Shakespeare in the Park

Right now, New Yorkers can see Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline performing in Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children at the fiftieth annual Shakespeare in the Park festival. This isn’t the first time a playwright other than Shakespeare has crashed the festival. WNYC’s Sarah Montague talks with Meryl Streep about a cultural tradition that doesn’t always stick to the script.

Credits: Joseph Papp’s interview courtesy Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound / New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, donated by the New York Shakespeare Festival and Gail Merrifield Papp. Portions of this interview were also heard on The Fishko Files, June 24, 2005. Individual performance segments courtesy of the artists; Merel Julia; and the Public Theater, with the permission of Actors Equity.