Shakespeare In The Park

One of our favorite summer traditions is Shakespeare in the Park. (the park being Central Park in NYC) If you read some of my earlier posts (or maybe just saw pictures on facebook), you know that we have waited up to 22 hours in line for the tickets (which are free). We've seen Anne Hathaway in Twelfth Night,      Al Pacino in Merchant of Venice and the Mitch from Modern Family in a couple plays.  (see pictures below)

Yes, that's us with Al Pacino (he played Shylock in Merchant of Venice)

And Mitch from Modern Family (gotta say, that's one of the few shows worth watching). He played some minor characters in 2 of the plays last summer. 

We usually wait in line a minimum of something like 15 hours. Along with literally 1,000 or so other people we slept/camped outside on Central Park West until 5 am when the park opens and an official line guide takes us inside the park and patrols the line until ticket distribution at 1pm. In this picture, Karl is indicating that this is hour number 10. (this is the year we waited 22 hours, so not even 1/2 way done)

This is at 5 am when everybody in line packs up their stuff and prepares to move inside the park. Lots of people bring air mattresses and sometimes tents, but always some chairs and a sweatshirt. It's actually quite interesting talking to and meeting the people near you in line. After 20 hours, you're officially friends.

Some of the people filing into the park. There was a line from 85th street to 96th (at least) and here they are, filing back into line. There are really strict rules about the line- you can't leave line at any time, you may only use the park bathroom, you cannot leave the park to get food-they have a couple restaurants who you can call and then they send the delivery guys on bikes to bring you your order.

Sometime during the day, I took a stroll down the line and found these folks, who came with a table and candelabra. (they were waaay too far down the line to get tickets, showing up that day)

And yes, things can get violent. Last year, 2 people in line were arrested for getting in an argument about the line and then the cops had to arrest them. 

THIS year, we got smart and went to borough distribution (a new form of distribution in addition to the Central Park line. You can read about it on the Shakespeare in the Park website if you're really interested). We waited only 1 and 1/2 hours for tickets. The first one we went to was Measure for Measure and my mom came with us!

People say we look alike, but I think she's prettier.

And here's all of us!

The next night we went to All's Well That Ends Well with some friends (eating at SHAKE SHACK yUUUUUMMMMMMmmm before) and that was probably my favorite of the two this year. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside the arena. They're really strict about it and have employed countless teenagers and put Staff shirts on them. These buggers have their eyes on you and if you take a picture, they come running up to you and tell you there's no photo taking allowed and that the must see you delete the photo that you took. They are so adamant about it and keep on repeating that they need to see you delete it until you realize this is NOT a joke. (but it really should be) So no photos, not even of us in the arena during intermission. So I guess you'll have to go yourself!