Out of the park

Mistaken identities, separated twins, catfishing, cross-dressing: After an $80 million renovation, Central Park's Delacorte Theater returns this summer with a star-studded Twelfth Night

- By HILLARY BUSIS

AS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE once wrote, some are born great. Some achieve greatness. And some have greatness thrust upon them—while dodging wild animals in a narrow hallway.

The Bard might have added that last part if he’d known about the Delacorte Theater. The longtime home of Shakespeare in the Park, the Delacorte is an open-air stage surrounded by the greenery of Central Park. Performing there has also meant tactfully ignoring woodland critters who wander onstage, sidestepping downpours that seep into the dressing rooms, and finishing shows even after the elements fry the theater’s soundboard. “That was sort of the scrappiness of it, the fact that you shared this space with the creatures of the park,” says Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who’s preparing for his seventh show at the august New York venue. “It’s part of the charm of the space.” But honestly? “I don’t want to compete for backstage space with raccoons.”

This summer, Ferguson finally gets his wish. The Public Theater, which operates Shakespeare in the Park, has spent nearly two years renovating the Delacorte. It reopens in August after an expansive $80 million makeover that includes more than 1,800 new seats, a façade reinforced with reclaimed wood, and an animal-proof barrier that will hopefully keep enterprising varmints in check. The Public will celebrate the occasion with a star-stuffed production of Twelfth Night that runs from August 7 through September 14 featuring Ferguson, Sandra Oh, Peter Dinklage, and, in the roles of separated twins Viola and Sebastian, Lupita Nyong’o and her real-life younger brother, Junior Nyong’o—a recent drama school grad you may remember happily crashing Ellen DeGeneres’s group selfie at the 2014 Oscars.

The new production is a full-circle moment for the elder Nyong’o, who spent hours as a kid watching and rewatching a British production of