free shakespeare in the park

every summer there's this theatre (delacorte theatre) in central park that puts on plays

they are free-

they are shakespeare-

they are out under the "stars"- 

there are 3 ways you can get tickets

1. wait in line

2. wait in a standby line

3. enter an online lottery

one morning i tried to wait in line

i got there around 10ish and the line was probably 1/4 mile long. 

i almost got tickets though.... 

i found out there weren't very many days left to attend this free theatre. 

so i entered the online lottery one day- and was denied. 

then mary was sick so i thought i'll enter because i'll get it because she's sick.

and that's precisely what happened. 

i entered

i got it

i had a sick kid

i became a bad parent

this lottery deal is a real rare deal- kind of like the camping lottery that maggie won

except hundred of thousands of folks try to get tickets to this free theatre every year and only a few get tickets via lottery. 

so when i got them.....

i had to use them. 

here's a few pics. 

what the line looked like after i had walked about 2 blocks already

 the grand park stage

 family photo op!

 ohh those summer nights (and crappy pics to remember them by....)

 john lithgow was king lear (aka harry and the hendersons, 3rd rock from the sun, etc.)

jessica hecht and annette bening were also in it. 

(i recognized them but didn't know their names.... opps)

it was really cool to see people i recognized on the big stage. 

 a teeny tuckered out theatress

it was really cool to see something on stage. 

sad to admit this was our first while we have been in new york.... sort of embarrassing. 

mary did really great for not being 100% and for being (i'm pretty sure) the only child in the audience. 

she was extra into the lights and music every stage change. 

so glad she was such a sweet theatre angel. 

really grateful we got to go to this. 

i have been wanting to go ever since i knew it existed. 

crossed it off the bucket list- there's a few more on my nyc bucket list that need checking. 

hope all are having a fine friday- yahoo for the weekend.