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33-738: Michael Cristofer (born January 22, 1945) is an American actor, playwright, and filmmaker. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play for The Shadow Box in 1977. From 2015 to 2019, he played the role of Phillip Price in the television series Mr. Robot . Cristofer was born Michael Procaccino in Trenton, New Jersey , the son of Mary and Joseph Procaccino. He started his theatrical career as an actor, primarily on stage. He also started writing plays. He has also written numerous screenplays for film. Cristofer

66-606: Is an open-air amphitheater located on the southwest corner of the Great Lawn in Central Park, closest to the entrance at 81st Street and Central Park West. It was built in 1961 and named for George T. Delacorte Jr., who donated money for its creation. Belvedere Castle and Turtle Pond provide a backdrop for the shows at the Delacorte. As shows at the Delacorte begin in the early evening, shows usually start in daylight; as

99-462: Is the only person to have been named a finalist thrice without winning. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeanine Tesori are the only people to be named as a finalist twice for writing and composing a musical, with Miranda winning in 2016. New York Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare in the Park (or Free Shakespeare in the Park ) is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at

132-848: The American Theater Critics Award as the best play produced in the United States during the 1996–1997 season. Cristofer's film work includes the screenplays for The Shadow Box , directed by Paul Newman ( Golden Globe Award , Emmy nomination); Falling in Love ; The Witches of Eastwick , adapted from the novel by John Updike ; The Bonfire of the Vanities , adapted from the novel by Tom Wolfe and directed by Brian De Palma ; Breaking Up , and Casanova . His directing credits include Gia , starring Angelina Jolie , Mercedes Ruehl and Faye Dunaway , which

165-614: The Delacorte Theater , an open-air theater in New York City 's Central Park . The theater and the productions are managed by The Public Theater and tickets are distributed free of charge on the day of the performance. Originally branded as the New York Shakespeare Festival ( NYSF ) under the direction of Joseph Papp , the institution was renamed in 2002 as part of a larger reorganization by

198-788: The Tony Award for Best Play or the Tony Award for Best Musical Ten musicals have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, roughly one per decade from the 1930s to the 2020s¹. They are: George and Ira Gershwin 's Of Thee I Sing (1932), Rodgers and Hammerstein 's South Pacific (1950), Bock & Harnick 's Fiorello! (1960), Frank Loesser 's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1962), Marvin Hamlisch , Edward Kleban , James Kirkwood, Jr. , and Nicholas Dante 's A Chorus Line (1976), Stephen Sondheim 's and James Lapine 's Sunday in

231-538: The American premiere of Edward Albee 's Three Tall Women , a production that later moved to Off-Broadway. Also at River Arts, he wrote stage adaptations of the films Love Me or Leave Me and Casablanca . He directed Joanne Woodward in his adaptation of Henrik Ibsen 's Ghosts . His most recent work for the theater, The Whore and Mr. Moore , premiered at Dorset Theatre Festival 's 2012 summer season. He collaborated with trumpeter Terence Blanchard , writing

264-600: The Anspacher Theatre, and through this sponsorship, the company was able to grow and expand its outreach to new audiences. Another such company was the Riverside Shakespeare Company . The Festival, under Papp's leadership, sponsored several Riverside Shakespeare Company productions at a critical stage in its development, beginning with Riverside's New York premiere production of Brecht's Edward II in 1982 at The Shakespeare Center on

297-1125: The Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge (starring Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson ). He recently appeared in The Other Woman (with Natalie Portman ), and created the role of Gus in Tony Kushner 's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures at the Public Theater . In 2010, Cristofer was a cast member on Rubicon , in which he played Truxton Spangler. In 2012, he played Jerry Rand on Smash . In 2013–2014, he played millionaire witch-hunter Harrison Renard in American Horror Story: Coven . In 2015, Cristofer made guest appearances in four episodes of season one of Mr. Robot as Phillip Price,

330-502: The Delacorte's opening has seen between one and three works produced, with two works being standard since 1973. The plays of Shakespeare account for about four-fifths of the works produced, and, except for 1977 and 1980, each summer's line-up has included at least one work by Shakespeare (or, in the case of 1970, one work adapted from Shakespeare). Non-Shakespeare productions have included plays such as Anton Chekhov 's The Seagull and Henrik Ibsen 's Peer Gynt and musicals such as On

