Romeo and Juliet On Tap for Central Park Production This Summer

The Public Theater will kick off its 2007 summer season at the Delacorte Theater with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, according to The New York Times. The production, directed by Michael Greif, will begin in Central Park on June 5 and run through July 8, a week longer than usual. The season's second play has not been announced.

Greif is best known for directing musicals such as Grey Gardens and Rent, but his extensive resume includes an array of plays with varied styles and content. His Public Theater credits include Diana Son's Satellites, Suzan-Lori Parks' Fucking A, Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters, Jose Rivera's Marisol, Pericles, Connie Congdon's Casanova, Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day and Sophie Treadwell's Machinal. Greif has also directed at most of New York's leading nonprofit theaters Roundabout, Signature, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, Manhattan Theatre Club and New York Theatre Workshop, where is he an artistic associate. His Grey Gardens bio does not list any Shakespeare productions.