Since The Public's newly renovated Delacorte Theater reopened last summer, Columbia alums have featured prominently on stage and behind the scenes at one of New York City's most iconic summertime traditions: Shakespeare in the Park. In case you missed it, Saheem Ali '07 directed the park's first production of Romeo and Juliet in 20 years—and romance was in the air.
Though the second production of the summer, The Winter's Tale by Tony Award-winning director Daniel Sullivan, is a tragicomedy, true love remains the answer. Acting alum Michael Khalid Karadsheh '22 is the Young Shepherd, the adoptive brother of Perdita (unbeknownst to him, a princess), whose good-hearted naïveté provides comic relief and triggers pivotal plot twists. When the King of Sicilia becomes convinced his pregnant wife has been unfaithful, the royal baby is smuggled to the coast of Bohemia where an old shepherd finds her and renames her Perdita. Sixteen years later, Perdita falls in love with another young shepherd, Doricles, who turns out to be a prince in disguise.
"I’m thrilled to be back at The Delacorte, with old friends and new, putting together The Winter's Tale," shared Sullivan in the show's press release. "It's one of Shakespeare's most fascinating and moving creations."
Attend the free production of The Winter's Tale at the Delacorte in Central Park, July 25–August 23, 2026. Find out how to get free day-of tickets, or sign up for a Public Theater membership here.
Karadsheh has appeared in the Off-Broadway productions The Ally by Itamar Moses at The Public Theater and We Live in Cairo at the New York Theatre Workshop, which received a Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Ensemble. He has also performed in several regional productions, including Hamlet (St. Louis Shakespeare Festival), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare on the Sound), and Tomorrow Will Be Sunday (Chautauqua Theater Company). His on-screen performances include Freeform's Everything's Trash (2022), streaming on Hulu, and the 2026 A24 film Club Kid, directed by Jordan Firstman.