363-508: The Drama Pulitzer was awarded 91 times; none were given in 15 years and it was never split. The most recipients of the prize in one year was five, when Michael Bennett , James Kirkwood, Jr. , Nicholas Dante , Marvin Hamlisch , and Edward Kleban shared the 1976 prize for the musical A Chorus Line . † marks winners of the Tony Award for Best Play . * marks winners of the Tony Award for Best Musical . ≠ marks nominees of

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396-646: The New York Shakespeare Festival supported other theatre companies throughout New York, helping to foster the growth of Off-Broadway , as well as specific theatre programs and projects. Among these companies that benefited from NYSF during critical periods of their development was the Theatre for a New Audience . The Theatre for a New Audience developed a number of productions sponsored by the NYSF, including A Midsummer Nights Dream , presented at

429-431: The Park with George (1985), Jonathan Larson 's Rent (1996), Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt 's Next to Normal (2010), Lin-Manuel Miranda 's Hamilton (2016), and Michael R. Jackson 's A Strange Loop (2020). Though it did not win for Drama, Oklahoma! was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 1944. Of note, South Pacific won the 1950 Pulitzer for Drama but its source material, James Michener's Tales of

462-544: The Public Theater. The festival was originally conceived by director-producer Joseph Papp in 1954. Papp began with a series of Shakespeare workshops, then moved on to free productions on the Lower East Side . Eventually, the plays moved to a lawn in front of Turtle Pond in Central Park. In 1959, parks commissioner Robert Moses demanded that Papp and his company charge a fee for the performances to cover

495-554: The South Pacific , also won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Sunday in the Park with George and Next to Normal are the only musicals that won the Pulitzer Prize and did not also win the Tony Award for Best Musical ; the latter won the authors Tonys for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations . Of Thee I Sing opened before the Tony Awards existed. The award goes to the playwright, although production of

528-673: The Town , Into the Woods , Two Gentlemen of Verona , The Mystery of Edwin Drood , and Disney's Hercules , the latter three having made their world debuts at the Delacorte. The 2017 production of Julius Caesar , directed by the Public's artistic director, Oskar Eustis , stoked controversy by creating significant visual and behavioral similarities between the production's Caesar and recently inaugurated U.S. president Donald Trump. Despite

561-556: The Upper West Side (dedicated by Joseph Papp in 1982), followed by Equity parks tours of free Shakespeare throughout the five boroughs of New York City, much as the NYSF had done for years before. Riverside Shakespeare Company summer parks tour of Free Shakespeare sponsored by the NYSF began with A Comedy of Errors in 1982, followed by The Merry Wives of Windsor , featuring Anna Deavere Smith in her New York stage debut as Mistress Quickly, Romeo and Juliet , and The Taming of

594-490: The cost of "grass erosion." A court battle ensued. Papp continued to fight Moses, winning his enduring respect and the quote "well, let's build the bastard a theater." Following this, Moses requested funds from the city for the construction of an amphitheater in the park. In 1961, the Delacorte Theater was built. The first performance held in the theater in 1962 was Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice , starring George C. Scott and James Earl Jones . The Delacorte Theater

627-575: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic , the 2020 season was cancelled; a budget shortfall of 20 million dollars was predicted. The Public Theater is heavily reliant on private donors. In 2005, the theater company was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $ 20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation , which was made possible through a donation by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg . Many plays from

660-431: The fact that the play is widely viewed as a cautionary tale against political violence, right-wing activists objected to what they characterized as the murder of a stand-in for Trump and interrupted two performances. Bank of America and Delta withdrew their sponsorship of the production; Bank of America resumed its sponsorship of Shakespeare in the Park by the following season, and JetBlue replaced Delta. Due to

693-467: The first of the NYSF's Shakespeare Marathon. Since its inception, the festival has become popular with both New York natives and visitors to the city, and while the Delacorte Theater has 1,872 seats, prospective theatergoers can expect to sit in line for hours before the early afternoon ticket distribution. Approximately 80,000 people attend Shakespeare in the Park every year. Over the years,

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726-734: The jury's choice; in 1986 , the board's opposition to the jury's choice of the CIVIL warS resulted in no award being given. In 1955 Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. pressured the prize jury into presenting the Prize to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , which the jury considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees ("amateurishly constructed... from the stylistic points of view annoyingly pretentious"), instead of Clifford Odets ' The Flowering Peach (their preferred choice) or The Bad Seed , their second choice. Edward Albee 's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

