Romeo & Juliet to star Oscar Isaac and Lauren Ambrose

Oscar Isaac and Lauren Ambrose are to star as Romeo and Juliet, directed by Michael Greif, which opens this summer�s Shakespeare in the Park. The play will run from 5 Jun - 8 Jul 2007.

Isaac returns to The Public after playing 'Proteus' in the 2005 revival of Two Gentlemen of Verona, the musical. He recently made his feature film debut as 'Joseph' in Catherine Hardwicke's The Nativity Story.

Lauren Ambrose will be making her Public debut, her theatre credits include Awake and Sing! (Lincoln Center 2006 revival) and Sam Shepard's Buried Child, directed by Matthew Warchus. (London's National Theatre). Ambrose played Claire Fisher on HBO�s Six Feet Under, for which she received 2002 and 2003 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Shakespeare in the Park is a free event organised each year by the Public Theater in which they present two of Shakespeare's plays at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. The second production is still to be announced.

This year The Public has extended the run of the two Shakespeare in the Park productions from four to five weeks.

Michael Greif is the director of Rent and Grey Gardens, both currently running on Broadway. Grief recently directed Diana Son's Satellites (2006) for the Public Theater.

Shakespeare in the Park is being sponsored this season by Bank of America.

Romeo and Juliet was last staged at the Delacorte stage in 1968, with Martin Sheen and Susan McArthur in the leads. That production was directed by Joseph Papp.