Raccoon Sighting or Summer Downpour? Your Memories of Shakespeare at the Delacorte

All Of It with Alison Stewart | Aug 25, 2025

Audiences at the latest production of the Public Theater's Free Shakespeare in the Park this summer have been treated to a Delacorte Theater with an 85 million dollar makeover. The renovations mark the end of an era of the original Delacorte Theater, graced by both famous actors and raccoons over the years. Greg Young, co-host of the Bowery Boys podcast, discusses the history of the Delacorte Theater, and how the Free Shakespeare in the Park program first began with an unlikely friendship between founder Joe Papp and New York power broker Robert Moses. Plus, listeners share their memories of seeing shows at the old Delacorte.

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