Free outdoor theater this summer in New York

With Shakespeare in the Park on pause this year for renovations to the Delacorte Theater, the Public takes its acting on the road with a Mobile Unit production of the Bard's clever early farce, in which two pairs of identical twins get into double jeopardy. Directed by Rebecca Martinez, and featuring original Latin-American music by Julian Mesri, this brightly colorful traveling production adds to Shakespeare's zany confusion by mixing in a healthy dose of Spanish. The production is mounted in outdoor spaces throughout the five boroughs. (The full schedule of locations is here.) General-admission tickets are free but chair seating is distributed on a first come, first served basis; if you don't want to stand or bring your own blanket or seat, you can get in line as early as two hours before the show begins. 

Hudson Classical Theater Company, formerly known as Hudson Warehouse, begins its 2024 summer season at Riverside Park with a free alfresco revival of Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield's wacky sketch-comedy compression of Shakespeare's oeuvre, performed by three actors at a madcap pace. Susane Lee, who directed the show in 2013, is at the reins again.

The populist classicists of Smith Street Stage return to Brooklyn's Carroll Park with a modern twist on the Bard's hectic romantic comedy, in which a king and his lords forswear love for scholarship only to be dragged back into the game by visiting French maidens. In this version, directed by Raquel Chavez, the abstinence plot is reframed into a reality-TV gimmick, and their retreat is imaged as "part The Bachelor Villa de la Vina Mansion and part Love Island." No reservations are needed for this free outdoor staging. 

New York Classical Theatre's Stephen Burdman directs a two-hour outdoor production that combines both parts of Shakespeare's Henry IV story, in which the feckless heir to the English throne falls in with a mendacious tosspot. Ian Antal plays Prince Hal and John Michalski is the expansive Sir John Falstaff. The productiom kicks off in Central Park (June 11–30) before moving east to Carl Schurz Park (July 2–7) and south to Battery Park (July 9–14).

Alec Baldwin played the title role, opposite Angela Bassett, in Shakespeare in the Park's 1998 production of Macbeth, in which a nobleman and his wife descend into a nightmare of disquiet after planning their monarch's murder. A quarter-century later, he revisits the Scottish play as the co-director—with his longtime friend, the 90-year-old Actors Studio veteran Geoffrey Horne—of Shakespeare Downtown's free production in the suitable environs of the Battery's 19th-century fort, Castle Clinton. Alfredo Diaz and Billie Andersson play the blood-soaked couple. (Seating is first come, first served; tickets can be claimed starting at 5:45pm on the day of performance.)

Boomerang Theatre Company returns—as it is wont to do!—with a free Central Park staging of Shakespeare's family-feud tragedy, in which rebellious kids have sex and score drugs from a local priest. Christina Rose Ashby directs the production, which is part of Boomerang's 25th-anniversary season. Performances are at 2pm on weekends, and tickets can be reserved in advance. 

The second play in Hudson Classical Theater's Company's latest summer season is this relatively rarely performed tragedy, in which the hoi polloi of Rome turn against an arrogant war hero (and lifelong mama's boy) when he refuses to show off his scars. Director Nicholas Martin-Smith oversees the ensuing mayhem. Attendance is free and reservations are not required.

Classical Theatre of Harlem's annual series of free outdoor performances in Marcus Garvey Park—also known as Uptown Shakespeare in the Park—presents a new account of the Bard's perennially popular forest farce, in which a bossy Bottom falls into a wild world of drugged-up fairy sex. Director by Carl Cofield gives the comedy a Harlem Renaissance backdrop; the cast includes comedian Russell Peters in his stage debut.

Hudson Classical Theater Company concludes its 2024 season of free summer classics with lighthearted take on Shakespeare's ever-popular comedy of cross-purposes, cross-dressing and cross-gartered socks. Company mainstay Nicholas Martin-Smith directs. (Reservations are not needed.)

Hip to Hip Theatre Company moves from park to park in Queens, with outings to Jersey City and Southampton, to perform two seasonal Shakespeare plays in rep: the ribald comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream and the guilt-and-redemption fable The Winter's Tale. Consult Hip to Hip's website to see which production plays when and where.