One of the highlights of summer is Shakespeare in Central Park. But this year the Delacorte Theater is closed because of COVID-19. Instead, the Public Theater has joined with WNYC to present four nights of Shakespeare on the Radio, beginning tonight at 8 pm. The show is Richard II - which was to be one of the plays presented outside this summer. André Holland plays King Richard II and Miriam Hyman plays Henry Bolingbroke, who takes power from the king. 

Director Saheem Ali explained to WNYC's Jami Floyd how he adapted the production for the radio, and why it was important to him to center the piece on Black, indigenous and people of color.

Also interviewed is Kim Hall, an expert on Shakespeare and race at Barnard College, who says the performance is especially moving because Black actors were historically excluded from performing Shakespeare on professional stages. 

"For me, a performance like this is a manifestation of a dream of freedom held since Frederick Douglass," she said.  

Listen to Ali and Hall's conversation with WNYC's Jami Floyd, above.