Guidelines
"Twenty-one years ago — 21 summers ago — I got my Equity card at the Delacorte Theater," said Jesse Tyler Ferguson on Monday night, cloistered among the dinner tables set up for the Public Theater's annual gala in Central Park. "I was 21, as well," he continued. "I remember doing 'On the Town' and competing with five helicopters that were hovering over the Delacorte Theater, trying to get footage of the Garth Brooks concert that was playing 10 blocks north. It was like I was in a production of 'Miss Saigon.'"
"It's such a New York institution, and I've never done a play [there]," said Glenn Close, making her way to join Ethan Hawke, Chelsea Clinton, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy at the pre-show dinner. "I'll be doing one this fall, so it's very exciting for me; it's like the final rite of passage." (Close will star in the North American premiere of "Mother of the Maid" in September.)
In the meantime, she listed some personal highlights from past Public Theater productions at the Delacorte. "I mean, I can go all the way back to Meryl [Streep] doing 'Much Ado About Nothing' and Raúl Juliá and Ellen Greene, Bill Hurt," she said. "For me, it marks one of the greatest theatrical institutions of the city."
First up in this year's Shakespeare in the Park series is "Othello," which runs through June 24 and stars Chukwudi Iwuji in the titular role.
"There's this X-factor that is nature, and the trees, and the wind and sometimes it feels like nature is listening to you," Iwuji said of acting on the outdoor stage. "It's kind of weird how the wind blowing through the curtains in the background in the middle of a death scene, or even a bit of rain, and people sitting through rain…it's magical, it really is."
Magic — or at least the illusion of it — was in full swing down in SoHo, where Coach had opened its "Life Coach" interactive pop-up with a preview party for the likes of Joan Smalls, Bria Vinaite, Ne-Yo, Diggy Simmons and Kodie Shane, who joined Stuart Vevers to test out the action.
Open now, guests in the pop-up are invited to engage with themes of “creativity and self-expression,” according to the company, through tarot, carnival games, live performances and art.
The first room was a blank canvas of white subway tiles, where supplies were doled out to guests in encouraged vandalism. From there, the crowd moved into a room of carnival games complete with ski ball and cotton candy, where Smalls and Ne-Yo hovered for most of the night, before entering an enchanted forest complete with tarot readings.
Not to pass up the temptation, Vevers and his husband Benja- min Seidler ducked into one of the tents for a tarot reading.
"My reading gave me ammunition for adventurous projects coming up,” the Coach creative director said after the fact. “But fortune is best when you share it. It was fun to listen in on my husband's reading, too."
As for his own life coach? "I'm my own life coach…and I'm in it to win it," he said.
“Myself — cause I'm the one who teaches myself when I need to learn a lesson,” Vinaite said of hers. “I feel like you always have to be the one to lead your path because no one has lived it. It's nice to coach yourself. I wouldn't take advice from anyone who hasn't
Patrons of the Public Theater including Glenn Close and Jesse Tyler Ferguson sang its praises at the annual gala, while Coach offered guidance — and Instagram ops — with the opening of Life Coach.
BY KRISTEN TAUER AND LEIGH NORDSTROM