Professor Robert O’Hara will direct 'Richard III' for Shakespeare in the Park

Adjunct Professor Robert O’Hara '96 will direct Richard III for The Public Theatre’s free Shakespeare in the Park series this upcoming summer in New York City.

Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation’s first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 184 Obie Awards, 55 Drama Desk Awards, 6 Pulitzer Prizes, and countless more.

Summer 2022 will mark the 60th season of Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, and O’Hara’s Richard III will kick off the season. Danai Gurira (Black Panther, The Walking Dead) will star in the titular role: one of Shakespeare’s most indelible villains. Richard is determined to be King. Following his lust for power and the throne, he manipulates, kidnaps, and kills all who stand between him and his throne, using brilliant words and dark charm to conceal his dismantling of government and justice. The Public describes it as a masterful dive into the muddy middle between political genius and violent power grab that will open the summer season with piercing relevancy and electrifying drama.

Richard III has been staged at the Delacorte four times previously. The most recent production starred Denzel Washington in the title role, Sharon Washington as Lady Anne, and was directed by Robin Phillips.

“It has been over 30 years since Richard III was produced at The Delacorte, and I’m excited to bring one of drama’s all-time favorite villains back onto the Central Park stage,” O’Hara said to Variety. “Richard III speaks to the dangerous machinations that we have witnessed by leaders throughout history, but most acutely in recent years in our own government. While navigating the projections of those around him by his decision to ‘prove the villain,’ Richard is our unreliable narrator, protagonist, and antagonist, drawing us deeper and deeper into his murderous mayhem. I am thrilled to collaborate again with the brilliant, multi-talented Danai Gurira as she returns to the Delacorte in the title role of this infamous usurper King, full of bloody confrontations, political intrigue, and familial toxicity.”

The performance schedule for Richard III is still to be announced. Find more information on The Public’s website.

Robert O'Hara has received the NAACP Best Play and Best Director Award, the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, two Obies and the Herb Alpert Award. Broadway credits include: Slave Play. Off Broadway: He directed the world premieres of Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play, Nikkole Salter and Dania Guiria’s In the Continuum, Tarell McCraney’s The Brother/ Sister Plays (Part 2), Colman Domingo’s Wild with Happy, Kirsten Childs’ Bella: An American Tall Tale, as well as his own plays, Mankind, Bootycandy and Insurrection: Holding History. His plays Zombie: The American and Barbecue world premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theater and The Public Theater, respectively. His recent directing projects include, Baum and Cheri’s Gun and Powder at Signature Theater, Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun at Williamstown Theater Festival, Aziza Barnes’ BLKS at MCC, Inda Craig-Galvan’s Black Superhero Magic Mama at The Geffen Theater, the Universes’ Uni/Son, inspired by the poetry of August Wilson at OSF and Shakespeare’s Macbeth at Denver Center for the Performing Arts.