York's largest union and the country's largest municipal employee union, PUBLIC STORIES: GOVERNMENT VOICES will feature government workers as storytellers in select performances of Free Shakespeare the Park and Mobile Unit. Learn more at ThePublic.NYC/PublicStories.

PUBLIC FORUMS

Mondays at The Delacorte Theater at 8:00 p.m.

Reserved seats for donation are available for Public Theater members now. Free tickets will be distributed on the day of each Public Forum. More information will be available in May.

QUICK BRIGHT THINGS COME TO CONFUSION, OR WHAT WE DO FOR LOVE

June 15

With its madcap romances, busted friendships, and chaotic fairy magic, A Midsummer Night's Dream has surprised and delighted audiences for more than 400 years. In this special event, actors Constance Wu, Christian Slater, and Frankie J. Alvarez will present Shakespeare's story of the play's four young lovers in all their lovestruck comic confusion, sparking a conversation about why and how we do so many crazy, inspired, devoted, disloyal things in our friendships and love affairs. Audiences will hear insights from Kwame Anthony Appiah, the NYU philosopher who writes the weekly “Ethicist” column in The New York Times Magazine and serves as Public Theater trustee; James Shapiro, Public Theater Shakespeare Scholar in Residence since 2012 and Larry Miller Professor of English at Columbia University; Ayanna Thompson, Public Theater Shakespeare Scholar in Residence and Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University; and Logan Ury, behavioral scientist, dating coach, and author of How to Not Die Alone.

AMERICAN SUBLIME

June 22

A new theatrical exploration inspired by artist Amy Sherald's acclaimed body of work, originally exhibited as 'American Sublime' at major US museums, is now taking shape for the stage. The evening will feature live performance excerpts alongside a conversation with Sherald and director Zhailon Levingston, joined by additional collaborating artists, reflecting on the creative process and the evolution of Sherald's work for the stage. Creatively developed in association with National Black Theatre (Sade Lythcott, Chief Executive Officer; Jonathan McCrory, Executive Artistic Director), Jeffrey Seller and Thomas Kail, and JamRock Productions. Participants include James Ijames, Niles Luther, and Anna Deavere Smith.

CITIES UNDER SIEGE

June 29

The arrival of an estimated 3,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minnesota—dubbed Operation Metro Surge—began a period of significant civic unrest with far-reaching impact on public safety, law enforcement, the local economy and workforce, education, and the daily lives of Minnesotans. In January 2026, The Public Theater and The Guthrie Theater partnered to commission acclaimed documentary theater artists Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen to capture firsthand interviews, begin in-depth engagement with affected communities, and embark on the creation of a new play featuring Minnesotans' real experiences. This special Forum evening will feature excerpts from this urgent work in progress and discussion around how cities and civilians respond in moments of crisis.

DIVISION AND RENEWAL: AN EVENING WITH MICHAEL SANDEL

August 10

American society has rarely been more polarized. How did we reach this moment of crisis, and what can any of us do to repair what has been broken? Michael Sandel, the Harvard professor and globally acclaimed “rock-star philosopher,” will return to The Delacorte Theater for a night of public philosophy, engaging an audience of New Yorkers—plus very special onstage guests—in a spirited conversation about meritocracy, dignity, and where we go from here.

SUMMER BOOK CLUB CELEBRATION WITH THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

August 17

Calling all New Yorkers! As part of its annual Summer at the Library programming, The New York Public Library, in partnership with The Public Theater, invites New Yorkers to join a summer book club and read one novel together. The book club will culminate in a marquee event at the Delacorte Theater featuring readings, commissioned performances, and public conversation inspired by and celebrating the book. Stay tuned for the book selection reveal and official launch in May—just in time for Memorial Day weekend.

