A Walk in the Park

Summertime in New York is wonderful (if you don’t count the nearly hundred degree temperatures and humidity thick enough to drown birds in flight). One thing about New Yorkers—they love their parks. And it’s not just Central Park. New Yorkers flock to any piece of green on their free time, splaying out on the grass with copies of The New York Times, The New Yorker or that great, new novel.

Lately, we’ve been enjoying some wonderful summer activities in the park ourselves.













Last week we took in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" as part of this year’s Shakespeare in the Park festival. Since 1962, The Public Theater has staged 80 productions free of charge to more than four million people! Many of today’s most acclaimed actors have begun their careers or returned to perform in Shakespeare in the Park, including Morgan Freeman, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken, Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, Marcia Gay Harden, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Patrick Stewart, and Jeff Goldblum.

Some of the popular film and television actors in this production included Crash’s Keith David, Syriana’s Tim Blake Nelson, Martha Plimpton, Big Love's Mireille Enos, The Class’ Jesse Tyler Ferguson, George Morfogen and The Day After Tomorrow's Jay O. Sanders.














And last night, despite the sprinkles, hundreds of us crowded into beautiful Bryant Park after work for a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s magnificent Psycho, the final film in a summer film festival that included Annie Hall and Casablanca!

Man, I love this city!