Linda Emond, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hamish Linklater & More Headed for Shakespeare in the Park

Additional casting has been announced for the Public Theater’s 2010 Shakespeare in the Park rotating productions of The Merchant of Venice and The Winter’s Tale. Previously announced stars Al Pacino, Jesse L. Martin, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lily Rabe, Max Wright and Ruben Santiago-Hudson will lead the repertory productions, directed by Daniel Sullivan (Merchant) and Michael Grief (Winter’s Tale). The two plays are scheduled to run June 9 through August 1.

Joining the cast in her New York stage debut as Paulina and Nerissa is Academy Award nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste (TV’s Without a Trace,Secrets & Lies). Tony nominee Linda Emond (Life x 3, Homebody/Kabul) will play Hermione in The Winter's Tale, and Hamish Linklater (TV’s The New Adventures of Old Christine), who appeared last summer in the Public’s Twelfth Night, will play Autolycus, Lord and Bassanio.

Other new additions include Bill Heck (The Orphans’ Home Cycle) as Lord and Lorenzo, Byron Jennings (Accent On Youth) as Camillo and Antonio, Richard Topol (Awake & Sing!) as Lord and Tubal, Nyambi Nyambi (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone) as Lord and Prince of Morocco, Gerry Bamman (Richard III) as Antigonus and Duke of Venice, and Heather Lind (River Deep: A Tribute to Tina Turner) as Perdita and Jessica.

Shakespeare in the Park 2010 is not the Public Theater’s first foray into rotating repertory. Henry IV, Parts One and Two were performed in rep in the Newman Theater in 1991, and 20 years earlier, the Henry VI plays and Richard III were condensed into The War of the Roses, which was presented in rep and then performed in one all-night marathon in Central Park.