BIOS

KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH, Silver Professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU, grew up in Ghana and was educated at Cambridge University, where he received both a BA and a PhD in philosophy. He taught previously at the University of Ghana, Cambridge, Yale, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, and Princeton. His books include Assertion and Conditionals, For Truth in Semantics, In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture, The Ethics of Identity, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen, and The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity and two textbook introductions to philosophy. He is also the author of three mystery novels. Professor Appiah is President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Literature, and the British Academy, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He has served as President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association and as Chair of its Board. He began writing the Ethicist column for the New York Times Sunday magazine in 2015 and has written frequently in the New York Review of Books. President Obama presented him with a National Humanities Medal in 2012. In 2024, he was awarded the Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity by the Library of Congress.

Jessica Blank AND Erik Jensen are a multihyphenate, married creative team whom The New Yorker calls “the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S.” Documentary theater is a medium that unites journalistic best practices with the emotional power of the well-made play, creating a forum in which pressing true stories can be told with much more depth and complexity than most media allows. Blank and Jensen have spent over two decades creating documentary theater that wrestles with the most urgent issues of our time while circumventing the false polarization that too often diminishes our national dialogue and blinds us to the human experience behind the headlines. Their work includes The Exonerated, Aftermath, Coal Country, The Line, and numerous others.

Zhailon Levingston is a Louisiana-raised storyteller, director, and activist. He is a Board Member for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition, which he co-created, and teaches the Theatre of Change course at Columbia University. Levingston is also the Artistic Director of Inheritance Theatre Project. Select credits include Chicken and Biscuits (Broadway), Cats: The Jellicle Ball (Perelman Performing Arts Center, Broadway), Table 17 (MCC), Wonderful Town (Encores), Alex Newell and the Gospel of a Diva (Audible/Minetta Lane), Little Miss Perfect (Olney Theatre Center), Patience (Second Stage), The Wiz (Cincinnati Children's Theatre), Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Broadway), and Hadestown (Korea).

MICHAEL SANDEL teaches political philosophy at Harvard University. His books—on justice, democracy, ethics, and markets—have been translated into more than 30 languages. He has been described as a “rock star moralist” (Newsweek) and “the world's most influential living philosopher” (New Statesman). In 2025, he was named the recipient of the Berggruen Prize, the most prestigious global award for philosophy. Sandel's book The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good? seeks a way beyond the polarized politics of our time.

Amy Sherald (b. 1973, Columbus, GA) documents contemporary African American experience in the United States through arresting, intimate portraits. Sherald engages with the history of photography and portraiture, inviting viewers to participate in a more complex debate about accepted notions of race and representation, and to situate Black life in American art. In 2018, Sherald was selected by First Lady Michelle Obama to paint her official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. She is represented by Hauser & Wirth.

ABOUT FREE SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK

Since its inception, over six million people have enjoyed more than 160 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Conceived by founder Joseph Papp to make great theater accessible to all, Free Shakespeare in the Park continues to be the bedrock of The Public's vision of artistic excellence and free access to culture.

ABOUT CIVIC ARTISTIC PROGRAMS

Civic Artistic Programs is The Public Theater's hub for furthering access, civic engagement, and community-focused artistic innovation, focused on building connections with community organizations and their members.

Now in its 16th season, The Public Theater's MOBILE UNIT is a modern reimagining of Joseph Papp's Mobile Theater. Mobile Unit reaches across economic and geographic barriers to the arts by meeting communities where they are—staging free professional theater productions and programs in neighborhood venues across all five New York City boroughs.

PUBLIC WORKS aims to restore and build community by connecting people through the creation of extraordinary works of art. Working with partner organizations in all five boroughs, Public Works invites community members to take classes, participate in programming, attend performances, and join in the creation of participatory theater.

PUBLIC STORIES is The Public Theater's civic storytelling program—an invitation for New Yorkers to transform lived experience into shared public art through workshops and performances.

ABOUT DISTRICT COUNCIL 37 (DC 37)

Part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), District Council 37 is one of New York City's largest and most influential unions. Its members work across public, private, and non-profit sectors in more than 1,000 job titles.

ABOUT The Public Theater