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According to Playbill, Academy Award winners Kevin Kline and Meryl Steep – both veterans of New York Shakespeare Festival – will play the famous balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet as the Shakespeare classic’s title characters in a gala benefit staged reading June 18 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Daniel Sullivan will direct the performance that celebrates to the day The Public Theater’s 50-year anniversary of producing Shakespeare in the outdoor venue. Additional casting for the staged reading of the “tale of woe” about star-crossed lovers will be announced. This is the Public’s annual fundraising gala. The Public Theater has produced Romeo and Juliet twice before at the Delacorte (1968 and 2007). Streep, who has performed five times at the Delacorte since 1976, and Kline, who has performed nine times since 1970, will play the iconic teen-age roles for the first time in their careers, according to The Public. They last shared the Delacorte stage in a 2006 production of Mother Courage and Her Children.