759-828: The libretto for Champion , a boxing opera in jazz music based on the life of prize fighter Emile Griffith . It premiered in June 2013 at Opera Theater of St. Louis . His work Execution of the Caregiver is based on the true story of a woman in South Carolina who killed her mother, fiancé and several people for whom she purportedly was caring. After a 15-year hiatus, Cristofer returned to his acting career, appearing in Romeo and Juliet ( New York Shakespeare Festival ), Trumpery by Peter Parnell , Three Sisters (Williamstown Theater), Body of Water (with Christine Lahti ), and

792-761: The musical in question opened in New York during either the preceding calendar year or the preceding Broadway season. The following individuals received two or more Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: The following individuals received two or more nominations: Lynn Nottage is the only female playwright to win the prize twice. She and August Wilson are the only playwrights of color to accomplish this feat. Jon Robin Baitz, Gina Gionfriddo, John Guare, A.R. Gurney, Richard Greenberg, Tina Howe, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Stephen Karam, Sarah Ruhl and Jeanine Tesori have each been named finalists twice without winning. David Henry Hwang

825-421: The play is also taken into account. In the case of a musical being awarded the prize, the composer, lyricist and book writer are generally the recipients. An exception to this was the first Pulitzer ever awarded to a musical: when Of Thee I Sing won in 1932, book authors George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, as well as lyricist Ira Gershwin, were cited as the winners, while composer George Gershwin's contribution

858-555: The play rolls on, the sun sets and the audience is drawn into the illuminated action on the stage. Since 1962 the Public has had the privilege of its exclusive use. Tickets to Shakespeare in the Park are free and tickets for a given performance are distributed the same day by various methods: Shakespeare in the Park also offers specific performances throughout the summer for patrons with hearing and/or vision loss including Sign Language interpreted performances, audio-described performances, and open-captioned performances. Each summer since

891-616: The shadowy CEO of the sinister E Corp, and he became a cast member in season two, three, and four. Acting roles Acting roles Pulitzer Prize for Drama Until 2007, eligibility for the Drama Prize ran from March 1 to March 2 to reflect the Broadway "season" rather than the calendar year that governed most other Pulitzer Prizes. The drama jury, which consists of one academic and four critics, attends plays in New York and in regional theaters. The Pulitzer board can overrule

924-530: The summer festival have gone on to Broadway , including Wilford Leach 's staging of The Mystery of Edwin Drood from the 1984–1985 season and The Tempest from the 1995–1996 season. The festival has also attracted many well-known actors, such as Meryl Streep , Morgan Freeman , Martin Sheen , and Al Pacino – the latter two of whom appeared as Brutus and Marc Antony in a toga-clad historical production of Julius Caesar , directed by Stuart Vaughan in 1987, in

957-670: Was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for the Broadway production of his play The Shadow Box (1977). Other plays include Breaking Up at Primary Stages ; Ice at Manhattan Theatre Club ; Black Angel at Circle Repertory Company ; The Lady and the Clarinet (starring Stockard Channing ), produced by the Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf Theater , Off-Broadway and on the London Fringe; and Amazing Grace (1996; starring Marsha Mason ), which received

990-537: Was first disclosed, five musicals have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. They are: Lee Breuer and Bob Telson 's The Gospel at Colonus (1985); Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes ' In the Heights (2009); Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron 's Fun Home (2014); Taylor Mac 's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2017); and David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori 's Soft Power (2020). ¹All listed dates are Prize years. Generally,

1023-456: Was nominated for five Emmy Awards and for which he won a Directors Guild Award . He next directed Body Shots and Original Sin , released in 2001. For eight years, he worked as artistic advisor and finally co-artistic director of River Arts Repertory in Woodstock, New York, a company which produced plays by writers such as Richard Nelson , Mac Wellman , and Eric Overmeyer , including

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1056-466: Was overlooked by the committee. The reason given was that the Pulitzer Prize for Drama is a dramatic award, and not a musical one. However, by 1950 the Pulitzer committee included composer Richard Rodgers as a recipient when South Pacific won the award, in recognition of music as an integral and important part of the theatrical experience. Additionally, since 1983, when the identity of finalists

1089-421: Was selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Drama by that award's committee. However, the committee's selection was overruled by the award's advisory board, the trustees of Columbia University , because of the play's then-controversial use of profanity and sexual themes. Had Albee been awarded, he would be tied with Eugene O'Neill for the most Pulitzer Prizes for Drama (four). In its first 106 years to 2022,

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