After a 20 years absence, Meryl Streep returned to the theatre, joining Mike Nichols’ powerhouse cast, including Kevin Kline, Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Goodman, Marcia Gay Harden and Natalie Portman, for a Shakespeare in the Park revival of “The Seagull” at Delacorte Theatre. Streep received glowing reviews for playing Arkadina, and received a Drama Desk Award nomination. She narrated a slew of television programmes, including the miniseries “School: The Story of American Public Education” and the Blue Fairy in Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence”, and started filming two feature films that would put her right back into the spotlight.